THE NATIONAL BOARD OF HEALTH 
IN ITS RELATIONS TO— 
The Mississippi Valley and States of the Gulf, 
excerpt/ from nil-: 
BIENNIAL REPORT 
—OF THE— 
STATE BOARD OF HEALTH 
— TO THE— 
GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF LOFISIANA. 
—BY— 
JOSEPH HOLT, 3VE. 3D. 
I’RESI DENT. 
NEW nix'LEANS ■. / 
Printed by E. A. Bkandao & Co., 34 Maoazink Street. 
188(5. THE NATIONAL BOARD OF HEALTH 
—IN ITS RELATIONS TO— 
> 
The Mississippi Valley and States of the Gulf, 
/ 
EXCERPT A FROM THE 
BIENNIAL REPORT 
—OF THE— 
STATE BOARD OF HEALTH 
—TO THE— 
GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF LOUISI ANA. 
—BY— 
JOSEPH HOLT, IMP 3E>.7 
PRESIDENT. 
NEW ORLEAN&i 
Printed ky E A. Brandao & Co., 34 Magazine Street.' 
1886. THE NATIONAL BOARD OF HEALTH IN ITS RELA- 
TIONS TO THE MISSISSIPPI VALLEY AND 
STATES OF THE GULF. 
While the relations existing between the Louisiana State 
Board of Healtli and every other local, State and general health 
organization on this Continent are cordial because of a commu- 
nity of interest, and because the controlling influences exercised 
through the medium of such institutions as the American Public 
Healtli Association, the Conference of Boards of Health of the 
United States, and the Sanitary Council of the Mississippi 
Valley are wholesome and sufficient, such cannot be said of its 
relations to the National Board of Health, which is not a general 
organization, but a centralized, an autocratic and strictly a 
limited body. 
Besides the several occurrences which have compelled the 
State Board to defend the interest and acknowledged right of a 
people to regulate those affairs within their own State, not 
bestowed by the Constitution upon the Federal Government, 
and therefore not administrative or even regulative, except by 
the people themselves, there has been and is perfectly apparent 
such an opportunity, with irresistible temptation to discriminate, 
in the treatment of the different ports in the different parts 
of the country, as to make the existence in power of a National 
Board of Health, tantamount to the destruction of Gulf ports 
and the closing of the Mississippi, which is the longitudinal 
high way for the interchange of north—temperate and tropical 
products between the great valley and the regions of the south, 
as ordained in the construction of the world. 
With a painfully increasing experience of that body—the 
National Board—we reiterate to-day the sentiments expressed 
in the address of Dr. Joseph Holt before your Senate Committee 
on Finance, in 1884. 
“The subject of State quarantines has long been a matter of 
national interest. 4 
State of Louisiana. 
On account of the great disquietude for years existing between 
the States of the Gulf, and in fact throughout the Mississippi 
valley; the general apprehension and mutual lack of confidence; 
these States and different communities in the States being at 
times in a condition closely bordering on one of actual war, with 
their shot-gun quarantines; the general government conceived 
the idea of harmonizing these discordant elements by systematiz- 
ing the whole quarantine as a national institution, which wquld 
equalize the practical working of quarantine, and give a stronger 
guarantee by scientific methods. 
The ;>eople of Louisiana at first blush, looked upon this with 
great favor, and presently there sprang into existence the 
National Board. 
With true human instinct this body immediately displayed an 
intense and grasping desire for more authority. 
Our people quickly saw that these national health preservers 
were certain to become the destroyers of our commercial inter- 
ests; saw that if it were true, as is generally believed, that the 
powerful railroad lobby of Eastern capitalists could control 
Congressional legislation at the National Capitol, how much 
more easily could it handle any central health board of a few 
men, should the inducements so to do seem sufficient to that 
gigantic power. 
The tremendous incentive to that course became more and 
more evident as the present and constantly increasing struggle 
for the bonanza of trade to the South of us grew in intensity 
between the longitudinal lines leading from the heart of the 
continent to the Gulf jiorts, and the monster latitudinal railroads 
running to the Atlantic cities. 
With the power in the hands of a Central Board, selected and 
controlled by Eastern capitalists, to proclaim a quarantine of 
arbitrary detention against vessels from the South, the keys to 
the gates of the Mississippi Valley would be in the possc»-*ioii 
of an agency most intensely hostile to the interests < f Luisiana 
and the neighboring States. 
Our ports could a d would lie hermebcally sealed arbitrarily 
for six months in the year, and the vast export trade of the 
valley forced to travel by the long and expensi e latitudinal Report of the President of State Board of Health. 
5 
lines of railroads, to New York, Philadelphia, Boston and Balti- 
more, our commercial rivals, and hence by extended sea voyage 
to the tropical ports of delivery, and the import trade forced to 
seek the reverse journey. In other words, the one side and the 
hypothenuse of a right-angled triangle would have to be fol- 
lowed, instead of procceeding on the shorter base line. 
That these powerful aggregations of capital could thus force 
this trade from the natural channel is evident, if we consider for 
a moment their immense capacities to achieve the result. 
“Weigh for an instant the pressure of hundreds of millions of 
gold upon feeble human flesh represented in nine members of a 
National Board, with the controlling power presently in the 
hands of appointees from New York and other Atlantic ports. 
“The great seaports of Norfolk, Baltimore, Philadelphia, New 
York and Boston, the whole system of transcontinental railroads, 
would send a swarm of agents every summer into Louisiana 
with microscopes and chemicals, hunting for germs; the tele- 
graph wires playing day and night transmitting startling 
accounts of suspicious discoveries, and the public mind of the 
whole country whipped into a fever of anxiety, as a prelude to 
shutting up our port, ostensibly for yellow fever, really, in the 
commercial interests of rivals.” 
Besides, too, the very existence of the National Board, in 
respect of its importance in the public appreciation and the pay 
of its members only while on duty, depends upon its finding some- 
thing to do, even if it has to malce it, which are dangerous 
incentives, not to be trusted. 
The question involved is not one of recent origin, or an issue 
solely of to-day. The possession and control of the import and 
export trade of the Valley of the Mississippi and its tributaries 
has been the cause of a constant struggle between the people of 
the Atlantic seaboard and those dwelling on the banks and at 
the mouth of the Great Kiver, coeval in its origin with the 
earliest settlement of the country. 
The first great aim of the French settlers of the Canadas, in 
1675, was to find a cheap and convenient outlet to the Gulf. 6 
State of Louisiana. 
Subsequently, in 1710, the French people, under the lead of 
John Law, invested millions of money in establishing a chain 
of settlements and military outposts along the Mississippi and 
its tributaries to connect the Canadas and the great Northern 
Lakes with the Gulf of Mexico, seeking thus to control the com- 
merce of the whole Valley. 
Au attempted invasion of a portion of this territory by the 
English ‘‘Ohio Trading Company ” led to the French and Indian 
war, which began in 1745, and was waged against the English 
with relentless fury for eighteen years. 
Our interest in this struggle is usually limited to such inci- 
dents as Brad dock’s defeat in the attempt to capture Fort 
Duquesne, now Pittsburg—the gallant extrication of the British 
and Colonial troops by young Washington, then twenty-four 
years of age, and second in command, and the romantic legends 
which furnished Cooper the themes of his most charming stories. 
Let us now consider briefly the philosophy of the history of this 
war. 
Besides the natural desire of England, France and Spain to 
possess themselves, eacti one through their colonists, of as much 
of, or if possible, all of the American Continent a second great 
purpose on the part of the English was to divert the trade of 
the Mississispi Valley across the Continent to the Atlantic coast. 
These were the causes of the war. 
In his march to the Ohio, Washington became thoroughly 
imbued with this idea which grew with increasing years, until 
it developed one of the most remarkable exhibitions of the com- 
prehensive knowledge and far-sightedness of the man who was 
truly “The Father of his Country.” 
To possess himself of exact information he made au extensive 
tour; and may be said to have been the originator of the 
Chesapeake and Ohio canal. 
His maturer views on the subject of maintaining the commer- 
cial supremacy of the Atlantic seaboard over tin* Mississippi 
river are shown in his letter to Thomas Jefferson, March 2b, 1784, 
and to Benjamin Harrison, October 10, 1784; but nowhere so 
forcibly as in the one to Rickard Henry Lee, President of Con- 
giess, August 22, 1785. Report of the President of State Board of Health. 
7 
“However singular the opinion may be, I cannot divest 
“ myself of it, that the navigation of the Mississippi at this time, 
“ought to be no object with us. On the contrary, until we have 
“a little time allowed to open and make easy the ways between 
“ the Atlantic States and the Western territory, the obstruction 
“ had better remain. ******** 
“ It is clear to me, that the trade of the lakes and of the river 
“ Ohio, as low as the Great Kenhawa, if not to the Falls, may 
“ be brought to the Atlantic ports easier and cheaper, taking 
“ the whole voyage together, than it can be carried to New 
“Orleans: bat once open the door to the latter before the 
“ obstructions are removed from the former, let commercial cou- 
“ nections which lead to others be formed, and the habit of that 
“ trade be well established, and it will be found to be no easy 
“ matter to divert it; and vice versa. 
“ Wheu the settlements are stronger and more extended to the 
“ westward, the navigation of the Mississippi will be an object 
“ of importance; and we shall then be able, reserving our claims, 
“ to speak a more efficacious language, than policy, I think, 
“ now dictates.” 
The idea of the great Virginian, speaking in the interest of 
his State and of the Atlantic seaboard, that “ the obstruction in 
the Mississippi river “ had better remain,” as promotive of the 
turning of the channel of Western commerce to the Atlantic 
States, has not only been judiciously and consistently followed 
by the East, in all their votes on Congressional appropriation 
bills, but would be materially advanced, indeed, finally secured 
by surrendering into their hands the key of the “ Gate of 
Valley,” through a National Board of Health. 
But, to continue our history: Early in the life of our present 
Government the “ Ohio and Chesapeake” and the “ Erie.” and 
subsequently the great Welland canal through the Canadas, 
were projected and dug with the same object in view, at an 
aggregate expense of tens of millions of dollars. 
These artificial rivers, intended as commercial rivals of the 
“Fatherof Waters,” have since been maintained by immense 
annual appropriations, making them navigable for vessels of 
considerable tonnage. 8 
State of Louisiana. 
The Legislature of New York has at the present moment 
under consideration an appropriation of $200,000, to enlarge 
the canal locks; and the question of allowing navigation, free of 
toll, as an additional inducement for trade, has been of late 
years one of the political issues of the Empire State, which will 
assuredly prevail. 
Supplementary and auxiliary to these great water ways, in 
the effort to control the trade and commerce of the Mississippi 
basin and to hold it in tributary bondage, railroads of unlimited 
carrying capacity have been constructed, leading from the great 
Valley, tapping it at a multitude of points, and reaching*out to 
Norfolk, Baltimore, Philadelphia, New York, Boston, Montreal, 
and Quebec. 
Liberal subsidies from various States, counties, cities and 
towns, assisted and favored by the prevalence of the civil war, 
which interrupted the direct Southern trade for five years, have 
enabled the commercial rivals of the people of the South and 
West already to deflect the tide of a portion of this commerce, 
constantly swelling in volume, to latitudinal lines of ingress and 
exit, which should, by natural laws and facilities, pursue the 
more direct and cheaper longitudinal routes in the interchange 
of surplus products between tin* temperate and tropical zones. 
With th** far-reaching view of enlightened statesmanship, 
President Jefferson had, by the exercise of Executive power 
doubtful in its Constitutionality, without the authority of 
Congress, concluded a treaty, one of the principal objects of 
whidi was, not only to acquire the rich and vast territory of 
Louisiana but tocomniaud the outlet and tradeof the Mississippi 
River, the possession of which by a foreign power had, even at 
that early day, been the fruitful source of disagreement and 
diplomatic embarrassment. 
At the beginning of our late civil war the great heart of the 
Northwest was not fervently aroused for the preservation of the 
Union until it saw the outlet of its waterways pass into hostile 
hands. 
While the Commercial Enterprise and acumen of the East has 
lavished annually the money of the National Government upon 
the improvement of eastern harbors and rivers, even at onetime Report of the President of State Board of Health. 
9 
attempting the making of the Erie Canal a National Govern- 
mental work, to be fostered by the United States Treasury, the 
same sectional influence has jealously and vigilantly opposed and 
resisted every appropriation of National treasure to the improve- 
ment of the great Southern and Western water-ways, which 
would induce the return of commerce to its natural and direct 
channel, through the outlet of the Mississippi river, into the 
Gulf. 
To surrender to the hands of these our commercial rivals, the 
keys to the portal through which the whole of that commerce 
should naturally pass and to allow any federally centralized 
board to hamper, fetter, or embargo the trade ot the people of 
the valley, at the caprice, pleasure or interest of Eastern capital 
under the pretense of preservation of the public health, would 
be an act of supreme simplicity and utterly inane folly on the 
part of the States of the Mississippi Valley. 
In vain then would the work of the great Engineer have 
afforded us deep water to the sea; in vain then would improved 
methods of quarantine and non-detention have been accom- 
plished by the lavish use of money and improved scientific ap- 
pliances; in vain then would we adopt expensive and improved 
methods of sanitation and drainage for the Southern Metropolis, 
if the communication of this great valley with the outside world 
were to pass under the arbitrary control of those, whose interest 
it would be, to block with walls of adamant other routes of com- 
mercial traffic than those which lead to their own doors and fa- 
vor their own local interests. 
No more effectual system could be devised by the cunning of 
human ingenuity to consummate this discrimination so sinister 
and direful to the commercial and industrial interests of the 
States of the valley, than the establishment of a Centralized 
National Board of Health ! 
in addition to these historical considerations, an undisguised 
eagerness for authority and an inordinate grasping for money 
have too plainly stamped the character and history of the 
National B ard to be mistaken by any American who values the 
methods and traditions of our republican system. 10 
State of Lon ini ana. 
The States are not yet xujficienlly enlightened to surrender to a 
centralized National Board the power to bind and to loosen. They 
are still in that state of primitive ignorance in which they main- 
tain the principle that the people of a State are the best judges 
of their own internal necessities, and best able to determine 
police and other regulations growing out of them. 
In the matter of public health-preservation and the manage- 
ment of quarantine, the States can better agree upon a mutual 
arrangement than afford to commit such vital affairs, with the 
enormous power they confer, upon any central board of nine 
men, itself to be wielded presently by the vast moneyed monopo- 
lies representing hostile commercial, railroad and steamship 
interests to tyrauize over and crush the weaker State or section. 
The recently attempted forcible seizure of the Yellow Fever 
Commission was simply a desperate first step in the direction of 
regaining the power and patronage which slipped from its grasp 
when permitted no longer to hold its thumb upon the latch of 
the portal of the Mississippi. 
The Louisiana State Board has resisted the National Board 
of Health, profoundly convinced that to do so was a righteous 
and patriotic'resistance of the most mischievous and threaten- 
ing organization to which the calamity of a pe >ple ever gave 
birth.