The Montgomery advertiser., 1905-12-17

cases of infectious or contagious char acter must be guarded against or we would have widespread pestilence. The great danger points are the ports. TOT the diseases against which 1t is neces- sary to enforce quarantine restrictions come from foreign countries.
 Cesseless vigilance the Safe"t Plnn.
 Immunity for several years made our great danger port. New Orleans. care- less. and all her dependence was on local or State health laws. Little care had been taken to guard against in- troduction of the disease, or to place the city in the best sanitary condition to receive it. The great city might be compared to an army sleeping In dense woods with no guards or pickets out. When the enemy steps in he finds his work easy.
 Communities as we'll as individuals learn by experience. Cities, like ar- mics. learn that it is wise to be always on guard while the enemy lives. As long as there is yellow fever in exist ence 1t may get into our seaports un- less proper precautions are taken. As long as a seaport Is allowed to remain in a filthy condition. the breeding place of mosquitoes and other forms of ma- laria. just that long Is 1t possible for yellow fever to obtain foothold there during the hot season. There should be no sleeping on guard in our seaport cities. They should be prepared for any emergency and most important Of all to the rest of the world, there should be no concealment. It was given out last summer as coming from Dr. Kohnke. the President of the New Orleans Board of Health, that yellow fever had att tackled approximately 100 persons and had killed twenty, when the Board saw an autopsy that convinced it's President that yellow fever existed" This was almost, if not quite, crim- inal, and not only that city, but many others had to pay for the negligence or secretiveness of those who should have made the facts public and adopted the most approved methods of controlling and stamping out the disease. Never has the old proverb. "A stitch in time saves nine" a better application. Prompt announcement of the existence of the fever would have put the people as well as all the officials on notice. Prompt and vigorous measures might have end- ed the business in a short while, or at least confined it within narrow limits. Lack of prompt action and fair dealing with the people resulted in many deaths, had a bad effect on business, seriously reflected on New Orleans and Louisiana health officials, to say nothing of the worry, expense and trouble caused in many widely separated localities. All of this could and would have been ob- viated if there had been a national quarantine law bearing equally on all sections of the country.
 Conflicting Quarantines.
 Every community seemed to be a law unto itself last Summer, and while the quarantine regulations were not so rigid or general as in former years, there was enough inconven- fence, fear, and exhibition of shot, gun tactics to put sober minded peo- pie to hoping some means could be adopted by which similar experience | might be avoided
 The so-caIltd Navies of Mississippi and Louisiana, came near getting in- to collision over disputed territory in- to which one or the other should not navigate, because Of violating State quarantine laws.
 The Governors of the two States en- gagged in a lengthy and in some re- spects acrimonious correspondence. and it looked at one time as if Federal au- thority would have to be invoked to keep the peace.
 Just the reverse of the situation in Alabama was that in Georgia. Our State Board of Health declined to quarantine Montgomery, while many communities declined to take it's ad- vice. The Georgia Health authori- ties issued quarantine rules against New Orleans, and Atlanta set up to defy them and announced that her gates were wide open.
 | In the Georgia law creating the State Board of Health Is this provis- | ion:
 "The State Board shall not have the power to supercede municipal boards | Of health where the same are prop erly maintained, but shall act in har- mony with said local boards of health. 1 Atlanta claimed to act under this provision, insisting that yellow fever I could not obtain a foot-hold or become | epidemic in that city, and consequent | ly the people of other portions of the State were In no danger of contract I ing the disease from anyone leaving or passing through that place.
 Then the State insisted upon car ! rying out its views and State health officials forbade and sought to prevent
 New Orleans refugees from entering Atlanta.
 The contention between the two au- thorities emphasizes the illogical quar- antine laws now in existence. It is ! plain that uniform quarantine laws