New-York tribune., 1902-05-27
EXCLUSION GONE MAD.

Any law or any Interpretation of law which
results in the deportation of Miss Isabella Nc
CulOm will be piece OF sheer barbarSm. This
young woman. a native British subject but for
merly resident of the United States, comes
back to this country suffering from tuberculosis
TO be united to the sole remaining members Of
her family two brothers, both well to do and
both citizens Of the United States. One brother
is a fruit grower in the Santa Clara Valley,
California where doubtless she would find
home and climate best suited to cure her dis
ease proong her life. She is educated
woman, trained nurse, knows perfectly how
TO prevent herself from being a source of con
tagion TO others, and there is not the remotest
probability that the danger from tuberculosis
in this country will he increased by her admis-
sion. On the other hand her condition is such,
say the physicians. that another ocean voyage
would almost surely prove fatal to her More
over, it would separate her from her kindred.
who, be it remembered, are Americans, and
would doom her TO die among strangers.
Certainly laws against diseased mmi-
grants were never meant to compass any such
inhumanity. She is not an immigrant in any
true sense. She is a traveller in search of
health. Her exclusion would warrant European
governments shutting out Americans from HON.
burg. Baden Baden the Riviera, Egypt and the
many other places TO which our physicians d.
rect sufferers as peculiarly suited to their com
plants 1t would Justify the exclusion of Amer
leans from access to great specialists AT Vienna
Paris, Berlin or London. 1t is one thing TO pre-
vent this country from being the dumping
ground of European hospitals and almshouses.
TO guard against the nurture of a degenerate
race and to maintain efficient quarantine
against the spread of disease 1t is quite an
bi,il1 Shut
selves out from the brotherhood of humanity
and denying to foreigners under reasonable CON
ditions the benefits which come from change Of
climate and access to remedial agencies within
our borders while asking and enjoying CORE
spending privileges abroad. Shall invite
Great Britain TO close the doors of Nassau and
Bermuda to invalids who must fee the rigors
of climate, and drive from Canada all
Americans who seek to recuperate in its braCing
atmosphere AS well do that as say that a
British invalid who is in no danger of becom-
ing charge on this country cannot join her
American relatives in California. The case
would De different were her disease one calling
for quarantine and absolute seclusion. like
smallpox. tuberculosis may he spread it is
true. by careless people, but 1t is not a disease
whose germs kept even approximately
cleared from our path. So long as our streets
are filled with II. and own citizens are freely
permitted TO spread 1t by splitting on sidewalks
and in cars, and by dwelling cOOped up in dark
rooms whose walls reek with 1t. it is ridiculous
TO deport a person like Miss McCullom as one
who threatens 70 spread contagiOn.
We have great deal of respect for the mod
ern discoveries concerning tuberculosis. and a
great deal of hope that the scourge may in due
time be almost entirely stamped out. Never
theless. the fact is that little science is almost
as bad as great deal of superstition. and there
is danger that people ignorant with a little
knowledge will be driven into that state of
panic which makes man sometimes as selishly
cruel as the beasts. The panic Of superstition