The Port Gibson reveille. [volume] (Port Gibson, Miss.) 1890-current, 1908-07-30

SEA~%~~~@~ va = ~A&aS &~F~Ae ~~~~~S
Mr.. Editor, is set down in the few
est possible words the entire plan,
and scheme, and philosophy OF
tick propagation. And, now, since
cattle blood is the only food of the
ticks, why, just rigidly keep all
cattle off that pasture until the eggs
of the ticks are all hatched out,
and a few weeks longer, and all
those seed ticks must, and will,
and always do, die from starvation,
and the field or pasture is freed
and cleared from tick injection. !
have thus set out the whole philos.
ophy of tick eradication by the ap.
plication of grease ard the effect of
quarantine, which can be applied
to a neighborhood, a county, or
even great state This is the en-
tire matter in a nut shell. And
congress, inpelled thereto by the
demands of the entire southern del
egation, and notably by such men
as John Sharp Williams, has re-
Gently made an appropriation of
$3.50, ooo-$Ioo, 900 more than last
year-to aid the southern people
to get rid of the ticbs. Under
stand, this is to aid the people, and
is to be expended by the Bureau of
Animal Industry. 1t is to assist
them in eradicating the tick nui-
sance. Uncle Sam does not pro-
pose to do the work all alone, and
let the cattle owners, for whose
benefit the appropriation is mades
to look on in cool indifference. No.
The indifference of the people to
this gigantic evil is the paramount
difficulty to be overcome. And
congress has passed sharp, strin-
gent, and drastic laws on the sub
ject which are all grounded on the
idea of an active cooperation on
the part of state and local authori-
ties. And most of the states-Mis-
sissippi is an exception-have also
passed stern and stringent laws to
cut off the evil, and they are all
based on the idea of close co.op.I
Grafton with the agents of the
United States in stamping out the
pestilence. These laws collective
ly are called the quarantine laws.
If they are enforced rigidly they
will result IN tick determination.
Will it be done?
THE ASBELL CASE.
One Asbell of Kansas firmly be-
lieved that the laws were mere le-
gal lumber. He does not think so
now. He was tried and convicted
for taking cattle from the tick in
fected Indian Territory into Luz
bette county, Kansas, without hav.
ing them inspected according to
law, and getting a permit he was
fined $500 and sentenced to Jail for
thirty days. He appealed to the
supreme court of Kansas, and was
defeated there. He took an appeal
to the supreme court of the United
States at Washington to test the
constitutionality of the quarantine
laws, and to overthrow them. But
that great tribunal rendered a de-
cision which blew Asbell's conten.
ton to the winds That greatest
court in America held the quaran-
tine laws to be strictly constitu-
tional. And that they must be en-
forced. That Asbell's conviction
was entirely correct, and that he
must go to jail, and pay his fine.
The august supreme court has
spoken. The quarantine laws will
stay while the fever ticks stay.
MISSISSIPPI.
But what has all this to do with
the state of Mississippi and espec-
tally the section of which Port Glib.
son is the center? Well Mississip-
pi from its location on the map,
being in the very heart of the great
Icorn belt, with its immense capac-
Iity to produce a limitless quantity
of cattle food, and forage, and pas
Iturage, by its splendid shipping ia.
cilities by rail and river, by the
thigh price of meat always growing
higher as the demand advances,
Inv all concurrinC and favoring cir.