The Birmingham age-herald., 1905-09-01

leave the city for any point, whether in Alabama or any county in the state.
 To illustrate the proposition, suppose a person desires to go to Trussville in Jefferson county. The railroad will not sell him a ticket unless he has this health certificate. l tried to purchase a ticket to Whitney, St. Clair county, on the evening of August 20 and the railroad agent refused to sell me ticket unless I produced a health certificate, and re- ferred me to a notary public inside the railing of the car shed who would pre- pare and give me the papers. I went to the place and told him I desired to Birmingham and of my interview with the ticket agent. I demanded of the ticket agent the law for such procedure. A friend in authority secured me a ticket but without any oath made or sum paid to the notary.
 Trussville Is fourteen miles from Bir- mingham. Cost of ticket is 42 cents, add the dollar for bill of health, and it costs $1. 42 to go to Trussville. Or if the nota-
 
 then the cost will be 92 cents Suppose one did not have but forty-two cents, then he could not go to Trussville on the cars, however important and pressing his business. Suppose a reply should be made, such person could go to such place by private conveyance and thus not be re- quired to get a certificate If true, then the quarantine is a sham and a farce, because the yellow fever could be spread as well by private travel public, if Miss Stegomyia Is the sole propagation of the disease. Birmingham is free from yellow fever, so Is Trussvile, Whitney, and so also the state of Alabama. Then a traveller from Birmingham to any point In Alabama could not and would not car ry the disease.
 Then the community might ask: For what good Is all this? It cannot be to prevent the spread of yellow fever, be- cause there Is none in Birmingham if our able corps of physicians and health officers are correct in their statements to the public. No place In Alabama Is quarantined against Birmingham then, I repeat the question: Why the necessity of this tariff of 50 cents upon a citizen leaving Birmingham for any point in Alabama?
 Our supreme court declares that those who are levying such tribute upon the people must be able to lay their hand upon the positive law that gives them such power, and in case of failure they must suffer the consequences.
 If the railroad companies. being com mon carriers, are refusing to sell tickets and their gatesmen preventing entrance to their cars unless the individual pre- sents one of these affidavts, then such companies are responsible for all damage that may accrue to such person because of such refusal of ticket. These companies are as much bound to lay their hand upon positive law authorizing such as an individual Is. The damages in such cases are not confined merely to compen- sation but that would be primitive, be- cause unless there Is a positive law au- thorizing such affidavits, the railroad companies are then coercing the public in violation of their legal obligations. l have read in your Journal If affldavts are not procured the quarantine officer of Chattanooga who Is at the station. will not let such an one get on the cars. ''Ye gods and little fishes" an officer procuring his authority from the state of Tennessee exercising such in Alabama and directing or prohibiting the conduct of people in Alabama. This statement came from a quarantine officer.
 If this is true, then the railroad com panies are in conspiracy with such Ten nessee officer, and are aiding and abet- ting him in his lawless conduct. How does such officer go through the gate at the car shed and exercise his authority in this way, unless the railroads know all about it?
 It Is one of the elements of our con- stitutional liberty, and is protected by our constitution and even the common law, which we inherited from our British ancestors, the power and right of locomo- ton, of changing situation, or moving one's person to whatsoever place ones own inclination may direct, without i'm prisonment or restraint, unless by due course of law Then, ye officers and cor- porations where is your due process of law to do as you admit in the public press you are doing? Where is the law authorizing any railroad corporation to restrict or place Limitations upon any person leaving Birmingham? There may be such power to prevent persons enter ing the city under the present condl- tions. but the public, not the individual pays for all procedure to enforce such inhibition or regulations.
 citizen in St. Clair or any other county, comes to Birmingham to shop When he proposes to return home he is refused ticket by the railroad, although it brought him in, unless he has a health certificate to leave Birmingham. Can the merchants and shopkeepers submit to such? Does 1t advance your trade? Glo- rious Birmingham, mighty in all it's pro- ductive energies, has now assumed the moral right of protecting the whole world from the yellow fever, by levying a tax on persons who deserve to leave the city Does such regulations keep yellow fever out of Birmingham, or prevent It's spread to other localities if Birmingham has no yellow fever? Such regulations are gen. erating in the minds of outsiders that there may be danger of spreading yell low fever by allowing Birmingham per- son to leave its sacred precincts.
 But, Mir. Editor, Great is Diana of the Ephesans." w. II. DENsON.
 Birmingham, August 31, 1905.