The Montgomery advertiser., 1901-07-09

fortunes Of humanity while the lawyers deal with the rascalities of life. Mir. Harrison-Wil the gentleman ai- low a question?
 MT. Cunningham-Yes, sir.
 MT. Harrison--I understood you in your remarks to say that one of your objestions was that the County Boards would overrule the State Board. If there is no difference of opinion amongst you, then is there any dan ger to apprehend from this source? MT. Cunningham-I will answer that question of the gentleman by saying that the County Boards of Health. like every other set of public officials and
 every other relation in life, may be
 more or less influenced by certain cir cumstantial conditions; the influences of local environment address them- selves to their consideration the same as other men. Doctors are not partic- ularly exempt from these collateral in- fluences and incidental circumstances any more than the legal profession. will now answer the question of the gentleman from Montgomery. Mir. Jones-I would like to ask my friend if there is any great State in Europe or in this country which now maintains a quarantine against places; do they not maintain quarantine against individuals and isolate them If they are found suffering with conta- gious diseases?
 MT. Pillans-Yes. will suggest that Turkey does.
 MT. Jones-I meant to say civilized
 countries.
 MT. Cunningham-In answer to that question the quarantine system of Flu ropean States is so good that it is very seldom indeed that there is an intro- duction of disease prevailing in any l other State. and therefore the question of local quarantine is practically a
 matter of no importance.
 MT. Jones-How about the city of | New York?
 MT. Cunningham do not know any
 thing about the city of New York ex- | cept that it is perhaps, beyond the yell
 low fever line. I would say this much
 to the gentleman, however. that If the
 plague was prevailing in Montgomery | he would find himself unable to land
 in the city of New York.
 | The President-The time of the gen.
 tleman from Jefferson has expired. l MT. L0nax-I do not care to con-
 sume much of the time of this Con-
 vention upon this proposition. I do l not know exactly how to characterize
 1t. but the almost contemptuous way
 in which my distinguished friend from
 Montgomery, spoke of propositions be-
 Ing advanced here upon ordinances or l amendments which contained matters
 of legislation, l insist before this Con-
 vention that the proposition contained
 in the amendment of my friend from
 Montgomery is absolutely in the con- trol of the General Assembly, and | needs no constitutional enactment in | order for the legislature to control 1t. The whole matter of quarantine is in | the hands of the legislature. There is
 no necessity of putting in this Consti-
 tuition anything about a quarantine. | Either quarantine laws are wrong, If | the eminent. able and distinguished | physicians who have made a lifetime | study of this question have shown that they are absolutely without brains and do not know what quarantine Is when | they see it. then 1t is in the power of I the General Assembly to say that the Board of Health shall be abolished, and l that there shall be no more aearantine,
 and men shall not be required to stay
 out of the State after they have run out of it away from an epidemic. Now how did these people get out of
 the State that my distinguished friend
 talks about? Were they forced to go? ] They were not forced to go except that
 other quarantine rules which says that
 the more people you get out of a com |
 you leave for the disease to feed upon,
 and therefore the quicker you can
 stamp out the disease. But they do
 not have to be told that Let the cry yellow fever come up in any communi-
 ty in Alabama and mad wild rush
 begins for other places and for other
 States. and nothing but an army with
 gatling guns could stop it. and when
 you have thus voluntarily carried them
 out of the State. because the Quaran- tine is kept in force, and they say for
 certain period of time you shall not
 come back into the State. we are told
 that that man is exiled and that we | must put clause in the Constitution | 10 forbid 1t. It is a common practice
 and custom amongst quarantine off,
 cers. that at certain periods of an epi-
 demic. after the quarantine has been
 in force for some time. and the neces-
 sity for extending 1t to the whole State
 may cease to exist they establish a
 marginal line at the edge of the dan
 gerous districts. and let the people
 come into the non-infected districts,
 and thereby reduce the extent of dis
 tricts from time to time until the end | Of the quarantine comes. Now do
 not pretend to know anything about | quarantine. The result has been that
 the concensus of the highest authority
 IS that the pest way to prevent the
 spread of infectious and contagious
 disease is by quarantine. You have
 just heard a statement from a distin-
 guished gentleman who understands the proposition. I do not.
 | MT Pillans-Will the gentleman al-
 low me to ask him to name the au-
 thorities whether they are American
 authorities or European.
 MT. Lomax-I cannot name an au-
 thority because have read them from
 time to time, and do not know what | they are, but I think that I can name
 one who knows as much about quaran-
 tine as eitEer the distinguished gentle | man from Mobile or my distinguished
 friend from Montgomery. and that is
 pr. Russell M. Cunningham of Jeffer-
 son County. (Applause).
 Now. l have gone beyond what I
 wanted to say. What l wished to say , was this: I do not blame people from
 running from yellow fever. I wanted
 to run mighty bay in 1897. but I felt like it was my public duty to stay here. and I stayed side by side with
 my distinguished friend there, and did
 what I could, but wanted to run. I do not blame them from running, but
 when they do go, I say do not let us
 put into the Consultation a provision
 that shall say that we cannot keep
 them out until the health of Alabama is secure against infection. We owe , a duty to our State more than we do to any supposed exile that has gone from