The Mena weekly star., 1916-09-07
jfear, JfooItsbness
 An0 Quarantlne
Irom lhe phIIadeIphia InauIrer.

 From the Philadelphia Inquirer
 Someone has written to this jour- nal asking it to advocate a quaran- tine by Atlantic City against chil- dren coming from New York.
 We refuse to enter into such a brutal scheme.
 The quarantining against New York by all sorts Of communities be- cause a few hundred children of that city have been attacked by what doctors call infantile paralysis is the product of ignorance, foOlishness and contemptible fear. There IS no sense in it. There is no reason in 1t. There is nothing in it but abject cowardice.
 There are tens of thousands of children III New York who are per- fectly we'll What would these panie-stricken save-themselves-at- all-price town authorities do2 Con- demn every child of New York City to remain cooped up in a hot city? Prevent the charities from giving their summer outings to weary mothers and suffering children? Shall there be no day by the sea or a week in the country for the little ones?
 The senselessness of this quaran- tine movement is beyond all in- telligent belief.
 The word fear is without doubt the most detestable one in the language. Or rather it defines a quality in hu- man mind that IS responsible for about every evil that exists. Petty town officials and so-called boards of health have succumbed to fear. Perhaps 1t is not strange when we read in the New York Sun:
 To the health authorities of
 New York themselves these re-
 tlexes of their own laundering
 conduct are directly attribut-
 able. They started the panic:
 they filled the minds, first of
 dwellers within the city, and
 then of the population outside,
 with fear: they are responsible
 for the exaggerated idea of dan
 ger from infantile paralysis that
 obtains today over so wide
 territory.
 We do not doubt it. The New York authorities have but followed the modern method of trying to build up health by soaring every body to death. It is happy indi- Nidual indeed who can escape from the clutches of this scheme of preaching disease from the cradle, thru the schools and into manhood. The New York authorities have giv- en an overdose of the new tangled remedy with the result described by the Sun.
 What is this infantile paralysis? |? Nobody knows? Like every other ill that affects mankind, it's cause is said to be some sort of a germ. But it is such tiny little germ as to escape the doctors. Because they are not acquainted with it they are at sea. And because they are al sea and cannot account for the growing number of cases, they have talked of contagion or infection or both. Yet one of their number the other day reported that it was rare that more than a single case occur red in one family which would seem to knock the contagion theory in the head, while the United States Health Service has found that out of 2070 persons exposed bv residence in the same houses and in the same fami- lies with patients. only fourteen developed the disease in frank par alytic form"
 But because of the Campaign of Erightfulness inaugurated by the health authorities of New York, fear has taken possession of the par ents of New York, of Brooklyn, and of cities and towns too numerous Co record. These New York health people have done far more harm than they have done good.
 IL is to be hoped that none of this cowardly foolishness will find ilS way into Philadelphia. Sanity has prevailed here thus far. Indeed. the best comment on the situation that we have vet seen from a medi- cal source was that of this city's Chief Medical Director D. X. 4. Cairns, who said:
 T can call tO mind only three rules. and they are applicable to the fight against all other diseases as we'll as infantile paralysis. They are; Cleanliness. fresh air and good food
 Excellent. worthy doctor. exeel- lent And if you had added a word about the eradication of fear. you would have strengthened your ad-