Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1922-04-05
Pledging the Credit of the State.
bellows Falls Times)

What is this about waivers and
pledging the credit of the state which
the state department of agriculture Is
passing out to the farmers whose
herds are being tested for bovine
tuberculosis. We were told some time
ago that the money available for bo-
vine testing for the current fiscal
year had been spent and supposed
there would be lull in the activities
of the veterinarians and the slaugh-
tering of the bossies. Not so, how
ever, according to reports. The
available money is gone, but the
slaughtering continues with this diff
ference. While the money lasted the
farmers were paid for their losses
what the law allows. Now that the
they will be paid after next July l.,
when some more money becomes
available, and papers pledging the
credit of the state are passed to that
effect. Some who have looked into
the matter are convinced that there
is no legal warrant for this pledging.
What has Commissioner Brigham to
say? IL this pledging can be car
ried far enough and shrewdly enough
the state will be so much in debt
to the farmers that the next legis-
lature will be forced to carry on the
100000 annual program which the
last legislature advocated as steady
diet for five years under the mistaken
idea that bovine tuberculosis will be
eradicated by that time.
There are increasing indications
that the 100000 program will re-
ceive a severe jolt at the hands of
the next legislature. Much depends
on the report of a committee of three
appointed by the governor as direct
ed in a joint resolution adopted by
the last legislature. In the words
of the resolution the committee shall
consist of a physician, farmer and
a business man, and shall investi-
gate and report to the next legisla-
ture as to the efficiency and wisdom
of the method of graduating and
combating bovine tuberculosis now
adopted by this state" If this COM
ittee does not do thorough job and
give definite information and recon-
mendation in it's report, it ought new
er to have accented Office, but left the
appointment to others with more in
dustry and determination.
The last legislature, notwithstand-
ing it's mammoth appropriation of
$4O0,0 for the biennial reriod, had
fleeing moments of doubt as to the
wisdom of it's course as shown by the
adoption of this joint resolution:
Whereas the people of Vermont are
looking for light on the bovine tu-
berculosis question and whereas up
to the present time the State Labra-
tory of Hygiene has been of little as
sistance in establishing the exact
amount of milk containing bovine tu-
berculosis bacilli and the number of
persons in our state suffering from
the bovine type of tuberculosis, there
fore be it resolved that the State
Laboratory of Hygiene is directed in
it's examination of milk, sputum and
all other tubercular specimens to de-
termine whether the type be human
or bovine and that all bovine type
specimens be so reported in the
quarterly and biennial reports of said
Laboratory of Hygiene"
Here is some real work for the
/ Laboratory. If it establishes that
there is any bovine tuberculosis in
| humans it will establish new rec
ord. IL it demonstrates beyond rea-
sonable doubt that bovine tuberculosis
develops human tuberculosis it will
tell us more than the doctors have
up to date,