QUARANTINE regulations. 
MARINE hospital service. 
SPEECH 
i ,. 
OF / 
Hon. DONELSON CAFFERY, 
OF LOUISIANA, 
IN THE 
SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES, 
MARCH 22, 23, AND 30, 1898. 
WASHINGTON. 
1898. SPEECH 
OF 
HON. DONELSON CAEFEEY. 
The Senate having under consideration the bill (S. 2680) amending “An act 
granting additional quarantine powers and imposing additional duties upon 
the Marine-Hospital Service,” approved February 15,1893— 
Mr. CAFFERY said: 
Mr President: This bill is to amend the act of February 15, 
1893, with regard to Federal quarantine and to grant additional 
powers to the Marine-Hospital Service. It is proper to state what 
the act of 1893 is and to point out its main particulars, so as to 
know what are the purposes of the present bill to amend it. I 
will briefly give a resume of the main provisions of the act of 1893. 
The first section provides that no vessel coming from any foreign 
port or place shall be permitted to enter a port of the United 
States unless in compliance with the quarantine regulations of 
the State and such rules and regulations as are prescribed by the 
act itself. The penalty included in this first section for violating 
any of its provisions is $5,000, and constitutes a lien upon the 
offending vessel. 
Right in this connection I will draw the attention of the Senate 
to the peculiarity of this punitive provision. The laws of the 
States are recognized in the matter of quarantine, and a penalty 
is denounced for any violation of those laws. So we have the 
anomaly of the violation of the State laws punished in a United 
States court after due prosecution. That is one of the provisions 
which the present bill amends. I do not think there is any con- 
stitutional or other power for us to adopt the laws of the States 
and give sanction to them by punitive provisions of the United 
States statute. That defect was pointed out in the act before the 
Senate in 1879. It was pointed out by the then Senator from New 
York, a very distinguished man, Mr. Conkling, and it was pointed 
out by the senior Senator from Massachusetts [Mr. Hoar] . The 
bill of 1879, then pending, included as one of its provisions this 
identical punitive clause, which I think is illegal, and therefore 
ought to be stricken out. 
Running over the sections, I come to the second section, which 
provides for obtaining consular certificates of foreign consuls or 
medical officers engaged in service at the consular ports by vessels 
sailing from a foreign port to any port of the United States. These 
certificates must set forth sanitary condition of the vessel, that 
it has complied with all the rules and regulations to secure the 
best sanitary condition of the vessel, cargo, and passengers. The 
President is authorized to detail any7 medical officer of the United 
States at the port to furnish information, to make inspections, and 
to issue bills of health. There is no objection to that provision, 
and that provision is maintained. 
3 4 
The third section of the act of 1893 is proposed to be stricken out 
by the pending bill. That third section directs the Supervising 
Surgeon-General, immediately after the passage of the act. to ex- 
amine the quarantine regulations of the State and municipal boards 
of health and, under the direction of the Secretary of the Treasury, 
to cooperate with the State board in the execution and enforcement 
of their rules and in the enforcement and execution of the rules 
and regulations made by the Secretary of the Treasury, in order 
to prevent the introduction of contagious or infectious diseases 
from foreign ports or countries into the United States or from 
one State or Territory or the District of Columbia into another 
State or Territory or the District of Columbia. 
One of the main provisions of this section is to direct the Super- 
vising Surgeon-General of the United States to cooperate with all 
the health authorities of the different States and aid them in the 
execution of the State laws. 
Another provision of this section is that at such ports or places 
in the United States as have no quarantine regulations, or when 
such regulations are, in the opinion of the Secretary of the Treas- 
ury, defective or insufficient, the Secretary of the Treasury is 
authorized to make additional regulations and rules, such as may 
be necessary to prevent the introduction of disease from foreign 
countries into the United States or from one State or Territory 
or the District of Columbia into another State or Territory or the 
District of Columbia; and when such rules are made, they are or- 
dered to be promulgated by the Secretary of the Treasury and 
enforced by the aid of the authorities of the States or the munici- 
palities when the authorities of the States and municipalities 
will undertake to enforce them; and if they decline or refuse to 
do so, then they are to be executed by the Secretary of the Treas- 
ury himself or under his direction. 
The other provisions of the act of 1893 down to section 6 give 
the execution of the quarantine duties and laws provided for to 
the Supervising Surgeon-General of the Marine-Hospital Service, 
and give him directions to obtain information as to the sanitary 
condition of foreign ports from which contagious or infectious 
diseases may be brought into the United States; and all consular 
officers are directed to make sanitary reports of the condition of 
their ports to the Secretary of the Treasury, and the Secretary of 
the Treasury is to obtain from all accessible sources such informa- 
tion as to the sanitary reports of all places within the States and 
communicate the same to the collectors of customs, etc. 
Mr. President, I direct special attention to section 6 of the act 
of 1893, which is not proposed to be repealed by the pending bill. 
That section reads as follows: 
Sec. 6. That on the arrival of an infected vessel at any port not provided 
with proper facilities for treatment of the same, the Secretary of the Treas- 
ury may remand said vessel, at its own expense, to the nearest national or 
other quarantine station, where accommodations and appliances are provided 
for the necessary disinfection and treatment of the vessel, passengers, and 
cargo; and after treatment of any infected vessel at a national quarantine 
station, and after certificate shall have been given by the United States quar- 
antine officer at said station that the vessel, cargo, and passengers are each 
and all free from infectious disease, or danger of conveying the same, said 
vessel shall be admitted to entry to any port of the United States named 
within the certificate. 
I call special attention to this section, which is now the law and 
which is not attempted to be repealed by the pending bill, in order 
to answer some objections made by the Senator from Georgia [ Mr. 
Bacon] and the Senator from Florida [Mr. Mallory] as to the 5 
advisability of permitting a ship to enter a port of the United 
States without the certificate or permission of the State quaran- 
tine officers. Their arguments were directed against the advisa- 
bility of permitting any vessel to enter a port of the United States 
from a foreign country notwithstanding any certificate or bill of 
health issued by the United States quarantine officials authorized 
to be issued by the pending bill. 
That is the law now, and the advisability of granting permis- 
sion by and through United States quarantine officials has been 
passed on by the Congress of the United States. So it is futile at 
this moment and against this bill to raise any question of the ad- 
visability of a ship entering a port of the United States after the 
health officer of the United States shall have given it a clean bill 
of health. I say it is utterly futile to raise that question, because 
it is settled, and it would be utterly and entirely nugatory, in my 
opinion, to have a quarantine law that only performed the office 
of shutting out a vessel, and contained no provision for permitting 
it to enter a port after performing quarantine. And the permis- 
sion ought to be given by the same authority which ordered and 
directed the quarantine. 
The very object of a quarantine is to permit the entry of a ves- 
sel. That has been the object of a quarantine ever since quaran- 
tine has existed. Senators upon this floor now tell us that it is 
inadvisable, that it is wrong, to permit the entry of a vessel into 
a port unless it shall have gone through the gauntlet of inspection 
at the hands of State authorities, and even in that event, if the 
citizens living in the community should object, then their per- 
mission must likewise be obtained. 
Quarantine derives its name from the period of detention of 
forty days as applied to vessels from north Africa and ports sup- 
posed to be infected coming into the ports of the Mediterranean. 
They were subjected to a detention of forty days, as the word 
indicates. I believe the word is of Italian origin. The ancient 
quarantine was to keep the vessel forty days, for it was supposed 
that if any person had the germs of the infectious or contagious 
disease in him, or if any part of the cargo was infected, the disease 
would have manifested itself in that period, and the vessel per- 
haps could be permanently excluded. If not, if everything was 
clear, if no disease manifested itself in the person of the passen- 
gers, the vessel was permitted to land and discharge its cargo, and 
its* passengers were permitted to go wherever they chose. The 
supposition was that if disease did not develop in them during 
that period they were safe from it. 
Under modern methods, after science has discovered the means 
of destroying infection, of purifying ships, the detention of a ves- 
sel as to its cargo is very slight. The quarantine is for the pur- 
pose of admitting the cargo of the vessel and its passengers after 
proper scientific means and remedies have been resorted to and 
applied, and the vessel purified and the cargo disinfected. The 
passengers themselves are subjected to a process of disinfection. 
After that is accomplished a cargo is permitted to land and so are 
the passengers. The detention at the port in my own State has 
never been, to my knowledge, over fourteen days, and more fre- 
quently than otherwise, after fumigation and other disinfectant 
appliances have been used upon the ship and cargo, it is allowed to 
enter the port of New Orleans immediately, without any unnec- 
essary detention. So the mediaeval idea of detaining ships in 6 
quarantine and preventing commodities from being landed does 
not now obtain. 
The first object of every quarantine regulation is to keep the 
disease out. That is the first and primal idea. After the disease 
gets in. then in order to prevent its spread, to prevent the ravages 
that follow in the wake of the dreadful scourge, there is a second 
quarantine, and that quarantine is to isolate the infected individ- 
ual and to purify the infected place. It is not the idea of the shot- 
gun quarantine, which is to string a cordon of firearms around 
an infected place. You can not shut out infection, you can not 
eradicate it, by brutal methods. It must be done by application 
of scientific means and methods. You must destroy the infection. 
Efforts in that direction have met with remarkable success in 
nearly all the Gulf States. 
Mr. President, to revert to the discussion of the act of 1893. it 
will be observed that section 7 of that act gives the President 
power to suspend or prohibit for such period as he may deem ex- 
pedient the introduction into the United States of persons or goods 
whenever in his opinion, notwithstanding quarantine, there is 
imminent danger of the conveying of infectious or contagious 
diseases into the country or from one State to another. He is 
authorized to stop all immigration, to stop all travel, to stop all 
transportation of goods in an emergency of that sort. That sec- 
tion is unrepealed and is a wise provision. 
Section 3 of the act of 1893, to which I have drawn attention, is 
entirely stricken out in the pending bill. The same objectionable 
features of that act contained in the first section, which created 
the anomaly of throwing upon the United States the office of en- 
forcing through its punitive power the regulations of States in 
the matter of quarantine, are also found in the third section and 
are also stricken out. With these provisions stricken out and the 
balance of the act of 1893 retained, the committee which reported 
the bill think, and I think, that the bill complies with the exigen- 
cies of conditions prevailing in the United States in regard to 
preventing the introduction of infectious or contagious diseases 
into the United States and, if they gain an entrance, to prevent 
their spreading from one State or Territory to another State or 
Territory. 
The pending bill has two main divisions—first, the maritime 
quarantine; second, the interstate quarantine—and they both 
stand upon the same basis; that is. the necessity of regular, uni- 
form, and efficient regulation. There is no difference whatever 
as to the necessity of requiring the same efficient law, the same 
uniform, regular execution of the law, in the case of maritime 
quarantine and in the case of interstate quarantine. 
Mr. President, observe the unrepealed provisions of the act of 
1893. What does the act provide for? It provides for obtaining 
all information in regard to the presence of contagious or infec- 
tious diseases in foreign ports and the immediate communication 
of that intelligence to the health authorities of the United States. 
It provides for the sanitation of the vessel and such rules and 
regulations, in the language of the act, as will bring about the 
best sanitary condition of the vessel, its cargo, and its passengers, 
and it places the execution of all these rules in the hands of the 
Secretary of the Treasury. 
The Senator from Florida [Mr. Mallory] says that this exten- 
sive jurisdiction of saying when and how goods and passengers 
shall be transported from abroad into our borders is a power too 7 
great to confide to any one man. It could rest nowhere else. 
The maritime quarantine is hound to be in the hands of the Sec- 
retary of the Treasury. These vessels come laden with merchan- 
dise and immigrants, both uncler the jurisdiction of the United 
States—the goods, as to the collection of the duties upon them: the 
immigrants, as to the inspection required under the immigration 
laws. 
The collectors of customs, under the very first act passed by the 
Congress of the United States in 1799, establishing the Marine- 
Hospital Service, were directed to comply with all the health laws 
of the States in the execution of their rules and regulations of 
quarantine. The collectors of the ports and United States offi- 
cials, who have charge and supervision of ships and their cargoes, 
so far as collecting the Federal revenue is concerned, and who 
have charge over the character and kind of persons who shall be 
allowed to come to our shores in them, are the proper persons to 
look after this matter of quarantine. 
The head of the Department, having jurisdiction over ships, their 
cargoes and passengers, is the proper person to take charge of and 
have jurisdiction over the subject of quarantine. He is now 
clothed with entire jurisdiction over the merchant marine, and 
we are told that when this merchant marine is the source from 
which the infectious and contagious diseases spring, that official 
ought not to be clothed with the power of health regulations, in- 
timately connected and blended as they are with the ordinary 
duties of the Treasury Department. With deference to the Sen- 
ator from Florida, I think there is nothing in the argument that 
the Secretary of the Treasury should not be intrusted with con- 
trol over whatever health regulations Congress may adopt. 
As to the argument that too much power is conferred upon the 
Secretary of the Treasury, I fail to perceive its weight, I fail to 
perceive its importance. I hope Senators will take into consider- 
ation that any health regulation whatever has to be executed in 
times of emergency with rapidity and certainty. There can be 
no convocation of doctors, no dispute, no delay. Yellow fever is 
an enemy; cholera is an enemy. All infectious and contagious 
diseases have to be met like an enemy to the human race, and 
your general must be in supreme command of the health army. 
There must be one authority, one executive arm. There is no 
place here for a division of authority, a convention of debaters, a 
discussion as to the methods to be pursued to drive back the foe. 
It has to be done quickly, decidedly, and efficiently. The Secre- 
tary of the Treasury, in my opinion, is the proper official, and the 
only official, in whom ought to reside the execution, by officers 
under him, as is the Supervising Surgeon-General, of all these 
health and quarantine regulations. 
Mr. President, it may enlighten this subject to give a brief re- 
view of the legislation that has taken place heretofore in regard 
to quarantine: The first act, as I stated, was passed in 1799, and 
was referred to by Chief Justice Marshall in the celebrated deci- 
sion in Gibbons vs. Ogden. That act, which I have here before 
me in the Revised Statutes, is so brief and so indicative of the 
prevailing idea relating to quarantine at that period that I will 
read it. It is the act of 23d February, 1799, section 4792 of the 
Revised Statutes: 
The quarantines and other restraints established by the health laws of any 
State respecting any vessels arriving in or bound to any port or district 
thereof, shall be duly observed by the officers of the customs revenue of the 
United States, by the masters and crews of the several revenue cutters, and 8 
by the military officers commanding in any fort or station upon theseacoast; 
and all such officers of the United States shall faithfully aid in the execution 
of such quarantines and health laws, according to their respective powers and 
within their respective precincts, and as they shall be directed, from time 
to time, by the Secretary of the Treasury. But nothing in this title shall en- 
able any State to collect a duty of tonnage or impost without the consent of 
Congress. 
In that early day. in the very first act of Congress passed upon 
this matter, the officials of the Treasury Department were di- 
rected to enforce and to help to enforce the different regulations 
of the different States. This is cited in order to show that the ex- 
ecutive arm of a health law was then thought, and properly, to 
he the customs officials of the United States, under the direction 
of the Secretary of the Treasury. 
Mr. President, I will run over these acts with a view of show- 
ing the growth of this idea that the adoption and the execution of 
quarantine laws affecting large portions of the country ought to 
be made and enforced by the United States. 
The first act on this subject referred to by the Senator from 
Florida [Mr. Mallory] was the act of April 29, 1878. and on re- 
viewing the sections and provisions of that act it will be seen how 
very careful the Congress of the United States was to conserve 
and to acknowledge the health laws of the United States. The 
first section provides: 
That no vessel or vehicle coming from any foreign port or country where 
any contagious or infectious disease may exist, and no vessel or vehicle con- 
veying any person or persons, merchandise, or animals affected with any 
infectious or contagious disease, shall enter any port of the United States or 
pass the boundary line between the United States and any foreign country 
contrary to the quarantine laws of any one of said United States into or 
through the jurisdiction of which said vessel or vehicle may pass, or to which 
it is destined, or except in the manner and subject to the regulations to be 
prescribed as hereinafter provided. 
The second section simply provides for information of any in- 
fectious or contagious disease in a foreign port to be conveyed by 
the consular officer at that port to the Supervising Surgeon- 
General of the Marine-Hospital Service, and to give a full state- 
ment of the date of departure and the port of destination of any 
vessel arriving from such port to the United States. 
Mr. BACON. Will the Senator from Louisiana permit me to 
interrupt him? 
Mr. CAFFERY. Certainly. 
Mr. BACON. I understand the Senator to be reading from the 
first act on this subject? 
Mr. CAFFERY. Yes, sir. 
Mr. BACON. If I understood him correctly, one provision of 
that law saves to the States the right to determine whether a ves- 
sel shall come in, and prohibits the Federal authority from inter- 
fering with that act. Am 1 correct? 
Mr. CAFFERY. You are partially correct, sir. It says that 
no vessel shall enter contrary to the quarantine regulations of 
any State. This impliedly prevents it coming in by any regula- 
tion of the United States contrary to a State statute. 
Mr. BACON. I understand that it is the purpose of the pend- 
ing bill to enact directly to the contrary of that provision, and to 
overthrow that provision of the law as it was then enacted. Am 
I correct in that? 
Mr. CAFFERY. Yes, sir; but you are not entirely correct, as 
the provision has been overthrown in acts subsequent to 1878. 
Mr. BACON. If I have followed correctly the Senator and his 9 
colleague on the committee, the Senator from* Missouri [Mr. 
Vest] , I understand that one main purpose of the bill is to put it 
within the power of the Federal official to say peremptorily and 
arbitrarily whether a vessel shall or shall not come in. In other 
words, if the Federal official determines that it shall come in, then 
there shall be no State authority which can conflict with that or- 
der. Am I not correct? 
Mr. CAFFERY. My attention was called away just now by 
the Senator from Montana [Mr. Carter] and I did not hear the 
Senator from Georgia. The Senator from Montana asked me a 
question which distracted my attention for the moment. 
Mr. BACON. I will repeat it. Of course it is very important 
that we shall have the issue clear cut. 
Mr. CAFFERY. Exactly. 
Mr. BACON. I understand the contention as presented by the 
Senator from Louisiana and the Senator from Missouri to be that 
the efficiency of quarantine regulations can only be secured by 
having the paramount authority or power in the Federal official, 
so that when the Federal quarantine authority decides on the 
question whether a vessel shall enter a port, that decision is final 
and can not be conflicted with by any other and contrary decision 
on the part of the State authorities. Am l correct? 
Mr. CAFFERY. You are. 
Mr. BACON. If I am correct in that, then it seems to me that 
the former proposition which I suggested to the Senator is un- 
doubtedly true, that the bill now proposed to be enacted will 
overthrow the provision in the act which he has just read. Am I 
correct? 
Mr. CAFFERY. Certainly; but the Senator is entirely incor- 
rect in presuming that that provision had not been overthrown 
by the act of 1893. 
Mr. BACON. I did not presume anything to that effect at all. 
The Senator was reading 
Mr. CAFFERY. You presumed that this is the only bill which 
overthrows the provision which I have just read from the act of 
1878, but both the act of 1893 and the act of 1879 provide that the 
certificate given by the quarantine officer of the United States at 
the port of entry shall be sufficient to allow a vessel to enter. 
Mr. BACON. Then the Senator understands that the law as it 
now exists would make it unlawful for a State quarantine, even 
if it had that scope, to prohibit the entrance of that vessel? 
Mr. CAFFERY. I think it would under some circumstances. 
Mr. BACON. Both the Senator from Maine [Mr. Frye] and the 
Senator from Missouri [Mr. Vest] commented upon the fact that 
directly the opposite was now true, and that under the law as it 
now exists a vessel may have a permit from the Federal authority 
to come into a port, but that a subsequent State quarantine will 
still keep it out. That was the complaint made, and that, I think, 
is the law now. 
Mr. MALLORY. Yes;- that is the law. 
Mr. CAFFERY. I understand from what the Senator from 
Maine and the Senator from Missouri said, that double quarantine 
fees for inspection and disinfection were demanded by State quar- 
antine officers. I can state from information derived from the 
Supervising Surgeon-General and from one of the rules and regu- 
lations which they have adopted, that notwithstanding the State 
law in that regard can be set aside Tinder the act of 1879 and the 
act of 1893, if deemed inefficient and insufficient by the Supervis- ing Surgeon-General—or the Secretary of the Treasury, rather— 
yet in order to harmonize with and not antagonize the health au- 
thorities of the State, they will, upon application, consent to an- 
other inspection and another disinfection. But they do not admit 
that the act of 1893 and the act of 1879 give the State authorities 
that permission and that privilege. 
Mr. BACON. If the Senator will pardon the interruption and 
if I do not intrude 
Mr. CAFFERY. Not at all. 
Mr. BACON. I think the Senator as a lawyer will recognize 
the fact that the language of the act of 1879 and the act of 1893 
has no reference whatever to the question of any conflict between 
State and Federal authorities. It simply prescribes what under 
Federal authority will be a sufficient authorization for the entry of 
a ship, and the question as to whether or not that will override 
State authority I do not think is contemplated in the act. How- 
ever, I beg the Senator's pardon for interrupting him to such an 
extent. I had no such intention when I arose. The only pur- 
pose 1 had was, if possible, to get the issue as clear-cut between 
us as it can be made. 
Mr. CAFFERY. I read from section 6 of the act of 1893, which 
gives in unambiguous and unmistakable language the right of a 
ship to enter a port under the certificate of the health officers of 
the United States whenever, in their opinion, there was not proper 
facilities for disinfecting the ship by the health officers and the 
United States authorities undertook to disinfect. So, therefore, 
when the proper facilities do not exist the United States health 
officers can disinfect and fumigate; they can give their certifi- 
cates, their bill of health, their permit to enter, and it does not 
leave, in my opinion, any room to admit a counter authority upon 
the part of a State to say that when the United States says a ves- 
sel shall come in the State authorities can say it can not. 
The only difference between the Senator from Maine, if any dif- 
ference at all, and the Senator from Missouri and myself in this 
particular is that I contend that this jurisdiction of the United 
States in allowing a vessel to enter is complete under the act of 
1879 and the act of 1893, and the State authorities can not object 
to the right of the vessel to enter after the United States certifi- 
cate shall have been given that it may enter. I will now revert 
to the act of 1878. 
Mr. BACON. Yet the Senator proposes, as I understand it, to 
strike out section 3 of the act, which prescribes that there shall be 
cooperation between the Federal and State boards. 
Mr. CAFFERY. I do. I think that that section causes useless 
complications and prevents that unity of action and harmonious 
execution and rapid execution which a law of this kind requires. 
Section 3 of the act of 1878 makes it the duty of the medical of- 
ficers of the Marine-Hospital Service and the custom officers to 
aid in the enforcement of the national quarantine rules and regu- 
lations established under the preceding section, which simply 
directs any consular officer of the United States or any other rep- 
resentative of the United States at a foreign port immediately to 
give information of the existence of any infectious or contagious 
diseases at a foreign port, and so on, as I have heretofore read. 
Then the Surgeon-General, under section 4 of the act, is directed, 
upon receipt of the information of a vessel from a foreign port 
where contagious diseases exist, immediately to convey intelli- 
gence of that fact to the municipal and State health authorities 
10 11 
and the United States officers at any port or the destination of 
the vessel in the United States. 
There is another act of 1878. but I do not see it here now. 
Mr. BACON. Possibly 1 can furnish it to the Senator. I have 
it here now. 
Mr. CAFFERY. I have quoted from the act of the 29th of 
April, 1878. 
Mr. BACON. There is an act of March 3.1879. 1 beg the Sen- 
ator’s pardon. This is 1879. 
Mr. CAFFERY. I believe there were two acts in 1878. 
Mr. BACON. Two of 1879 and one of 1878. 
Mr. CAFFERY. I will proceed with the act of March 3, 1879. 
That act provided for a national board of health, to consist of 
seven members, to be appointed by the President, and section 2 
states the duties of the board of health to be to obtain informa- 
tion upon all matters affecting the public health, to advise the 
several Departments of the Government, the executives of the 
several States, and the Commissioners of the District of Colum- 
bia on all questions submitted by them, or whenever in the opin- 
ion of the board such advice would tend to the preservation and 
improvement of the public health—a kind of general advisory 
board. 
The third section of the act of 1879 required the board to sub- 
mit to Congress at its next session a full statement of its transac- 
tions, with a plan for a national public health organization, which 
plan was to be prepared after consultation with all the sanitary 
organizations and sanitarians of the several States, and in which 
plans special attention was to be given to the subject of quaran- 
tine, and so on, and the sum of $50,000 was appropriated to pay 
the salaries and expenses of the board. So you see, Mr. Presi- 
dent. that the act of March 3, 1879, did nothing more than es- 
tablish a national board of health, with general duties, giving 
them no specific powers; but they were directed to report a plan 
of organization of a national health board at the next session of 
Congress. 
In June, 1879, a very important act was passed by Congress. It 
was to prevent the introduction of contagious or infectious dis- 
eases into the United States. The first section of the act varies 
somewhat from the section of the act of 1878, and it provides: 
That it shall be unlawful for any merchant ship or vessel from any foreign 
port where any contagious or infectious disease exists to enter any port of 
the United States except in accordance with the provisions of this act, and 
all rules and regulations of State boards of health and all rules and regula- 
tions made in pursuance of this act: and any such vessel which shall enter, 
or attempt to enter, a port of the United States in violation thereof shall 
forfeit to the United States a sum, to be awarded in the discretion of the 
court, not exceeding §1,000, which shall be a lien upon said vessel, to be re- 
covered by proceedings in the proper district court of the United States. 
So in the first section of the act we are met with the strange 
anomaly of the United States providing for the punishment not 
only of violations of certain rules which are authorized to be made 
under the provisions of the act, but of all rules and regulations of 
any State; and no man would know, if he were indicted for the 
violation of these rules, whether it was for the violation of rules 
made by the United States or rules made by the State. So that 
act right there contains a vicious provision, and, in my opinion, 
an absolutely illegal provision. The second section repeats the 
requirements of the act of 1878 in regard to the necessity of pro- 
curing consular bills of health and other provisions which are not 
pertinent to this inquiry. 12 
The third section made the national board of health, created by 
the act I have just recited, cooperate with and aid all State and 
municipal boards of health in the execution and enforcement of 
the rules and regulations of such boards to prevent the introduc- 
tion of contagious or infectious diseases into the United States 
from foreign countries or from one State to another, and so on. 
The act of 1879 goes further, and contains a very important pro- 
vision, to which I desire the attention of Senators who are doing 
me the honor to listen. I will quote it: 
And at such ports and places within the United States where quarantine 
regulations exist under the authority of the State, which, in the opinion of 
the National Board of Health, are not sufficient to prevent the introduction 
of such diseases into the United States, or into one State from another, the 
National Board of Health shall report the facts to the President of the 
United States, who shall, if, in his judgment, it is necessary and proper, or- 
der said Board of Health to make such additional rules and regulations as 
are necessary to prevent the introduction of such diseases into the United 
States from foreign countries, or into one State from another, which, when 
so made and approved by the President, shall be promulgated by the Na- 
tional Board of Health and enforced bv the sanitary authorities of the States, 
where the State authorities will undertake to execute and enforce them; 
but if the State authorities shall fail or refuse to enforce said rules and regu- 
lations, the President may detail an officer or appoint a proper person for 
that purpose. 
Wherever, in the opinion of the National Board of Health, the 
regulations of the States are not sufficient to prevent the introduc- 
tion of these dangerous diseases from foreign ports or countries 
into the United States or from one State to another, then the 
board of health is authorized to make such rules and regulations 
as may be necessary, and tne President is given full power and 
authority to execute them, both in regard to maritime quarantine 
and interstate quarantine. 
Is this authority as extensive as the authority complained of in 
the pending bill? Here is a law, passed in 1879, which directly 
set aside State authority and gave to the national board the 
power, wherever they thought necessary, to adopt such rules and 
regulations as were sufficient to prevent the introduction of these 
contagious diseases from foreign countries into the United States 
or from one State to another. Where was the cry of State rights 
then? Who were the parties who voted for the act of 1879? The 
Senator from Tennessee. Mr. Harris, who then was in charge of 
the bill, was as great a stickler for State rights as any member of 
this body. The distinguished and powerful Senator from Missis- 
sippi, Mr. Lamar, devoted as he was to that construction of the 
Constitution which, while it gave the Federal Constitution its due 
proportion of power, always endeavored to restrain the Federal 
authority within the just limits of the Constitution, voted for this 
bill, and nearly every member in this body from the South, with 
few exceptions, voted for it. 
I will draw the attention of Senators to a question propounded 
by Mr. Lamar to Mr. Edmunds, who opposed the bill, pending the 
discussion of this measure, which went to the roots of the whole 
controversy and signified the position of Mr. Lamar. He was not 
afraid of Federal authority at that day, nor was the Senator from 
Tennessee, Mr. Harris. They had witnessed the inefficiency of 
State quarantine. The Senator from Tennessee was fresh from 
the terrible experiences of the epidemic that devastated Memphis 
in 1878. He was a great stickler for State rights: he was a greater 
stickler for human life, when human life could be conserved by a 
just exercise of power conferred by the Constitution through laws 
having for their purpose not the underlying commercial purpose, 13 
to which the Senator from Georgia the other day alluded, but the 
primal purpose, the great purpose, the humane purpose, of saving 
the lives of our citizens from the terrible destruction of these 
scourges that visit our shores. 
Mr. Lamar, in stating the jurisdiction of the States over the 
subject-matter reserved to them in answer to a question of Mr. 
Edmunds (Congressional Record, Forty-sixth Congress, first 
session, page 1548), made this remark: 
Over many subjects of legislation the States have exclusive jurisdiction. 
In fact, on all matters in reference to which the States have not delegated 
their powers to the General Government their jurisdiction is exclusive. Of 
course Congress could not by its legislation enforce the laws of a State upon 
such subjects: but upon matters over which Congress has a concurring juris- 
diction and paramount jurisdiction, I think then, and in such case, it has the 
constitutional power to recognize and adopt the laws of a State and to enforce 
them by penalties upon individuals. 
The statement of Mr. Lamar was made in answer to-the objec- 
tion of Mr. Edmunds that the Congress of the United States could 
not enforce the execution of State laws by the sanction of a Fed- 
eral statute; and here he says that in a matter where Congress 
has paramount jurisdiction, then, and in that case, the Congress 
of the United States can use the Federal arm to execute and en- 
force the State statute. Let us see the vote on this bill. 
Mr. BACON. I understand the Senator's position to agree with 
the position taken by Mr. Edmunds, and to conflict with that 
taken by Mr. Lamar in what he says? 
Mr. CAFFERY. I read this statement from Mr. Lamar in or- 
der to show that he acknowledged that this subject, then discussed, 
the quarantine bill, was a measure over which Congress had para- 
mount jurisdiction. The question of difference between him and 
Mr. Edmunds was quite another point. I think upon that ques- 
tion Mr. Edmunds was right and Mr. Lamar wrong, if the Sena- 
tor wants to know my opinion. 
Mr. CHILTON. The Supreme Court has so decided. 
Mr. CAFFERY. I do not know what the decision of the Su- 
preme Court has been, but it is manifest to my mind that Mr. 
Edmunds was right. But I direct the attention of the Senate to 
the brief speech of Mr. Lamar to show that t he particular subject- 
matter of discussion at that period was one upon which he said 
Congress had paramount jurisdiction. 
Mr. BACON. He used the words concurrent or paramount, 
either, without saying which one this fell under. 
Mr. CAFFERY. Very well. We will see what that term means 
as we go further along in the discussion. 
The yeas on the passage of the bill were as follows: 
Bailey, 
Beck, 
Blaine, 
Booth, 
Burnside, 
Call, 
Cameron, Pa. 
Cameron, Wis. 
Coke, 
Farley, 
Garland, 
Gordon, 
Hampton, 
Harris, 
Houston, 
Ingalls, 
Jonas, 
Jones, Fla. 
Kellogg, 
Kirkwood, 
Lamar, 
McMillan, 
McPherson, 
Maxey, 
Paddock,' 
Pendleton, 
Saunders, 
Slater, 
V ance. 
Vest, 
Voorhees, 
Walker, 
Willixms, 
Withers. 
Those were the affirmative votes. I notice among those votes 
upon the act of 1879. that contains provisions similar to those in 
the pending bill, and pointed out in that debate as inimical to 
State authority, all these conspicuous Southern legislators and 
statesmen. 
Mr. BACON. Will it interrupt the Senator from Louisiana if 
I ask him a question? 14 
Mr. CAFFERY. It will not. 
Mr. BACON. The Senator invokes the names of these eminent 
gentlemen in support of his proposition favoring the passage of 
the present bill. That vote was given in support of the act of 
June 2, 1879. That is the act, I presume, to which the Senator 
refers 
Mr. CAFFERY. Yes, sir. 
Mr. BACON. There were two acts in 1879—the act of March 3 
and the act of June 2. The Senator refers to the act of June 2. 
That is the principal act. 
Mr. CAFFERY. Let me see what that act was and at what 
time it was passed. 
Mr. BACON. Here it is. As to either act, the suggestion which 
I wish to make to the Senator is this, that in each of these acts 
there is a clear recognition of the right and expectation that the 
States would have quarantine regulations with which it was pre- 
scribed the Federal regulations should be in harmony, and in the 
execution of which it was prescribed that the Federal officials 
should act in harmony with the State officials. 
The question I wish to ask the Senator is this: There is in these 
several acts ample authority and power given to the Federal offi- 
cials to do everything which is necessary to restrict the spread of 
disease or to prevent its introduction. In what manner does the 
present legislation, as found in these several acts, fall short of 
what is provided in the bill now proposed, except in the fact that 
there is nowhere found in any one of these acts any power in the 
Federal authorities to prevent the State or municipal authorities 
from protecting themselves? 
In other words, the only difference between the power given in 
the act now proposed and the legislation as it exists is that in the 
one case—the legislation now existing—the authority is given 
fully to the Federal authorities to do everything which can con- 
tribute to the prevention of the spread of disease or of its intro- 
duction, but the present legislation does not enable the Federal 
authorities to lay their hands upon State authorities and say they 
shall not restrict in the same manner that the Federal authorities 
do. In what way does the proposed legislation, except in that re- 
spect, change the present law? 
Mr. CAFFERY. The Senator has made quite a speech in the 
form of a question, and there are so many different propositions 
or assertions that I am at a loss how distinctly to auswer, but I 
will say this: The similarity between the acts of 1893 and of 1879 
is that while in certain sections of both the acts of 1893 and 1879 
the Federal authority is made supreme, it is made so on a contin- 
gency. If certain laws of States are not thought to be proper, 
then the discretion is left to the Secretary of the Treasury to set 
them aside and to enact sufficient laws and regulations. In other 
parts of both of these statutes which the Senator has mentioned the 
Federal authorities are required to cooperate with the State au- 
thorities in the execution of their laws. I admit that, and that 
is precisely the reason why I want it changed. 
Mr. BACON. The Senator wants to take that out. 
Mr. CAFFERY. That is precisely the reason, because it brings 
about an inharmonious action, because it brings about a discus- 
sion, an assertion on one side that the laws are insufficient, a de- 
nial on the other that they are insufficient, and here is a wrangle 
between the State authorities and the Federal authorities, with 15 
the power conceded to the Federal authorities in these acts to set 
aside the State authorities, but it goes without saying 
Mr. BACON. I do not think that is conceded. 
Mr. CAFFERY. If the Senator will pardon me, I had not fin- 
ished my sentence. It goes without saying that these provisions 
giving this contingent and conditional power to the United States 
are not calculated to be executed with that celerity, that certainty, 
that efficiency which is absolutely required in the presence of this 
fell destroyer. I do not know that there is a class of men in the 
world who are so fond of disputing as doctors. I do not believe 
the disputatious and contentious members of this body can rival 
a medical corps in their nice, fine-spun, metaphysical distinctions 
and differences, subtleties and refinements, on controverted ques- 
tions. 
Mr. PASCO. I understand the Senator desires to take out of the 
present legislation the cooperative principle between the National 
and State governments? 
Mr. CAFFERY. Yes, sir. I desire emphatically to do it. I 
want a uniform rule. I want a certain rule. I want the whole 
power of the national quarantine, which I think unquestionably 
flows from the power to regulate commerce, where it belongs, 
where only it can be made effective, in the hands of the officers of 
the United States, and I am as much of a States-rights man as 
anybody. 
'Why, sir, year after year we are visited with yellow fever; year 
after year it creeps through cordons of shotguns; year after year 
our coasts are ravaged; year after year the pestilence walketh in 
darkness and destroyeth at noonday from Pensacola to the snow 
line. Is not that sufficient evidence of the inutility of these State 
quarantines? 
Look at the epidemic of last year. How did it get in? Where 
is the responsibility? The State officers throw it upon the Fed- 
eral quarantine officers at Ship Island. Criminations and recrimi- 
nations are bandied about from one set of officials to another. We 
want a central authority to which responsibility can attach; we 
want a power able to cope with it, with means sufficient to cope 
with it, with a regularity of action and a uniformity of conduct 
and method of treating disease that insures confidence among the 
people and which, in my opinion, will effectually prevent the 
almost annual recurrences of these dreadful visitations. 
Mr. PASCO. Will the Senator permit me? 
Mr. CAFFERY. Certainly. 
Mr. PASCO. 1 wish to call the Senator’s attention to the fact 
that the quarantine laws and regulations of Florida were success- 
ful during last summer in keeping the yellow fever out of the 
boundaries of that State. There has never been any explanation 
as to how the yellow fever came into the country, and if I am 
correct, the Supervising Surgeon-General has never yet made his 
annual report, so that we do not know from him whether his 
efforts were successful or not. Am I right in that? 
Mr. CAFFERY. I do not know about your success in Florida 
last year, but I do know when the yellow fever visited Florida 
some time in 1879 or 1880, that you called in the United States 
Marine-Hospital Service, and the town of Pensacola was put un- 
der the treatment of the United States officials. 
Mr. PASCO. That was before the establishment of our present 16 
system, which has been successful in keeping the disease out of 
our borders. 
Mr. CAFFERY. 1 do not dispute the Senator’s statement in 
that regard. Does the Senator dispute the statement that yellow 
fever ravaged the coast from the eastern boundary of Mississippi 
or of Alabama almost to the Mexican line upon the Gulf coast last 
year? 
Mr. PASCO. I do not: but it is charged that it came through 
the national quarantine lines there. 
Mr. CAFFERY. I have referred to that assertion, and I say 
you must have a central authority upon which you can attach 
responsibility for negligence or inefficiency. Where there is one 
Federal quarantine station there are twenty State quarantine 
stations, and the Senator knows, therefore, the chances are as 
twenty to one that the fever got in through the State negligence 
as against the United States negligence. 
Mr. BACON. If 1 do not intrude improperly upon the Sena- 
tor— 
Mr. CAFFERY. Not at all. 
Mr. BACON. I understand the Senator’s proposition to be this: 
That he not only desires that the Federal authority shall have the 
exclusive power to say that a quarantine shall be established, but 
that it shall also have power as to any locality to say that it shall 
not be established. That I understand to be the Senator’s position. 
Mr. CAFFERY. I do not know how the Senator could have 
understood any such thing, for I certainly never said that. 
Mr. BACON. I do not desire to misrepresent the Senator. 
Mr. CAFFERY. I certainly never said any such thing, and it 
is very far from my thoughts to imagine any such thing. 
Mr. BACON. I understand the Senator proposes that the ex- 
clusive power to establish a quarantine shall be in the Federal 
authorities, and therefore there shall be no other power qualified 
to establish a quarantine and no other quarantine can be lawful. 
So it will be exclusively for the national quarantine to say not 
only that there shall be a quarantine, but to determine that in a 
certain locality there shall not be any, because no other authority 
will have the power. 
Mr. CAFFERY. The Senator does not understand me to take 
any such position—no, sir. I am speaking with reference to the 
Federal quarantine; I am speaking with reference to the power of 
the United States to establish quarantine in aid of its commercial 
power. 
Mr. BACON. Does the Senator then 
Mr. CAFFERY. If the Senator will permit me 
Mr. BACON. Certainly. 
Mr. CAFFERY. I have made the broad statement that the 
quarantine power, which I say the Congress of the United States 
possesses, is derived from the power to regulate commerce, and, 
therefore, the Federal quarantine can only extend and only em- 
brace subjects of maritime foreign commerce and matters of in- 
terstate commerce. I have said nothing in regard to the internal 
police regulations of a State. Why does the Senator from Geor- 
gia conclude from anything that I have said, or anything that 
can be inferred from what I have said, that the States are to be 
robbed of all power to establish their quarantines wherever and 
whenever they choose? By no means. But upon ttiis matter of 
maritime trade, this matter of foreign commerce, and this matter 
of interstate commerce, I say that the Federal arm can take charge 17 
of it, and the Federal authority in regulating it can be and ought 
to be supreme. 
Mr. BACON. Now may I ask the Senator a question? 
Mr. CAFFERY. Certainly. 
Mr. BACON. I understand, then, under the Senator’s conten- 
tion, that if a carload of woolen goods was to be shipped from 
New Orleans at a time when the yellow fever was prevalent in 
New Orleans and consigned to a party in Montgomery, Ala.— 
which would certainly be a transaction under the interstate-com- 
merce provision of the Constitution—that in such a case the citi- 
zens of Montgomery would be controlled in the question as to 
whether or not that carload of woolens consigned thus from New 
Orleans could be admitted exclusively by the decision of the na- 
tional quarantine and that the city of Montgomery itself should 
not be allowed to say that it would not permit it to come in be- 
cause it would endanger the health of the town. Am I correct? 
Mr. CAFFERY. Are you propounding a question or making a 
statement of position? 
Mr. BACON. I said I understood the Senator to take that posi- 
tion that in all cases which depend upon interstate commerce 
Mr. CAFFERY. You state a position, and you are now illus- 
trating your position with a particular application of it. 
Mr. BACON. I want to know if that is not the Senator’s posi- 
tion. 
Mr. CAFFERY. I will ask the Senator another question. I 
ask if the State authorities of Alabama in the case of goods shipped 
from New Orleans to Alabama, which you put, were to decide 
and declare through their health officers that it was perfectly safe 
for the people of Alabama to receive that shipment, would that 
entitle the goods to come in? Would that authorize the shipment 
to l>e made and the goods to be distributed among the people of 
Alabama? 
Mr. BACON. Not if the Federal authorities should say it should 
not. 
Mr. CAFFERY. I am speaking of the State authorities. 1 am 
not saying anything about the Federal authorities. I will ask 
you another question. In the case you suppose of woolen goods 
shipped from New Orleans and consigned to Montgomery, Ala., 
if the health officers of the city of Montgomery, in the State of 
Alabama, say that those goods can come in. and those goods can 
be received and sold in the State of Alabama, can they be so 
received and sold? 
Mr. BACON. They could be if there was no conflicting regu- 
lation on the part of the Federal authorities. 
Mr. CAFFERY. Ah, exactly. Now, I will answer the Sen- 
ator's question. I say, therefore, it depends upon the question of 
whichever power is paramount. Which power is paramount? 
In the absence of Federal legislation, the State law prevails. The 
State law would be valid in the exercise of a power that belongs 
to the State, the police power, and the Federal law would be valid 
in the exercise of a power that belongs to the Federal Govern- 
ment, the power to regulate commerce. When these two conflict, 
which is subordinated to the other and which, therefore, is to be 
looked to? 
I say, Mr. President, that that state of affairs in the administra- 
tion of a law under the complex system that we live under would 
rarely come about. I believe that in the execution of a law in the 
case put due regard would be paid to the wishes of the people of 18 
Alabama by the Federal authorities; and 1 believe if they had or 
were exercising jurisdiction in the premises that the Federal 
authorities having charge of the shipment of or control over the 
quarantine of goods in the case put—from New Orleans to Ala- 
bama—would be very loath to shove upon the people of Alabama 
goods which they thought ought not to be brought in on account 
of the danger of infection. 
The Senator supposes an extreme case, but I will meet his case, 
and say that those goods, if permitted by the United States quar- 
antine officials to be shipped from the city of New Orleans to the 
city of Montgomery, could be shipped there under the authority 
of the case of Brown vs. Maryland. 
Mr. BACON. And the municipal and State authorities could 
not stop them? 
Mr. CAFFERY. The municipal or State authorities could not 
stop them. That is not to say, Mr. President, that those goods 
could be scattered all over the State of Alabama. The Federal 
authoritjT given in the case supposed would be limited to the ship- 
ment-then and there; it would not give authority to let those goods 
go wherever the consignee wanted them to go; but so far as that 
particular shipment is concerned, if the United States have any 
power in the premises at all, then, under that condition of affairs, 
the United States authority being paramount, the goods would 
certainly have to be admitted for the purpose only of the imme- 
diate transaction and limited and controlled by it. 
Mr. BACON. And it is that result the Senator seeks to secure 
by the passage of this bill? 
Mr. CAFFERY. The Senator can not charge me with desiring 
to thrust upon an unwilling people goods infected, for, if let in to 
a place by the order of a Federal quarantine officer, they would 
be disinfected 
Mr. BACON. The Senator certainly did not understand me in 
that way. 
Mr. CAFFERY. That is the import of your language. 
Mr. BACON. I beg to assure the Senator that I did not mean 
to say that he wished to distribute yellow fever, whether it origi- 
nated in New Orleans or elsewhere. 
Mr. CAFFERY. You said by the instrumentality of a bill 
which I favor. 
Mr. BACON. I said the effect of the law which the Senator 
seeks to have enacted will result in giving to the Federal officials 
power by which they can do it; not that the Senator would desire 
that particular thing to be done. 
Mr. CAFFERY. Oh, Mr. President, that is the old mediaeval 
idea. With this terrible responsibility resting upon the execu- 
tors of this law, the terrible loss of life, the destruction of prop- 
erty that might result from a careless or an ignorant administra- 
tion of this law, does the Senator suppose that less care will be 
taken in the premises by United States officials than any State 
would exercise in its own behalf? Is your quarantine a perpetual 
embargo? Is there no period when you say that people and goods 
can be transmitted? Is your idea of a quarantine a complete iso- 
lation —nonintercourse? 
Mr. BACON. If necessary, yes. 
Mr. CAFFERY. The idea of quarantine is after certain deten- 
tion and a certain application of scientific remedies to permit 
people and goods to travel and to circulate. Why, sir, you would 
paralyze the commerce of the United States. The authority 19 
somewhere must exist to say when and under what conditions it 
is safe for people and goods to travel. You say that it is the au- 
thority of Alabama, or Mississippi, or Louisiana, or Florida. I 
say it is the Federal authority. Some authority must say it; some 
power must have the final decision of this matter. You want to 
restrict it to each State acting separately; one State may have 
good quarantine and another none or an inefficient one. The 
evils and the dreadful results of these State quarantines I, perhaps, 
have felt a little more than the Senator from Georgia. 
Mr. BACON. Will the Senator permit me? I do not wish to 
be misunderstood. 
Mr. CAFFERY. I yield to the Senator. 
Mr. BACON. The Senator will not go further than 1 will in 
the effort to secure a law which shall give to the Federal Govern- 
ment all the power which it can possibly exercise in the way of 
restraint and in the way of an efficient quarantine. The only 
thing I object to is that, while I am willing for that, 1 am unwill- 
ing that the Federal authority shall have the right to prohibit a 
State or a municipality from also having its quarantine. It cer- 
tainly will not impair the efficiency of the Federal quarantine to 
have it added to by the power of the State or of the municipality. 
Mr. CAFFERY. I have said nothing, Mr. President, from 
which by the most strained construction anybody can deduce the 
conclusion that I want to bar any State from having as many 
police regulations in regard to health or other matters pertaining 
to the police jurisdiction of the State as the State in its discretion 
may see fit to adopt. The State can have just as many quaran- 
tines as it pleases; but anybody can see from the example put by 
the Senator from Georgia the very limited scope and extent of 
the Federal authority. 
The Federal authority can not say to a State. “ You have got to 
let the goods of Louisiana in ad libitum.” It is not likely that the 
goods of Louisiana from an infected district would be ordered, in 
the first place, by the citizens of Alabama. The principle of self- 
preservation would come into play. But the Federal permission 
can only extend to a particular commercial transaction; and 
therefore this wide and extensive and comprehensive authority 
that you say the Federal Government wants to exercise does not 
exist and can not exist in the nature of things. 
But somebody, says the Senator, can do it; some authority can 
say whether it is safe or not. Where the authorities of the city of 
Montgomery might want to introduce these woolen articles, the 
authorities of Selma would raise a shotgun quarantine and say, 
“You can not introduce them.” So every little municipality is 
quarantining against every other, and the condition of affairs, 
when panic seizes the minds of the people in these epidemics, is a 
condition of war. The people seem to go into the elements of 
barbarity and savagery. 
Science has discovered a method of making safe the transmis- 
sion of goods and passengers. That principle seems to be ignored. 
In all this contention it is supposed that this commercial power 
of Congress is only invoked in order to shove the yellow fever or 
cholera or the plague upon an unwilling people. Because these 
diseases can be controlled, the infection destroyed, the contamina- 
tion removed, is precisely the reason we want an efficient arm to 
perform that service and to render both life and property secure 
from the attacks of disease. 
The idea that prevails in the mind of the Senator from Georgia 20 
appears to be that modern science is unable to cope with these for- 
midable diseases. I can tell him that for the last nineteen years 
yellow fever has been isolated and eradicated in the city of New 
Orleans. The old plan used to be when it came in that everybody 
ran off. Now the plan is to isolate the disease, to put a cordon of 
guards around the house where it exists, to use bichloride of mer- 
cury and the fumes of sulphur and other compounds which are 
germ destroyers, and after a certain fumigation, after a certain 
application of these remedies, the premises are safe, the germ is 
destroyed, and both life and property are saved. That is precisely 
the means that I want to be invoked in this instance. 
Mr. MALLORY. Will the Senator allow me? 
Mr. CAFFERY. Certainly. 
Mr. MALLORY. Was that resorted to in New Orleans last fall? 
Mr. CAFFERY. It was. 
Mr. MALLORY. Did it check the epidemic? 
Mr. CAFFERY. I will tell the Senator the conditions that 
then prevailed in the city of New Orleans. The town of Ocean 
Springs, on the Alabama coast, is a famous summer resort for the 
citizens of New Orleans. It borders the Gulf, or an arm of the 
Gulf; it is a very delightful resort: and a number of the citizens 
of New Orleans were there. 
The first disease that broke out there was called the dengue. It 
soon spread with great rapidity, and everybody was down sick, 
as it was said, with the dengue. After investigation it was shown 
that some persons had died of the yellow fever. I believe the first 
case was a doctor of the city of New Orleans by the name of 
Eemis. and the autopsy upon his body showed that the disease of 
which he died wras yellow fever. All the denizens of New Orleans 
who were then sojourning at Ocean Springs, after discovering 
that there was yellow fever there, from the autopsy on the body 
of Dr. Bemis, who had been at Ocean Springs, immediately re- 
turned thence to the city of New Orleans, and they located about 
in different portions of the city to the number of many hundreds, 
I am told, and the disease broke out here and there all over the city. 
There was not the means to isolate, and when the disease got 
into the portion of the city inhabited by the Italians and some of 
the poorer orders of the population, they would not permit the 
doctors who visited them to report the cases of yellow fever, so 
that the system of disinfection could be resorted to. The conse- 
quence was that the disease spread all over the city. I can say to 
the Senator from Florida that it wras not because of the failure of 
the principle of isolation and disinfection, but because of the in- 
ability of that city, on account of the peculiar circumstances, the 
enormous grasp which the disease had, the extent to which it had 
gone, and the failure to report the cases of yellow fever that I 
have mentioned, that the apparent failure of the principle of iso- 
lation occurred. 
Mr. MALLORY. But it is a fact that efforts were made to 
check it in the city of New Orleans? 
Mr. CAFFERY. Yes. sir. 
Mr. MALLORY. By the methods that the Senator has men- 
tioned? 
Mr. CAFFERY. Yes, sir. 
Mr. MALLORY. And nevertheless it did not check it to the 
extent of killing the disease. 
Mr. CAFFERY. I know an example that occurred right in 21 
my little town, and I will narrate it. I will give proof positive of 
the superiority of the modern system of treating yellow fever over 
the old system. I live near a small city called Franklin, in the 
State of Louisiana. In 1834 the yellow fever visited that town. 
It was a town the population of which did not exceed a thousand 
inhabitants. As soon as the yellow fever made its appearance, 
some time in the latter part of October, everybody who could 
leave town left it. 
The yellow fever decimated that population. It killed fully 50 
per cent of the inhabitants who were left, and it died out from 
want of fuel. Everybody had it who could take it, and when the 
frost came the refugees returned. No yellow fever occurred in 
that town from that date until 1897. In 1897 a man died there 
three or four days before I left for Washington. He was an Ital- 
ian tailor. There was a shotgun quarantine for 100 miles between 
New Orleans and Franklin. Nobody could tell how that yellow 
fever got in. It did get in; the tailor died. 
Dr. Carter, a most efficient, able, conscientious physician be- 
longing to the medical corps of the Marine-Hospital Service, was 
telegraphed for. He came. There was some doubt about the 
yellow fever. He is an expert in the diagnosis of yellow fever. He 
pronounced the case yellow fever. What did he do? He ordered 
the man's family to be removed from the house in which they lived 
and in -which he died to a barge in the bayou. It was moored in 
the stream. He put a cordon of guards around it and on it. No 
intercourse with the barge was allowed except by immunes. The 
disease communicated itself to one member of the immediate family 
of the dead tailor and to other parties who had communication with 
the family of the stricken man. Three deaths occurred. He 
fumigated the premises. He disinfected every place where the 
yellow fever had found lodgment. Three deaths and 8 cases oc- 
curred. as against 200 in 1854. The population of that town now 
is over 3,000. 
There is a complete demonstration, not only of the ease and facil- 
ity and proficiency that this disinfecting process can be used, but 
it is an instance of the efficiency of the surgeons of the Marine- 
Hospital Service. I can say to the Senator from Georgia and to 
the Senators here that all through the part of Louisiana with 
which I am conversant the people have the most unbounded con- 
fidence in the medical corps of the Marine-Hospital Service. I 
can speak, not only of Dr. Carter, but of Dr. Geddings, another 
of the medical service. Dr. Geddings, by an implication, 
not by a direct charge, in a statement from Dr. Porter quoted by the 
Senator from Florida [Mr. Mallory],is charged with some sort 
of negligence or ignorance, I do not know which. Dr. Geddings 
was down there. He and Dr. Carter rendered invaluable service 
to that community, not only in the city of New Orleans, but to 
the whole agricultural interest. 
While upon this branch I will mention another service that they 
performed. The yellow fever was flagrant in New Orleans in 
October. October is the period of the year when the sugar crop 
is about to be harvested. In the harvesting of the sugar crop 
about 75 per cent more hands are employed on the plantations 
than in cultivating the crop. Among those hands are a great 
many skilled artisans—sugar boilers, engineers, and handlers of 
machinery in various ways, for there is a great deal of machinery 
about a sugarhouse. Local quarantines were everywhere. It 22 
looked like a country in a condition of war. You were met at 
every 5 or 10 miles by a guard, armed to the teeth, challenging 
questioning, examining into your every movement. 
It was utterly impossible to get hands from abroad, from Mis- 
sissippi and Alabama and other States from which the plantations 
in Louisiana draw their supply of hands. Dr. Carter established 
a detention camp about 15 miles out from the city of New Orleans. 
He and the State health authorities entered into an agreement to 
the effect that all workmen destined for sugar plantations, after 
remaining in this camp of detention for a certain jjeriod, should 
be released, after being subjected to the regimen required at this 
camp in order to free them from disease. A great many. I think, 
came right out of New Orleans, as most of the mechanics did, 
and after a certain period were allowed to go to the plantations 
and go to work. 
A large portion of the sugar crop of Louisiana was to be taken 
off by these hands. They were given their certificates after the 
period of detention. They went to the plantations; they took off 
the crops, and not one single case of yellow fever was commu- 
nicated to anybody from the camp of detention. 
Mr. President, without an authority that can act with the ce- 
lerity and the power and the certainty of the United States in 
case of such an epidemic as they had last year, that swept over 
the land like a besom of destruction, how is it possible for people 
either to be saved or to transact the ordinary and necessary con- 
cerns of life? It is human life, first, that is to be saved. It is the 
necessities of human life, second, that must be administered to. 
Mr. BACON. Now. if the Senator will permit one final inter- 
ruption, I will not trouble him any more. He has been very kind. 
I want to ask the Senator right in that line if he would be willing 
to agree to this amendment to the pending bill, letting all the pro- 
visions in it stand and then follow it with this: 
N othing in this act shall be construed to interfere with the right of any 
State or municipality to protect its citizens from infectious, contagious, or 
epidemic diseases by such rules or regulations as the authorities of the said 
State or municipality may deem necessary. 
Giving all the power to the Federal Government that the Sen- 
ator proposes, would he be willing to add that to the bill? It 
would simply save to the States and municipalities the right to 
supplement the efforts of the Federal Government and endeavor 
to protect themselves by their own measures. Would the Senator 
be willing for that? 
Mr. CAFFERY. There was a similar amendment to the one 
suggested by the Senator from Georgia proposed by a member of 
the other House from Mississippi, a distinguished man. an able 
man, General Catchings. While not prepared to accept it, I can 
not now, from simply hearing it read, point out any defect in its 
scope. 1 have no idea of circumscribing the State power in any 
particular. I do not want to do it. If the State power were, in 
my opinion, competent to cope with the question of quarantine in 
its relation to interstate commerce and travel, I would not have a 
word to say. But I beg the Senator from Georgia to remember 
that here is a power given for another purpose, which in its be- 
neficent operation can not only aid but can supplant the State 
health authorities, because of its greater efficiency, its greater 
service, its greater regularity, its greater power. 
As an illustration of the question propounded by the Senator 
from Georgia, if the yellow fever were in the city of Atlanta, and 23 
if the city of Macon were to quarantine against the city of At- 
lanta, no authority would exist in the United States to break 
down that quarantine of the city of Macon against the city of 
Atlanta. That is your business; we can not interfere with it. 
But you have put a question that goes to the roots of this contro- 
versy and tests the doctrine to its extreme limit. 
In my view no such case as you put will ever occur; but if it 
does occur, you come to a clash of paramount authority with an 
inferior one. The illustration of the quarantine of the city of 
Macon against the city of Atlanta shows the supremacy of inter- 
nal police power of a State. The case of shipment of goods from 
New Orleans to Montgomery shows the supremacy of the power 
of Congress to regulate commerce. In the harmonious action that 
ought to obtain between Federal authorities and State authorities, 
and has always heretofore obtained, I do not believe that any of 
these extreme instances would ever occur. 
The prevailing idea in my mind in advocating this bill and in 
urging it is to stretch out over the couutry the protective arm of 
an authority which can reach to every nook and corner of the 
Republic. If that arm can be stretched out in the execution of 
an authority and power different from that of the State police 
power, and it saves life and promotes the commercial interests of 
the country at the same time, why raise nice questions and put 
extreme cases of the exercise of the power, so as to throw dis- 
credit on a system imperatively needed? 
Besides, Mr. President, the brief recapitulation of the statutes 
in the matter of Federal quarantine that I have given (and I have 
not referred to the statute of 1890, which is the last one prior to 
the act of 1893) shows the steady growth of the idea of Federal 
quarantine. At first it was naturally left to the State authorities 
exclusively, and why? The answer is perfectly plain. The sea- 
board in 1799 contained all of the population of the United States. 
The main population was settled there upon the seacoast line. 
The interior was but thinly settled, if at all. 
No large cities like Memphis and Vicksburg, St. Louis, Cincin- 
nati, and New Orleans, and other cities in the Mississippi Valley 
existed then. Then there was no use for a Federal quarantine. 
But now, with the rapidity of travel, with the enormous extent 
and volume of intercourse between the States, with cities and vil- 
lages located every where in the interior, larger in population, with 
infinitely larger trade and travel, than existed on the Atlantic sea- 
board in 1799, it is clear that a system of quarantine competent to 
protect both the seaboard and the interior is imperatively needed. 
No move was made to adopt a control over epidemic diseases by 
the United States until the fearful epidemic of yellow fever of 
1878 spread its ravages all over the South and as far up the Mis- 
sissippi Valley as Memphis. 
From that period to date every law that was passed upon the 
subject gives more and more power to the Federal Government, 
growing with the increase of commerce and of travel, growing 
with the ease and rapidity with which disease could be trans- 
ported from one part of the country to the other. 
Hence it is not only the right but the duty of the Federal Gov- 
ernment to come in and bear the expense of maintaining the quar- 
antines, which can not be borne and ought not to be borne by the 
individual States. 
Look at my State. Look at the State of the Senator from Mis- 
sissippi [Mr. Walthall] before me. There they are upon the 24 
Gulf. Vessels from the four quarters of the world can come 
there. We have to provide an extensive machinery for self- 
preservation. That expense and that preservation redound to 
the benefit of the whole of the country, as well as the Atlantic 
Seaboard and the Mississippi Valley. 
Should we be called upon to bear this burden of expense? It 
has to be borne by somebody. I would ask the Senators who are 
stickling for the exercise of State authority in a direction where 
State authority can not be efficiently exercised to pause and con- 
sider the enormous burden that devolves upon the seacoast ports 
in keeping out these diseases that are brought from foreign coun- 
tries. 
None of these diseases are indigenous. They are all exotic. 
They are imported into our country from the foreign countries. 
The place now toward which the eye of the civilized world is di- 
rected, the harbor of Havana, the scene of the tragedy of the blow- 
ing up of the Maine and perhaps of a tragedy that will convulse 
this continent and involve the whole civilized world in its conse- 
quences, is the prolific breeding place of the germs of yellow fever 
that destroy our people. Ships from there can enter our ports at 
any place, and the States must bear that burden of expense in 
keeping the disease from the balance of the country 
Mr. PASCO. May I interrupt the Senator for a moment? 
Mr. CAFFERY. Yes, sir. 
Mr. PASCO. Is the question of expense an influential motive 
with the Senator in advocating the present legislation? 
Mr. CAFFERY. It is not entirely, but I say it is a just consid- 
eration. It is not the sole motive with me. 
Mr. MONEY. May I ask the Senator from Louisiana a ques- 
tion? 
Mr. CAFFERY. Certainly. 
Mr. MONEY. The Senator gave a very interesting description 
a moment ago of the efficiency by which houses infected were iso- 
lated and the disease stamped out by means of a camp of deten- 
tion. and the army of workmen engaged in the sugar plantations 
were permitted to go to work without spreading the fever. 1 de- 
sire to ask the Senator whether that was done under Federal or 
State authority? 
Mr. CAFFERY. By the Federal authority. 
Mr. MONEY. It was done by the Federal authority? 
Mr. CAFFERY. I am not sure but that the State or city health 
officers cooperated with the surgeons of the Marine-Hospital 
Service. 
Mr. MONEY. Then by the cooperation of State and Federal 
authorities under the present law it was found amply sufficient 
to prevent the spread of the disease? 
Mr. CAFFERY. The Federal authorities assisted in that emer- 
gency. 
Mr. MONEY. They volunteered under some authority? 
Mr. CAFFERY. They volunteered under the authority of the 
Surgeon-General. 
Mr. MONEY. In other words, whatever may be the law exist- 
ing permitting the cooperation of State and Federal authorities, 
it nearly stamped out the disease in the State and prevented its 
spread. 
Mr. CAFFERY. The disease was never stamped out in New 
Orleans. It was stamped out in my little town of Franklin. I 
do not want to prejudice my city by any statement as to yellow 25 
fever, but I have been told that a case of very well-defined yellow 
fever was there last January. 
Mr. MONEY. I am told twenty-five people were killed by it 
this winter. I do not know whether that is true or not. 
Mr. CAFFERY. I do not believe that. I think the very open 
winter that we are having is quite favorable to the development 
of any latent germs of yellow fever that have escaped the frost, 
which was not severe enough to kill the germs entirely. 
Mr. WALTHALL. May 1 ask the Senator from Louisiana a 
question? 
Mr. CAFFERY. Certainly. 
Mr. WALTHALL. I did not exactly understand the Senator’s 
answer to the suggestion made by the Senator from Georgia [Mr. 
Bacon] in relation to his proposed amendment. Do I understand 
the Senator from Louisiana to say that he would vote for that 
amendment? 
Mr. CAFFERY. No. sir. 
Mr. WALTHALL. You will not vote for it? 
Mr. CAFFERY". I do not say that I will. I want time to de- 
liberate. I can not answer offhand. I said I was not opposed to 
the general scope of it as it struck me at first blush, but I will 
not commit myself to vote for it. I am in favor of any amend- 
ment— 
Mr. WALTHALL. I wanted to know whether the Senator 
would vote for it. 
Mr. CAFFERY. I am in favor of any amendment that would 
look toward conserving to the States their proper modicum of po- 
lice power, and 1 do not want to set it aside at all in any contin- 
gency unless it would interfere with the comprehensive, consti- 
tutional. and beneficial working of a Federal law of quarantine. 
Mr. President, after this rambling discussion, which has been 
largely provoked by the number of questions that have been asked 
of me, I want to go back in my review of the acts to the act of 
1890. The act of 1890 ought to be sufficient to convince all doubt- 
ing Senators as to the ideas that then prevailed in Congress upon 
the power of the Federal Government over quarantine. The act 
was passed on the 27th of March. 1890, and it enacted: 
That whenever it shall he made to appear to the satisfaction of the Presi- 
dent that cholera, yellow fever, smallpox, or plague exists in any State or 
Territory, or in the District of Columbia, ana that there is danger of the 
spread of such disease into other States, Territories, or the District of Colum- 
bia, he is hereby authorized to cause the Secretary of the Treasury to pro- 
mulgate such rules and regulations as in his judgment may be necessary to 
prevent the spread of such disease from one State or Territory into another, 
or from any State or Territory into the District of Columbia, or from the Dis- 
trict of Columbia into any State or Territory, and to employ such inspectors 
and other persons as may be necessary to execute such regulations to prevent 
the spread of such disease. 
Tiie said rules and regulations shall be prepared by the Supervising Sur- 
geon-General of the Marine-Hospital Service under the direction of the Sec- 
retary of the Treasury. And any person who shall willfully violate any rule 
or regulation so made and promulgated shall be deemed guilty of a misde- 
meanor, and upon conviction shall be punished by a fine of not more than 
$500, or imprisonment for not more than two years, or both, in the discretion 
of the court. 
Will my friend, the Senator from Georgia, raise any question as 
to the operation of this law under the section quoted? Whenever 
these diseases appear anywhere in any State or Territory the Presi- 
dent of the United States is authorized to prevent their spread by 
such rules and regulations made by the Secretary of the Treasury 
as are necessary. 26 
Mr. BACON. That much I would favor. 
Mr. CAFFERY. Under these rules and regulations he can stop 
every train; he can cordon any city in the State of Georgia; he 
can bottle your people up; he can tell them to go when he wants 
them to go and to stop when he does not want them to go; he can 
control every vehicle of transportation, he can control every move- 
ment of a train. His authority is supreme and plenary. Yet the 
Senator from Georgia objects because in the pending bill the appli- 
cation of the broad authority given in this act is again asserted. 
Mr. BACON. What act is that? 
Mr. CAFFERY. It is the act of 1890. 
Mr. TILLMAN. Will the Senator from Louisiana yield to me 
for a moment? 
Mr. CAFFERY. Certainly. 
Mr. TILLMAN. Do you contend that the act of 1890 super- 
sedes State authority and debars the State authorities from having 
quarantine regulations? 
Mr. CAFFERY. Absolutely, so far as regulating interstate 
commerce is concerned. 
Mr. TILLMAN. How or why? 
Mr. CAFFERY. I have been trying to say why for about an 
hour. 
Mr. TILLMAN. But what I mean is, where is there a single 
line in that act which supersedes State authority? 
Mr. CAFFERY. I read about forty lines, I thought. 
Mr. BACON. The whole act must be taken together, however, 
in examining that question. 
Mr. TILLMAN. I have read the whole act through. It simply 
gives concurrent jurisdiction. It certainly does not supersede 
State authority. 
Mr. CAFFERY. There is a principle of law. I believe, that when 
a power is given to a body which is said to be supreme, the grant 
of authority confers the whole authority, and therefore the su- 
preme body in the exercise of that authority can set aside any 
obstacles of an inferior authority. Hei'e is the plenary authority. 
It can introduce just such measui-es as it pleases. Suppose that 
it is necessary to cordon a town? Suppose it is necessary to stop 
a train? Can a State say that the town can not be cordoned or 
that the train can not be stopped? These rules are paramount. 
Mr. TILLMAN. What we are contending for is that if a State 
says it was necessary and the Federal authorities say it was not, 
the Federal authorities shall not supersede the State authorities 
to police against these diseases. 
Mr. CAFFERY. I never heard anybody contend that but the 
Senator from South Carolina. 
Mr. TILLMAN. That is what we are contending for. The 
whole of us are contending for the preservation of the State power 
of police regulation. 
Mr. CAFFERY. I think the State power of police has been 
settled by about twenty-five decisions, if not more. The State 
power of police is one thing; the Federal power of regulating 
commerce is another thing. 
As I have been diverted to that point, I might as well read some 
authority on it. The very first authority that was ever announced 
is conclusive, and the only confusion that has arisen has been from 
a departure from the plain, unambiguous, and comprehensive doc- 
trine laid down in Gibbons vs. Ogden. For the benefit of the 
Senator from South Carolina, I will read that authority. 27 
Mr. TILLMAN. From the amount of books you have got 
there 
Mr. CAFFERY. I am not going to read all these books to you; 
I am afraid you could not stand them. 
Mr. TILLMAN. No: I could not. 
Mr. CAFFERY. In Gibbons vs. Ogden, 9 Wheaton, page 203, 
the chief justice, in rendering the decision, says: 
That inspection laws may have a remote and considerable influence on 
commerce will not be denied, but that a power to regulate commerce is the 
source from which the right to pass them is derived can not be admitted. 
The object of inspection laws is to improve the quality of articles produced 
by the labor of a country; to fit them for exportation, or, it may be, for do- 
mestic use. They act upon the subject before it becomes an article of for- 
eign commerce or of commerce among the States and prepare it for that 
purpose. They form a portion of that immense mass of legislation which 
embraces everything within the territory of a State not surrendered to the 
General Government, or which can be most advantageously exercised by the 
States themselves. Inspection laws, quarantine laws, health laws of every 
description, as well as laws for regulating the internal commerce of a State, 
and those which respect turnpike roads, ferries, etc., are component parts of 
this mass. 
I do not think, Mr. President, that it is in the power of lan- 
guage to convey a clearer and more comprehensive meaning'of 
what the police powers of the State are than in the language 
quoted by me from the opinion in 9 Wheaton. The Chief Justice 
proceeds: 
No direct general power over these objects is granted to Congress, and 
consequently they remain subject to State legislation. If the legislative 
power of the Union can reach them, it must be for national purposes; it 
must he where the power is expressly given for a special purpose cr is clearly 
incidental to some power which is expressly given. It is obvious that the 
Government of the Union in the exercise of its express powers—that, for ex- 
ample, of regulating commerce with foreign nations and among the States— 
may use means that may also be employed by a State in the exercise of its 
acknowledged powers—that, for example, of regulating commerce within 
the State. 
If Congress license vessels to sail from one port to another in the same 
State, the act is supposed to be, necessarily, incidental to the power expressly 
granted to Congress and implies no claim of a direct power to regulate the 
purely internal commerce of a State or to act directly on its system of police. 
So if a State, in passing laws on subjects acknowledged to he within its con- 
trol and with a view to those subjects, shall adopt a measure of the same 
character with one which Congress may adopt, it does not derive its author- 
ity from the particular power which has been granted, but from some other 
which remains with the State and may be executed by the same means. All 
experience shows that the same measures, or measures scarcely distinguish- 
able from each other, may flow from distinct powers; but this does not prove 
that the powers themselves are identical. Although the means used in tiieir 
execution may sometimes approach each other so nearly as to be confounded, 
there are other situations in which they are sufficiently distinct to establish 
their individuality. 
In our complex system, presenting the rare and difficult scheme of one 
General Government, whose action extends over the whole, but which pos- 
sesses only certain enumerated powers, and of numerous State govern- 
ments, which retain and exercise all powers not delegated to the Union, con- 
tests respecting power must arise. Were it even otherwise, the measures 
taken by the respective governments to execute their acknowledged powers, 
would often be of the same description and might sometimes interfere. 
This, however, does not prove that the one is exercising, or has a right to 
exercise, the powers of the other. 
I will come now to the concluding portion of the judgment on 
this particular point. In speaking of the laws of 1799 and 1799, 
directing the officers of the United States to comply with the 
quarantine laws of the States and to assist in their execution, the 
Chief Justice says: 
It is undoubtedly true that they do proceed upon that idea— 
That is, upon the idea that the State laws in regard to police 28 
were entirely constitutional and within the power of the States to 
enact— 
It is undoubtedly true that they do proceed upon that idea: and the con- 
stitutionality of such laws has never, so far as we are informed, been denied. 
But they do not imply an acknowledgment that a State may rightfully reg- 
ulate commerce with foreign nations or among the States; for they do not 
imply that such laws are an exercise of that power, or enacted with a view 
to it. On the contrary, they are treated as quarantine and health laws, are 
so denominated in the acts of Congress, and are considered as flowing from 
the acknowledged power of the State to provide for the health of its citizens. 
But as it was apparent that some of the provisions made for this purpose, 
and in virtue of this power, might interfere with and be affected by the laws 
of the United States made for the regulation of commerce, Congress, in that 
spirit and conciliation which ought always to characterize the conduct of 
governments standing in the relation which that of the Union and those of 
the States bear to each other, has directed its officers to aid in the execution 
of these laws, and has, in some measure, adapted its own legislation to this 
object, by making provisions in aid of those of the States. But in making 
these provisions the opinion is unequivocally manifested that Congress may 
control the State laws, so far as it may be necessary to control them, for the 
regulation of commerce. 
Now, there has never been anything said that so clearly stated 
the difference between the power to regulate commerce, which is 
a Federal power, and the power of a State over its police affairs, 
which is a State power; and Chief Justice Marshall goes on to say 
that while these two powers coming from different sources may 
pursue their legitimate course and legitimate function and each 
operate in its sphere beneficially, yet—and I call the attention of 
the Senator from South Carolina to this language—whenever it is 
necessary in the opinion of Congress to control the State law, so 
far as it acts in opposition or is contradictory to or inconsistent 
with the power of Congress to regulate commerce, then the Con- 
gressional power is paramount and the State law is subordinate. 
Mr. TILLMAN. Congress, however, never has done that yet 
in the hundred and twenty-odd years of our national existence. 
Mr. CAFFERY. Congress has in every way, shape, and form, 
wherever it was necessary for uniformity of action, controlled 
the State power of police not only in this instance, but in every 
other instance. From 1878 down, as I have stated, there has been 
a slow but steady and sure advance made in the matter of taking 
control of quarantine in the exercise of this undisputed and in- 
disputable authority to regulate commerce not only in that branch, 
but I refer the Senator from South Carolina to the plenary, exclu- 
sive, and complete jurisdiction that the Congress of the United 
States has over the immigration of persons into this country. 
From the very commencement of the Government there have 
been persistent and constant efforts made by the different States 
to exercise police power over the subject of immigration. In va- 
rious ways, under various pretexts, and always under color of the 
exercise of the police power of the States, they have attempted to 
legislate in regard to immigration. The very first case on that 
point was the matter of trying to impose a tax upon immigrants 
arriving in New York in order to keep up a fund for paupers and 
immigrants who had to be supported. 
The decision in the case of New York vs. Miln was that the 
police power exhausted itself in the matter of requiring from the 
master of a vessel a statement of the age, residence, and occupa- 
tion of the immigrant; and from that period down to the time 
when Congress assumed complete jurisdiction over immigration 
the States through different enactments have attempted, under 
color of the police power, under color of the power of keeping out 
convicts, diseased people, and paupers, under color of that power 29 
which is as clearly a police power as any power exercised by them 
as a health law, they have attempted to regulate that large branch 
of commerce, and they have always failed. 
Whenever there has been a decision on the point, it has been 
that the Congressional power was supreme and the State author- 
ity could not be exercised. So this decision of Chief Justice Mar- 
shall is a guide to-day for legislation on this very important 
matter of the public health. The powers come from different 
sources. 
In language as broad and clear as the English language can 
afford the Chief Justice admits and concedes the police powers of 
the State. I admit and concede them. 
I would be the last man to invade the sacred precincts of State 
sovereignty, but gentlemen must remember that the Constitution 
is supreme; tnat in the enactment of laws under the Constitu- 
tion the question is as to the ascendency of the Congressional law 
over the State law when the latter conflicts with the former, al- 
though the State law, as the Chief Justice says in this decision, 
may be enacted in pursuance of a clear constitutional and undis- 
puted right on its part. 
It has been heretofore a question of policy. I have tried to tell 
the Senate and the Senator from South Carolina why it is neces- 
sary now for the Federal power to come in and take charge of the 
matter of public health. 
Mr. TILLMAN. Will the Senator allow me? 
Mr. CAFFERY. I will. 
Mr. TILLMAN. Without disputing the dictum of the Chief 
Justice which the Senator has read or the decision as to the para- 
mount law, and acknowledging that the centralizing tendencies 
of this Government have rapidly absorbed not only the reserved 
rights of the States, but all rights almost, the question of policy 
is the one we are discussing rather than the question of legality; 
and those of us who are in the South and represent States more 
particularly subject to the inroads of yellow fever, including the 
Senator’s own State, disagree with him, I believe, almost to a man, 
as to the desirability of obliterating State police regulation. 
You want to supersede and destroy, so to speak, the State boards 
of health and their control over quarantine of any description and 
kind, and put it absolutely in the power of some bureau in Wash- 
ington to govern the whole thing and regulate the whole thing 
and annul all the regulations and do away with the State control: 
and to that extent we disagree with you. 
Mr. CAFFERY. The Senator from South Carolina asked me a 
question which indicated his idea that the State police power was 
exclusive and paramount. I attempted to answer that question 
by a citation from Gibbons vs. Ogden. 
Mr. TILLMAN. The only trouble about it is that the courts 
have always the right to decide what is the police power, and 
while acknowledging that the police power is paramount in the 
States, they will say, This is not the police power, and that is 
not the police power, and therefore you must get out of the way 
and give way to commerce.” 
Mr. CAFFERY. 1 should like to know who else is going to de- 
cide it but the courts. 
Mr. TILLMAN. Nobody but the courts; but they always de- 
cide in favor of the Federal contention. 
Mr. CAFFERY. Now the Senator is upon the line of desira- 
bility. Upon that point, of course, people can differ in opinion. 30 
I think the State of Louisiana, on account of her position and 
climate, her large commercial city so easily invaded by yellow 
fever, her terrible experiences with yellow fever, is as much en- 
titled to an opinion of the desirability of this law as any other 
State upon the Gulf or on the Atlantic coast. I thought the Senator 
was leveling his first inquiry at a question of constitutionality, 
and I can not discover whether or not the opponents of the bill 
are really of mind that the police powers of a State are subordi- 
nate to the power of the Government in their exercise in any di- 
rection or not. The paramount police powers of a State are con- 
stantly paraded here and the undesirability of setting them aside 
is now held before us. 
Ju’. TILLMAN. Please give me the decision you read from 
just a moment ago. There is some language there to which I 
wish to call your attention. 
Mr. CAFFERY. It is page 206. 
JVir. President, we are told, I will not say with a sneer, but cer- 
tainly in language implying some contempt, that a little bureau 
at Washington wants to dictate to some great bureau somewhere 
in some State. I know something about little bureaus. 
I know something about the barbarities and inefficiency of State 
quarantines. I have heard of brutal and savage acts performed. 
I have heard of all sorts of inconsistencies, all sorts of caprices, 
and the idea of a little bureau having authority to keep out and 
suppress infectious or contagious diseases is not appalling to me. I 
am not enamored of shotgun quarantines. With that exercise 
of State police power which brings one portion of the population 
out in martial array to keep another portion of the population 
housed up, without anything but powder and lead to kill disease, 
I am not in sympathy. 
In my State every municipality has the power of quarantine. 
Every town has a different set of regulations. The towns quar- 
antine against the country and the country against the towns, and 
one town against another, and it is a succession of quarantines. 
1 suppose it is alike in other States in the South. The system is 
perfectly inefficient. It is arbitrary, tyrannical, cruel, and use- 
less. 
Mr. PASCO. If the Senator will allow me, I hope he will not 
pronounce it inefficient in the State of Florida after acknowledg- 
ing, as he has done, that there was a successful effort under our 
State laws to keep yellow fever out of the State during the past 
summer. 
Mr. CAFFER Y. 1 am particularizing no district. Taking the 
system of State quarantines altogether, from my own standpoint 
and my own observation. I pronounce them utterly inefficient, ut- 
terly unable to cope with disease, utterly powerless in the face of 
this great enemy, yellow fever or cholera, and the prolific source of 
panic and fright. They paralyze industry and keep the people 
walled up in a cordon of shotguns, while death revels in the 
midst of the palisade of arms. Sir, it is science we want; it is 
skill we want: it is an authority and power able to cope with the 
enemy; and if we can get it under the Constitution, if the benefi- 
cence of the Constitution can extend to a suffering people a pro- 
tecting arm in the hour of their misfortune, when funeral cortege 
after funeral cortege wends to the cemeteries with the victims of 
disease, then, sir, I say give us this arm, give us this protection. 
I do not ask for this bill to infringe any right conserved to the 
States, and Senators, when pressed, after propounding the most 
astute and ingenious conundrums in regard to the extent of the 31 
application of the Federal power, confess that it is a matter of ex- 
pediency after all: it is a matter of proficiency of this branch of 
the service over another branch of the service; it is simply a ques- 
tion whether these separate and distinct and irregular executions 
of law in forty-five States are better than one uniform, reghlar, con- 
sistent plan of action proposed by the Federal authority and exe- 
cuted by the Federal authority. 
Mr. TILLMAN. Will the Senator allow me? 
Mr. GAFFERY. Certainly. 
Mr. TILLMAN. Disclaiming any intention to sneer at or ridi- 
cule or belittle or in any manner criticise the Federal Marine- 
Hospital Service, for I certainly have no such purpose. I desire to 
read out of this very decision which you have read something 
which presents our side of this question very clearly. 
Mr. GAFFERY. Which is your side? 
Mr. TILLMAN. If you will wait 
Mr. CAFFERY. I should like to know what side of the ques- 
tion you are on. 
Mr. TILLMAN. I am against you absolutely, if you want to 
know it 
Mr. CAFFERY. I want to know what you are against. 
Mr. TILLMAN. And your proposition. 
Mr. CAFFERY. What is the precise question as to which you 
are on the other side from me? That is what I want to know. 
Mr. TILLMAN. I contend that there is a State power of police 
which the Federal Government can not destroy. 
Mr. CAFFERY. All right; that is it. What particular j>ower 
of police is it which it can not destroy? 
Mr. TILLMAN. Just wait. Here is an extract from the same 
decision, in Gibbons vs. Ogden, from which you just quoted: 
In our complex system- presenting the rare and. difficult scheme of one 
General Government whose action extends over the whole, but which pos- 
sesses only certain enumerated powers, and of numerous State governments 
which retain and exercise .all powers not delegated to the Union—contests 
respecting power must arise. Were it even otherwise, the measures taken 
by the respective governments to execute their acknowledged powers would 
often be of the same description and might sometimes interfere. This, how- 
ever, does not prove that the one is exercising, or has a right to exercise, the 
powers of the other. 
Repeating what you have just read: 
Congress, in that spirit of harmony and conciliation which ought always to 
characterize the conduct of governments standing in the relation which that of 
the Union and those of the States bear to each other, has directed its officers 
to aid in the execution of these laws. 
Mr. CAFFERY. Where is the great point in that? 
Mr. TILLMAN. The point is that it is never expedient for the 
Federal authority to intervene and suppress and destroy the po- 
lice power of the State. 
Mr. CAFFERY. Is that a point of law? Do you state that as 
a proposition of law? 
Mr. TILLMAN. I state it as a point of law, because your 
judge states that there are different powers which can not be 
ignored. 
Mr. CAFFERY. I did not know before that the question of 
expediency was ever a question of law. I thought law was a rule 
of conduct, but I am always willing to learn. I do not know now 
what side of the question the Senator from South Carolina is on, 
whether he is on the side of the question of the police power being 
supreme over the Government of the United States or the Gov- 
ernment power over the State police power. I am at a loss to 
know. 32 
Mr. TILLMAN. Let me ask you, then, this question, and per- 
haps we will get at an understanding after a while. You contend 
that the Federal authority regulates commerce. That I do not 
deny. Now, let us suppose that a man with yellow fever, known 
to have it, starts out of one State and enters the boundaries of 
another, enters on a ticket, we will say, bought at Charlotte, N. C., 
for Columbia, in the center of my State. Can we stop him at the 
boundary of the State, or must he goto the destination, the point 
to which his ticket reads, which it is within the power of Con- 
gress to regulate? 
Mr. CAFFERY. Without any Federal quarantine law in the 
premises? 
Mr. TILLMAN. Just simply say with the Federal right to 
regulate commerce, which you say destroys the police power of 
the State. 
Mr. CAFFERY. With his ticket 
Mr. TILLMAN. The ticket is evidence that it is a case of in- 
terstate commerce or of the right which Congress has to regulate 
interstate commerce as protection against the quarantine powers 
of the State. I want to know where you would stop him? 
Mr. CAFFERY. You can stop him anywhere under that. 
Mr. TILLMAN. Why? 
Mr. CAFFERY. Because the United States has not made any 
quarantine law in the premises. 
Mr. TILLMAN. We want to stop you from making such a one 
here now, if you want to know where we are. 
Mr. CAFFERY. You are not going to stop me if the Senate 
does not. 
Mr. TILLMAN. Of course not*. The Senate is going to do as 
it pleases. The question with the Senate is what is expedient and 
proper and constitutional. 
Mr. CAFFERY. I am at a loss to know what the Senator from 
South Carolina stands on. He commences to state a proposition 
of law and then goes on and illustrates it by statements of fact 
Mr. TILLMAN. I ask you to define the difference between the 
national power of commerce to let this man go to Columbia and 
the State power of police to stop him at the boundary; or can it 
only do that at the termination of his journey, the place to which 
his interstate ticket permits him to go? 
Mr. CAFFERY. I will attempt to do that, if the Senator will 
just be quiet and not put any more illustrations. 
Mr. BURROWS. Does the Senator from Louisiana desire to 
conclude to-night? 
Mr. CAFFERY. I will answer the question, and then I will 
yield. The State police power is exercised from an independent 
authority. It is exercised from an authority inherent in the 
States t6 take care of and preserve the health, the life, the prop- 
erty, the comfort of its citizens. The Federal power to regulate 
commerce comes from another source. It comes from the direct 
language of the Constitution, as the Federal power is derived from 
grants of enumerated power. Now. so long as Congress does not 
act in a regulation of commerce which affects the police power, 
then the police power of the State is paramount. In the case you 
supposed the ticket would not give the man the privileges of going 
into a State when the police power of the State prevented him. 
That is all. That is the answer to the question. Now I am ready 
to yield. 33 
Wednesday, March S3,1898. 
Mr. CAFFERY. Mr. President, when I last addressed the Sen- 
ate it was in answer to a question propounded by the Senator 
from South Carolina [Mr. Tillman], substantially as to the ex- 
tent of the power of Congress to regulate commerce whenever 
that power came in conflict with the police power of the State. 
Mr. President. I concede that all the police powers of a State are 
reserved to the States. I concede that whatever a State proposes 
to enact in the way of legislation for the health, the life, the lib- 
erty. the convenience, the comfort of its citizens, it has a consti- 
tutional right to enact, and it is done in the exercise of inherent 
sovereignty; hut I hold, in the light of the supremacy of the Con- 
stitution of the United States and in view of ail the decisions that 
have been rendered on the point, that whenever a State in the ex- 
ercise of its undisputed police power usesmeansandmetliods which 
come in conflict with the means and methods used by the Congress 
of the United States in the execution of any of its powers, and 
notably the power to regulate commerce, the State law is neces- 
sarily subordinated or the State means to execute its laws are 
necessarily subordinated to the supreme and paramount authority 
of Congress. 
After that concession, after that broad statement of the respec- 
tive powers of the States and the Congress of the United States, I 
do not see how there can be a conflict of opinion in the applica- 
tion that the pending bill makes of the power possessed by Con- 
gress to regulate commerce. 
The position taken by the Senator from Florida [Mr. Mallory] 
and the Senator from Georgia [Mr. Bacon] in my opinion amounts 
to a practical negation, to a practical obliteration of the Federal 
power of quarantine. If their doctrine is carried out to its fullest 
extent, it amounts to a contradiction and to a conflict of authority 
which would result practically in destroying the Federal system 
of quarantine. 
The Senator from Florida and the Senator from Georgia say 
that they are perfectly willing for the United States to take hold 
of the subject of maritime quarantine: that they are perfectly 
willing for the United States consular officers and medical officers 
to derive information of the condition of any ship sailing from a 
foreign port and to fumigate that ship, to subject it to the disin- 
fecting processes now applied by the medical fraternity, and to 
detain it in quarantine, but they are not willing that, after that 
quarantine shall have been perfected, after the vessel shall have 
been disinfected, the bill of health or the certificate of the United 
States quarantine officers should have power enough and potency 
enough to allow the ship to enter the harbor, to land its passengers, 
and to discharge its cargo. 
They intimate that they are willing that the quarantine officers 
of the United States can go into a State, take hold of yellow fever 
or any other contagious disease in a State; that they can disinfect 
any infected place; that they can exercise all proper control and 
jurisdiction to effect that purpose; but when that purpose is 
effected, when the disease is crushed out, when the germ is de- 
stroyed, they hold that the power of the United States in the prem- 
ises ceases, and the States have a perfect right to say that the 
disinfected town is an infected town; that the quarantine has 
been useless; that all the applications of science, all the care, pru- 
dence, and vigilance of the Marine-Hospital Corps or any other 34 
corps of doctors is perfectly idle, and that the States can step in 
and say as against the certificate of the Federal quarantine offi- 
cers, “We discredit your disinfection, we discredit your work, 
and we put an embargo on everybody and everything that comes 
from this town that you say is disinfected; we shall not permit 
you to enter anywhere.” 
Now, Mr. President, in so far as their own States go, so far as 
their internal police is concerned, it is manifest that they have 
supreme jurisdiction. If they choose to exercise that jurisdiction 
in a useless manner, if they choose to bottle up a community dis- 
infected after the approved manner of disinfection, that is their 
lookout; they can do so; they can police every portion of their 
territory; they can say to one village, “ You can not go to another, 
whether that other has been disinfected or not; ” they can say to 
the inhabitants of a disinfected town, “You can not circulate in 
the borders of our State.” 
But where the subject-matter is interstate commerce, where the 
intercourse is between the States, in the teeth of the Federal 
quarantine, in the teeth of the Federal permit, what the Federal 
quarantine says is safe they can not say is unsafe, and the}7 can 
not pronounce infected what has been pronounced disinfected; 
and just to the extent of the particular intercourse or the trans- 
mission of the particular commodity in question, only so far as it 
is necessary to perfect the interstate intercourse or circulation of 
the interstatecommodity, can the Federal law reach. It can reach 
that far, and no further. 
If it can not reach that far, the Constitution of the United States 
is not supreme. If the States can block the way whenever they 
please of any commercial intercourse between the States or inter- 
course between the cities of different States, on account of a feared 
infection, over which the Congress of the United States has juris- 
diction and has applied methods through its agents to destroy, to 
remove, then I say the Constitution of the United States has been 
"written in vain. 
The policy that is contended for by my honorable friend from 
Florida and my honorable friend from Georgia is worse than the 
mediaeval policy. Your, policy is one of absolute isolation. You 
are willing for the United States to wall in everybody, eurround 
them with a cordon of guards, have a corps of doctors to disinfect, 
and yet you say you are not willing that a soul shall go out unless 
at the instance and under the authority of the States. Whatever 
may be the purpose of the exit, whether for interstate commerce 
or not, the States have a right to bottle up and wall up. to immure, 
every living soul and every commercial commodity in the United 
States. 
Mr. President, does this comport with the idea of quarantine? 
Have they not, in their eagerness to maintain what they consider 
to be the supremacy of the State police power, transcended the 
very objects of quarantine, gone beyond the very point that the 
quarantine aims at, and rendered the whole system absolutely 
futile and useless? 
The cross-question that I propounded to the Senator from Geor- 
gia illustrates very well the position they assume. They are per- 
fectly willing that the States should say when a city or municipal- 
ity is free from infection. They are not willing for the United 
States to say it for United States purposes. That amounts to an 
embargo; that amounts to an absolute isolation; that amounts to 
an absolute paralysis. It is undeniable that the power which is 35 
potent to isolate is potent to remove the isolation for the purposes 
for which the isolation was effected. 
Now, under the jurisdiction of the State in regard to this matter 
of quarantine, what would result? Every municipality is supreme. 
Every municipality in the State, so far as I know, has a perfect 
right to say, “We quarantine ourselves.” If this doctrine, 
therefore, that you preach is correct, then you have a com- 
munity isolated, segregated, cut off in every particular; and 
there is no power anywhere, whether for Federal purposes or 
not. able to break through the circle and permit intercourse, 
however slight. ' 
The State authorities may exercise such a power over internal 
intercourse and commerce, but when Congress intervenes in be- 
half of the Union and of commerce the mediaeval structure crum- 
bles, and a qualified intercourse, safe and limited, can be had 
under the sanction of the Constitution. Why, then, make the 
quarantines almost or quite as bad as the diseases against which 
they are laid? You destroy the very purpose and object of the 
quarantine; and notwithstanding the disclaimer of any constitu- 
tional right as against the exertion of the Federal authority in 
the matter of quarantine, the inference, in my mind, is perfectly 
clear that the struggle against the predominance of Federal quar- 
antine is a lingering affection for the maintenance of State au- 
thority as superior to and paramount to the authority of Con- 
gress. 
The idea seems to be advanced that there is more security in 
the administration of a law of this character by persons under 
State control than by officers under United States control; that a 
divided control is preferable to sole control; and that in the midst 
of the invasion or ravages of disease, an army of doctors under 
different jurisdiction and with different methods is superior to a 
compact, united, and disciplined corps. 
Mr. President, it does seem like a work of surplusage to quote 
authority on the plain point I was arguing when interrupted by 
the Senator fromSouth Carolina [Mr. Tillman] yesterday evening, 
but lest there be any doubt upon this question, I will read from 
authors of approved reputation and standing. I will read first 
from Black on Constitutional Law, page 195, section 104: 
It is within the lawful power of each State to enact laws to guard against 
the introduction of contagious or infectious diseases from foreign countries. 
To this end it may establish quarantine stations and provide for the inspec- 
tion of vessels coming from abroad to ascertain their sanitary condition, and 
require such vessels to pay a fee to cover the cost of such inspection. Stat- 
utes of this character are not regarded as regulations of commerce, but as 
police laws. At the same time they may and do in a sense affect foreign 
commerce, and for that reason the subject of quarantine is equally under the 
control of Congress, and State laws must yield in all points where they are 
inconsistent with such general regulations as Congress may see fit to impose. 
Mr. MALLORY. I did not catch the name of the author from 
whom the Senator is reading. 
Mr. CAFFERY. I am reading from Black on Constitutional 
Law. 
Mr. President, there is the doctrine laid down very clearly. 
That is the doctrine of Marshall; that is the doctrine of Story; 
that is the doctrine of Cooley; that is the doctrine of Miller: that 
is the doctrine of Taney; that is the doctrine of Catron; that is 
the universally accepted doctrine of all authors and jurists of 
eminence in the United States. 
As a matter of course, there are general assertions made as to 
the existence and supremacy of State police powers, such as I 36 
made in opening my remarks this afternoon. I concede the police 
powers of the States, hut there has never been a question before 
the Supreme Court of the United States where the power of Con- 
gress to regulate commerce was ever subordinated to the police 
powers of the States, and there never will be, for, in the nature of 
things, it is impossible; but every single case has demonstrated the 
supremacy of the Constitution over the power of the States to reg- 
ulate their own police affairs whenever the exercise of the consti- 
tutional power conflicted with the means used by the States in 
the execution of their police powers. That is not to say the police 
powers of the States are not reserved to them, but it is only to say 
that the supreme instrument, the supreme Government, must, in 
the execution of its laws, be transcendent or paramount to the 
exercise of the police power in the State. 
I will read from the case of Morgan vs. Louisiana, 118 U. S. 
Reports, page 464: 
But it may be conceded that whenever Congress shall undertake to pro- 
vide for the commercial cities of the United States a general system of quar- 
antine, or shall confide the execution of the details of such a system to a na- 
tional board of health or to local boards, as may be found expedient, all 
State laws on the subject will be abrogated, at least so far as the two are in- 
consistent. But. until this is done, the laws of the State on the subject are 
valid. This follows from two reasons: 
1. The act of 1799, the main features of which are embodied in Title LVIII 
of the Revised Statutes, clearly recognizes the quarantine laws of the States 
and requires of the officers of the Treasury a conformity to their provisions 
in dealing with vessels affected by the quarantine system. And this very 
clearly has relation to laws created after the passage of that statute, as well 
as to those then in existence; and when by the act of April 29,1878 (20 State, 37), 
certain powers in this direction were conferred on the Surgeon-General of 
the Marine-Hospital Service, and consuls and revenue officers were required 
to contribute services in preventing the importation of disease, it was pro- 
vided that " there shall be no interference in any manner with any quaran- 
tine laws or regulations as they now exist or may hereafter be adopted under 
State laws,” showing very clearly the intention of Congress to adopt these 
laws, or to recognize the power of the States to pass them. 
2. But, aside from this, quarantine laws belong to that class of State legis- 
lation which, whether passed with intent to regulate commerce or not. must 
be admitted to have that effect, and which are valid until displaced or con- 
travened by some legislation of Congress. 
That is the correct doctrine. The police powers of the States 
must be recognized. They were never surrendered in the consti- 
tutional compact: they inhere to the sovereignty of the States 
only with this exception, that they may come in conflict in their 
exercise with the exercise of other powers on behalf of the Gov- 
ernment of the United States; and when that event comes, they 
must stand to one side. I will read, on page 459, from the opinion 
of this very eminent jurist, Mr. Justice Miller, who, I am told, 
was himself a physician at one period, the sentence in this opinion 
quoted in reference to a city in my own State: 
If there is a city in the United States which has need of quarantine laws, 
it is New Orleans. Although situated over a hundred miles from the Gulf of 
Mexico, it is the largest city which partakes of its commerce, and more ves- 
sels of every character come to and depart from it than any city connected 
with that commerce. Partaking, as it does, of the liability to diseases of 
warm climates, and in the same danger as all other seaports of cho'.era and 
other contagious and infectious disorders, these are sources of anxiety to its 
inhabitants, and to all the interior population of the country, who may be 
affected by their spread among them. 
So, therefore, we at the very entrance to the Gulf stand in the 
character of a sentinel over the health and the safety of the great 
valley of the Mississippi from invasions of yellow fever and cholera. 
Surely our people ought to know somewhat of the advisability of 
quarantine regulations being under the control and charge of the 
Government of the United States; surely our experience is such as 37 
to teach us the lesson whether or not the health sentinel that we 
have established at the mouth of the river is sufficient to stand 
guard over the whole valley and over our own city likewise. 
I have no word of criticism or reproach to say to the Senators 
who advocate the integrity and the maintenance of their State 
police regulations. It is an honest difference of opinion between 
us. If these State laws were, in my opinion, capable of keeping 
out these fell destroyers—if they could only sentinel and guard the 
outposts which are attacked with these insidious enemies to life— 
I would be the last one to call in requisition the power of the 
United States; but. sir, not only has experience demonstrated that 
these diseases, notwithstanding the State quarantines, get in. but 
when they are in the country is thrown into panic and its inhab- 
itants into the grave. Every State has different regulations, every 
municipality in every State has different regulations, and there 
are miles of quai’antines hastily, crudely gotten up, armed with 
little save the weapons suggested by panic, the Winchester rifle 
and the shotgun. 
Disease requires not exclusively a cordon of living sentinels, 
but the application of scientific methods of treatment. You may 
surround any locality anywhere in the South, North, or East 
with a living guard of human beings, armed to the teeth with 
Winchester rifles, and you have no security against the intrusion 
of this dreadful enemy—none on earth. You may have the States 
like armed camps, with sentinels at every depot, marching by 
with shotguns on their shoulders, and the disease doing its fell 
work unobstructed and unhindered. 
It occurs to me that we ought to look into the nature, character, 
and situation of our country, in order to know how to guard it 
against the introduction and spread of disease. In the beginning 
of our Government, as I said yesterday, quarantine regulations 
could be safely left to the different States, and I do not say that 
there are not efficient quarantine regulations in some States now; 
but I say, with over 10,000 miles of seacoast to guard, with the 
interior to guard at every railroad depot, that the regulations 
which were good from 1799 down to 1878 are to-day valueless and 
ineffective, as the constant recurrence of yellow fever along all 
the seaboards in our country and in the interior demonstrates. 
It was not till 1878 that the interior of the country woke up, and 
1 will ask to have read an extract from a speech of the lamented 
Senator Harris, of Tennessee, delivered in the Senate of the United 
States in 1893, when he was arguing in favor of the bill he had 
introduced in that year. 
The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Carter in the chair.) The 
Secretary will read as requested. 
The Secretary read as follows: 
Mr. Harris. Mr. President, there is scarcely a sanitary organization in 
the United States that has not, year by year, and for several years, urged the 
absolute necessity of an efficient and uniform quarantine system throughout 
the United States. The only exception that I know of to the absolute uni- 
formity and unanimity of that recommendation comes from a few local boards 
of health jealous of their positions, jealous of their authority, and perhaps 
somewhat devoted to the income that results from the execution of their reg- 
ulations. Some of them have always opposed any attempt by the Federal 
Government to interfere at all. 
Now, what is the plain and unmistakable question for the Senate to decide? 
The Senator from Louisiana [Mr. White] will not differ with me in the as- 
sertion of the power in Congress to regulate commerce with foreign nations 
and among the several States. Every power granted in this bill is the exer- 
cise of that constitutional power to regulate commerce with foreign nations 
and among the several States. I defy any Senator to point out a single 38 
power granted by the bill that does not legitimately fall within that clause 
of the Constitution. 
The plain, practical question for the Senate to decide is, Shall we have one 
uniform and efficient system of quarantine regulation throughout the whole 
country, or shall we have forty-four different systems of commercial regula- 
tions? For, if the Federal Government does not exercise the power to regu- 
late commerce in respect to this question of quarantine, the courts have de- 
cided, and I think properly decided, that the States may exercise it. The 
whole theory of the argument of the Senator from Louisiana is that the Fed- 
eral Government should ignore its power to control these questions and al- 
low the forty-four States each to form its own system of commercial regu- 
lations. 
I have a somewhat sad experience, which accounts in some degree for any 
enthusiasm I may have in support of this measure. I chance to live at the 
head of deep-water navigation of the great Mississippi River. New Orleans 
rests at the mouth of that great channel of commerce. It is the New Orleans 
board of health that speaks here to-day through the Senator from that great 
State, protesting against any exercise of the powers of Congress to regulate 
commerce in respect to this matter of quarantine. Efficient, and great, and 
able, and patriotic as the board of health of New Orleans may have always 
been and may be, I chance to know that the city in which I' live has been 
under my own eye decimated as often as twice by yellow fever, which was 
allowed to slip through the quarantine regulations of New Orleans either 
because of the fact that their rules were not sufficient in themselves or not 
enforced with sufficient vigor. 
Memphis has suffered to the extent of the decimation of her population as 
often as twice, and I have sat there and looked out my window for week 
after week during the epidemic of 1873 when not a door was opened except 
the door of the drug store, th9 doctor’s office, and the undertaker’s shop. I 
have walked the street, sir, from my house to the post-office, day by day, to 
get my mail, and have found not a single door open in that city for weeks 
except those that I have named. There was not a family in the city which 
could venture to aid its neighbor because the patients in its own house were 
so numerous as to demand the attention and the nursing of every member 
of the family. There was not an object moving on the streets except the 
hearse, followed by perhaps one carriage or a buggy with the surviving mem- 
bers of the stricken family accompanying the remains of the last victim to 
the srave. For weeks at a time I have witnessed scenes like those in 1873, 
and it was worse in 1878. 
Are we to be compelled to rely now and always upon the wisdom and the 
zeal and the energy of a boar(J of health and quarantine authorities which 
allow things such as these to occur year after year? I protest in the name 
of the people who are my neighbors, I protest in the name of the whole peo- 
ple of the valley of the Mississippi, against a failure to exercise the power 
that we unquestionably have, and that they have a right to demand we shall 
exercise for the security of their lives and their health, even though it may 
be distasteful to the New Orleans quarantine authorities. 
The people of New Orleans are acclimated. There are very few if any 
adults who reside there who are not exempt from yellow fever, having once 
had it. Hence they have little or no fear of it, and naturally are not so vigi- 
lant in excluding it as the security of the people in the interior demands. 
New Orleans has a large and profitable trade with Havana and Vera Cruz, 
where yellow fever always exists. 
If the theory of the Senator from Louisiana prevails, the whole people of 
the interior States are compelled to rely upon the sufficiency of the regula- 
tions made by cities on the seaboard and the sufficiency of their execution 
by authorities over which they have no control. It is the duty of this Gov- 
ernment to exercise its constitutional powers to protect the whole people 
and not compel the people of interior States to rely entirely upon the States 
upon the seaboard for their protection, when we know that if a single gate 
is left open, through which contagion may enter, the whole country must 
suffer the disastrous consequences of an epidemic. 
This bill does not propose to interfere with State quarantines in any way 
except that where their rules and regulations are not sufficient to protect the 
people of the country the Federal authority shall step in, in the legitimate 
exercise of the power to regulate foreign and interstate commerce, and make 
rules and regulations which will strip that commerce of contagion and pro- 
tect that people; that is all. 
Now, Mr. President, I want to dispose of the pending bill. I think it im- 
portant to the whole country that it should be promptly passed, and there- 
fore will not consume more “time in debate; but I will put into the Rucoiid 
the action of the New York Board of Trade and Transportation, sent to me 
yesterday,in respect to this matter, which I will have put into the Recoup 
without reading at present. 
Mr. CAFFERY. Mr. President, when that speech was made, my 
then colleague, now Mr. Justice White, of the Supreme Court of 39 
the United States, opposed its passage—and he was its strongest 
opponent—first, on the ground that the quarantine system at the 
port of New Orleans was perfect, and on the further ground that 
the hill then pending was in violation of the power of the States 
over their own police regulations. 
The system of disinfection which is now in vogue was first es- 
tablished by Dr. Joseph Holt, in the city of New Orleans, and at 
the quarantine station. He was a great physician. He had de- 
voted himself to the study of germicide. He had discovered and 
applied means and methods whereby the malignant germ of yel- 
low fever could he destroyed by certain applications—steam, sul- 
phur. the bichloride of mercury, and other such compounds. 
At that period I myself thought that perhaps the matter of 
quarantine had better be left to the control of the States; but the 
last epidemic has convinced me of the utter impossibility—laying 
aside any question of conflicting jurisdiction between the United 
States and the States, one in the exercise of its power to regulate 
commerce and the other in the exercise of its police power—laying 
aside any question of that sort, I am convinced of the utter in- 
ability of the States, with the enormous increase of population, the 
enormous increase in the volume and the circulation of commodi- 
ties, of intercourse of individuals, since 1893, for each State on the 
seacoast to stand sentinel and guard for the interior to prevent 
the introduction of diseases from foreign countries. 
Down in the South Atlantic and Gulf States the climatic con- 
ditions are favorable to the rapid spread of yellow fever. It is 
not indigenous; but when once in, when transplanted, when the 
malignant germ is conveyed from its habitat somewhere in the 
tropics to places along the South Atlantic and Gulf seaboard, it 
multiplies with frightful rapidity and becomes a fearful agent 
of death. 
With the growing commerce, with the growing travel, with the 
constant passing in and out of vessels and ships and railway trains 
and every vehicle of transportation, however efficient one State 
quarantine may be. if there is a gap in the line—if, for instance, 
the quarantine is inefficient at Mobile and efficient at New Orleans, 
the dread invader comes in and the whole country is threatened 
with its destructive power. That is the condition of affairs. 
The State board of health of New Orleans sent its representa- 
tives here in 1893, and they fought against the bill of 1893, and, 
without casting any reflections upon anybody, I think the opposi- 
tion to this bill is somewhat due, and largely due, to the efforts of 
the State boards of health, in order that their State organizations 
should not be touched. 
But, sir, it is not a question between State organizations and. 
Federal organizations; it is a question of the safety of the lives of 
the inhabitants of this great country, and it is a question of the se- 
curity of commercial intercourse in this country under such a sys- 
tem of quarantine as would both keep out disease and allow per- 
sons and commodities to circulate from one State to another with 
safety. That is the question which presses upon my mind. The 
constitutional doubt has no lodgment at all; it never did have 
with me. 
It is a matter too clear that the Constitution of the United 
States is paramount to any exercise of police power on the part of 
the States, and it is a matter to my observation equally as clear 
that it is beyond the power and capacity of the States, under the 
present conditions of commerce, to guard themselves and other 40 
States dependent upon them from the encroachments of these ter- 
rible diseases. Read, sir. the pathetic utterances of the distin- 
guished Senator from Tennessee: what he saw. what spectacles of 
death and sorrow and destruction! That is all he witnessed in 
the terrible epidemic which devastated Memphis, and that scene 
is common in the South. It is common wherever the yellow fever 
invades. 
The whole Mississippi Valley is a prey to this disease. The 
whole interior of the country is a prey to it. In England they 
deride our quarantine system. They say it goes back to the 
ancient quarantine of the Mediterranean during the Crusades; 
that it is a legacy of ignorance and savagery. Not so. England 
is a small, compact territory. By the most excellent and perfect 
sanitary system in her cities, the fatal germ can not thrive and 
propagate its death-dealing species. Her climate operates in her 
behalf. 
There is no excessive heat as we have in America in the summer 
time. The country is small. A person suspect of disease can 
easily be placed under surveillance, and that is what they do. 
They let everybody in. resting for the security of the country 
upon the sanitary regulations of the municipalities and the sur- 
veillance of the suspect. 
The system of following him up for a certain period and then 
taking hold of him when stricken to prevent the spread of disease 
obtains, instead of our system of exclusion and sanitation at the 
seaboard. That system has been found to "work well: but we must 
have a system of sanitation at the seaboard, and when does the 
sanitation commence? Under the regulations now in existence 
it commences on the other side of the water. The sanitation of 
the ship commences at the port where she clears. It is con- 
tinued until she arrives at the port of entry. If then there is 
any suspicion that there is a lingering germ about the'ship, the 
ship is still further subjected to sanitary treatment at the port of 
entry. 
Mr. President, the opponents of this bill say, “We are not sat- 
isfied with that system. We not only want the system of the 
Crusades, which was forty days' detention, but we want a perpet- 
ual barrier, we want a perpetual embargo. We are not satisfied 
with your sanitation. ” And while they say they adopt the maritime 
system—they are bound to say it; they can not help but say it, 
because they can not go there with their police power of a State— 
they say that when the cargo and passengers shall have gone 
through the quarantine detention in order to let them land, and 
they attempt to land, “ Oh, no; vou are upon the sacred soil of the 
State. Notwithstanding your scientific precautions, notwithstand- 
ing your treatment, notwithstanding your sanitation, notwith- 
standing the care you have observed in regard to this vessel, you 
can not come a step unless you have the certificate of a State health 
officer; and then when you come into the interior you can not go 
there without another certificate;” and as you go on it is certificate 
after certificate, it is regulation after regulation, until you have 
destroyed commerce, destroyed intercourse. 
If that system is to work, why have any regulations at all? 
Why not keep everything out? Why have any intercourse with 
anybody? The doctrine results in absolute isolation—the abso- 
lute destruction of commerce and intercourse. Therefore it oc- 
curs to me it ought not to be adopted. 
The Marine-Hospital Service seems to evoke some opposition. 41 
Can we have the execution of a law in the hands of perfect ad- 
ministrators? 
Suppose somebody says that the present Surgeon-General of the 
Marine-Hospital Service is not fit for his place, does not know 
anything about the yellow fever. Does that destroy the system 
of the Marine-Hospital Bureau? Sir, sometimes the American 
people say a man is not fit for President of the United States, and 
yet he may happen to get there. Perhaps the President will die 
an l the Vice-President will come in, and the people would not 
have elected him. Are you going to have no President because 
an inefficient President may get in? These arguments against 
the possible inefficiency of a certain individual to preside over a 
bureau do not amount to anything, can not amount to anything, 
and ought not to amount to anything. 
So far as I know personally, I gave in my testimony that the 
present head of the Marine-Hospital Service is well equipped for 
the functions with which he is charged—the functions of an 
organizer, the functions of the head of a great bureau. His office 
is here. He as an organizer, as the head of the Bureau, has able 
lieutenants in the field. Some of them are now in foreign ports 
studying the germ of yellow fever. Dr. Geddings is one of these, 
and they are scattered all over the country everywhere, and all 
over the world. 
I do know that Dr. Guiteras and Dr. Carter, who visited my 
State in the last yellow-fever epidemic, are men who are an orna- 
ment to their profession and great benefactors to our people, in 
that they suppressed the epidemic, they crushed out the disease; 
at least it was so in my town. If not entirely through their ef- 
forts, it was largely due to them. 
Mr. President, I have some literature here, and I will have some 
of it read. I desire to have read from the quarantine convention 
of Jacksonville, in order that my friend the Senator from Florida 
[Mr. Pasco] who sits by me may see what that convention said in 
1878 about a national quarantine. I will have some of these ex- 
tra ts read, and I will offer them all to be put in as an appendix 
to my remarks. I ask the Secretary to read, commencing at page 
4. down to page 6, and then, reverting to page 1, to read the recom- 
mendations of the President in his message. 
The Secretary read as requested. (See Appendix A.) 
Mr. CAFFERY. I have some more literature which I will ask 
the Secretary to read. Let him read from pages 29,35, 36,37, and 
38. giving some Southern newspaper extracts. 
The Secretary read as requested. (See Appendix B.) 
Mr. CAFFERY. 1 ask the Secretary to read the extracts from 
the New York papers. 
The Secretary read as requested. (See Appendix B.) 
Mr. CAFFERY. I will introduce all of those extracts from 
newspapers as a part of my remarks, to be placed in an appendix. 
[See Appendix B.] Those extracts taken from newspapers pub- 
lished in States ail over the Union, from Alabama to Washing- 
ton, in my opinion clearly indicate the opinions of the thinking 
masses of the United Slates on this subject. The expressions 
from the papers pu blished in the South are as strong as the expres- 
sions contained in the papers published in the North. There is a 
wonderful unanimity of opinion expressed all over the different 
States through these different newspapers. They look at the sub- 
ject in a plain, common-sense way. They are not unmindful of 42 
the security of human life, while they are mindful of the neces- 
sities and exigencies of commerce, and they take a plain, sensible, 
businesslike view of the matter. 
The truth of the business is that the question has grown to be 
too big for the States to handle, and it is only a traditional love of 
State institutions, in my opinion, that is at the bottom of the op- 
position to a national quarantine. 
After the expressions of opinion from papers North, I am at a 
loss to understand the position taken the first day of this debate 
by the Senator from New Jersey [Mr. Sewell] . I am at a loss to 
understand how he could take a position that a bill of this kind 
interferes with the autonomy of States. I do not see that Senator 
in his seat, but I would like to ask him, if he were present, what 
part of the autonomy of the States the bill interferes with. 
What is the autonomy of States, and wherein does the bill inter- 
fere with autonomy? Does the autonomy of States consist in 
their retaining barbarous methods of quarantine? Because the 
people of New Jersey may think they have ample means and 
abundant equipment to keep out any infectious disease, does it 
follow that the States all around the Pacific coast, all up the At- 
lantic coast, and on the Gulf coast have such appliances and equip- 
ments and means? Is the whole United States to be left to the 
tender mercies of these invading enemies because one or two 
States happen to be able to protect themselves? Is that the doc- 
trine the Senator from New Jersey relies upon? The statement 
he made that the South wanted to throw the burden of the ex- 
penses of its quarantine regulations upon the North is not worthy 
an answer. 
Mr. President , there is the consensus of opinion of the press of the 
United States on this very vital subject of national quarantine. 
There are papers published in the very States of the Senators who 
are most vigorous in opposition to a bill advocating a national 
quarantine straight out in favor of doing away with State quar- 
antine. I do not say that those Senators do not represent their 
States, but I say there must be some ground for the opinion of the 
editors of those newspapers as to the advisability of a Federal 
quarantine. 
I will send up and make a part of my remarks the opinions of 
various medical journals on the subject of national quarantine. 
Where you can get the medical fraternity to speak its unbiased 
mind I believe that their expressions ought to be entitled to great 
weight. Where the medical fraternity is represented by State 
health officers I think their interest in maintaining their position 
discredits to some extent their statements as to the advisability 
of Federal quarantine. I ask the Secretary to read an extract 
from the New England Medical Monthly of the issue of March, 
1893. from the Philadelphia Medical Journal, and the Medical Rec- 
ord of New York, and the others I will ask to be inserted as a 
part of my remarks. 
The Secretary read as requested. (See Appendix C.) 
Mr. CAFFERY. I send to the desk another document, which 
is a statement by Dr. Wyman of the functions and management 
and equipment of the Marine-Hospital Service, the number of its 
employees, and the work that has been done in various epidemics. 
I ask that it be inserted in my remarks as an appendix. [See Ap- 
pendix D.J I ask the Secretary to read under the subhead “Med- 
ical corps,” on page 2. 
The Secretary read as requested. (See Appendix D.) 43 
Mr. CAFFERY. I have some papers here which I wish to in- 
troduce. and one letter particularly, addressed to me by the man- 
ager of the Southern Pacific Railroad Company, showing the 
interruptions of trade and the inconsistencies of the quarantines 
of Louisiana and Texas. I desire to have that letter read, and the 
remainder of them I shall put in the Record hereafter without 
reading. I See Appendix E. J • 
The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Mantle in the chair). The 
Secretary will read as requested. 
The Secretary read as requested. (See Appendix E.) 
Mr. HOAR. If the Senator from Louisiana will yield to me for 
a moment, I have a letter received this morning from Dr. H. P. 
Walcott, chairman of the Massachusetts State board of health. 
He is. I suppose, the highest authority in that State and one of the 
highest in the world on this part of the question, and as his letter 
strongly reenforces the views of the honorable Senator from 
Louisiana, perhaps he would like to have that letter also inserted 
at this poiftt in his speech or printed in the Record without 
reading. 
Mr. CAFFERY. I should like to have it read. 
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Secretary will read as re- 
quested. 
The Secretary read as follows: 
Commonwealth or Massachusetts, 
State Board of Health, 
Boston, March 20, 1898. 
My Dear Sir: I take the liberty of writing to you upon a subject which is, 
I observe, now under consideration in the Senate—the improvement of the 
public health service. 
Some years ago. when our former highly valued associate, Dr. R. T. Davis, 
was a member of the House, this board formally expressed its approval of 
the bill introduced by him for the establishment of a bureau of health. 
A measure substantially the same introduced by Senator Spooner does 
not seem to have received the approval of the appropriate committee, and 
the bill reported by Senator Vest gives all the sanitary authority to the 
Marine-Hospital Service. 
Our experience in Massachusetts with boards possessed of extended, 
varied, and sometimes contradictory functions has not been fortunate. In 
fact, the general court is now separating into its component parts all that 
has remained coherent of the old board of health, lunacy, and charity. 
This board wishes to convey to you the hope that it may be found possible 
to give the sanitary work of the country to some board, bureau, or depart- 
ment exclusively devoted to the consideration of sanitary questions and the 
study of the best means for preventing the ever present communicable dis- 
eases which are of so much more real importance than the two exotic diseases 
which now monopolize public attention. 
Yellow fever means nothing to-day for Boston, though twice in the early 
years of the century epidemics of the disease drove out all who could afford 
to go. A young man died of yellow fever brought from Jamaica in the Massa- 
chusetts general hospital last autumn, and no one here believed that the 
public health was in peril. 
England, not less exposed to disease invasions than we are. finds a com- 
plete protection in well-ordered internal sanitary administration. So long 
as we build all our hopes upon a vexatious system of quarantine we are not 
likely to be sufficiently careful of our own domestic sanitary arrangements, 
and it seems to us that a sanitary board at Washington, in much closer rela- 
tions than have hitherto existed with the various State boards of health, 
might happily unite the powers of the nation and the individual States more 
completely than has hitherto been the case. 
Very respectfully, yours, H. P. WALCOTT, 
Chairman of the Board. 
Hon. George F. Hoar, Senator. 44 
Mr. CAFFERY. Mr. President, when I was discussing the 
pending bill some time ago, the question was propounded to me 
by the Senator from Mississippi [Mr. Walthall] whether or not 
1 favored an amendment suggested by the Senator from Georgia 
[Mr. Bacon]. I replied to him that while I was not prepared to 
sajr that I would accept the amendment, I thought it was in line 
with the amendment suggested by a member of the other House, 
Mr. Catchings, which I had seen, and I then saw no particular 
objection to it. 
I had heard the amendment read, but my hearing is not too 
acute, and I mistook its terms and scope. After reading the amend- 
ment, I am satisfied that it eviscerates this bill and destroys to a 
large extent existing law in regard to quarantine so far as the 
Federal authority extends. I could not under any circumstances 
accept the amendment suggested by the Senator frbm Georgia 
with my views of the necessity of a uniform and comprehensive 
system of quarantine. 
I introduced a number of documents and papers relating to the 
subject, but I had not finished when I was last addressing the 
Senate, and now I send up and ask to have incorporated in my 
remarks a paper by Dr. H. R. Carter, surgeon of the Marine- 
Hospital Service, touching the value of the measures of quaran- 
tine resorted to by the United States quarantine officials in various 
epidemics. I also send up another paper by Dr. Carter, in answer 
to objections to the mandatory pratique of the Federal quaran- 
tine. I also send up a letter from Dr. White, in charge of the im- 
migration bureau at Ellis Island, to Dr. Wyman. Supervising 
Surgeon-General of the Marine-Hospital Service. I also send up 
correspondence touching the transfer of the Savannah quarantine 
station to the Marine-Hospital Service. I ask to have these docu- 
ments printed in the appendix to my remarks. 
The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Cannon in the chair). Is 
there objection? The Chair hears none. 
(The papers referred to will be found in Appendixes F, G, H, 
and I.) 
Mr. WALTHALL. Do these doctors all belong to the Marine- 
Hospital Service? 
Mr. CAFFERY. Yes, sir; those I have noted. I will conclude 
the remarks which I have to make on this subject by a short his- 
tory of the Marine-Hospital Service and its work. 
The Marine-Hospital Service was inaugurated in 1798. It was 
originally a charitable institution and founded upon the contribu- 
tions of seamen to a general fund collected by the customs officers 
of the United States in order to afford a hospital for sick and dis- 
abled seamen. That necessarily engendered medical attendance. 
It is manifest that sailors visiting every port and every clime are 
apt to contract the diseases of foreign countries, which, being trans- 
ported into our country, become epidemic, and therefore that the 
surgeons and medical officers of the Marine Hospital Service had 
and have abundant opportunity to acquaint themselves with dis- 
eases of foreign origin which are apt to become epidemic when 
conveyed into the United States. 
This Bureau from a small beginning has grown into the propor- 
tions of a department of public health. It is properly under the 
jurisdiction of the Secretary of the Treasury, for reasons which I 
Wednesday, March SO, 1898. 45 
have heretofore adduced. From 2 surgeons, as originally consti- 
tuted, there are 11(5 medical officers attached to that Bureau. 
From a very small number of seamen treated in the beginning 
there are now about 50,000 seamen treated annually in the marine 
hospitals of the United States. From a mere medical attention 
to disabled seamen the scope of the services of the medical officers 
of the service now embraces the charge of 11 quarantine stations, 
constituted by statute, the charge of the examination of all offi- 
cers of the Revenue-Cutter Service, of the Life-Saving Service, 
and the examination, I believe, of a portion of the naval service. 
The members of the medical corps of the Marine-Hospital Serv- 
ice undergo a most strict examination. They are graduates of 
medical colleges of the highest reputation. They come from the 
Medical College of Maine: Western Reserve Medical College; Jef- 
ferson Medical College, Philadelphia; Pennsylvania Medical Col- 
lege; Chicago Medical College; Rush Medical College; University 
of Georgetown, District of Columbia; University of Michigan; 
Columbian College, Washington, D. C.; Bellevue Hospital Medical 
College, New York; National Medical College, Washington, D. C.; 
University of Pennsylvania; University of Maryland; College of 
Physicians and Surgeons, New York; College of Physicians and 
Surgeons, Baltimore; College of Physicians and Surgeons, Boston; 
Dartmouth Medical College, New Hampshire; McGill College, 
Montreal, Canada; Harvard Medical School, Boston; Howard 
University, Washington, D. C.; Medical College, South Carolina; 
Virginia Medical College; University of Virginia; Miami Medical 
School, Cincinnati; Long Island Medical College, New York; St. 
Louis- Medical College. 
So it will be seen that the surgeons of the Marine-Hospital Serv- 
ice come from every medical college almost in the United States, 
and those medical colleges rank among the highest in the United 
States. Therefore it is to be presumed that the officers are well 
and abundantly equipped for the service. 
Mr. WALTHALL. May I ask the Senator from Louisiana a 
question? 
Mr. CAFFERY. Certainly. 
Mr. WALTHALL. Are those medical officers required to have 
any experience in the treatment of contagious diseases, such as yel- 
low fever? Is that a prerequisite? 
Mr. CAFFERY. I do not know that that is a prerequisite. 
Mr. WALTHALL. It is of great importance. 
Mr. CAFFERY. But I do know that the most experienced and 
well-equipped yellow-fever experts in the United States belong to 
the medical corps of the Marine-Hospital Service. They have to 
have a first-class medical education to commence with. They are 
then examined with great care by a corps of medical examiners, 
and after examination they are admitted as acting surgeons. 
Mr. WALTHALL. Did the Senator hear the statement of the 
Senator from Florida [Mr. Mallory] the other day, that when 
he went to visit the Ship Island quarantine station as a member 
of the committee he found that the medical officer in charge there 
had seen but one case of yellow fever in his life? 
Mr. CAFFERY. I have some remembrance of it. 
Mr. WALTHALL. It does not comport exactly with the Sen- 
ators statement. 
Mr. CAFFERY. I beg pardon of the Senator from Mississippi, 
I think it comports very well with my statement, because it is 
quite possible that in some locality where yellow fever is not 46 
prevalent there may be an officer who has never seen more than 
one case of yellow fever. 
Mr. WALTHALL. That is not such a locality. 
Mr. CAFFERY. It is not necessary for an officer to be sta- 
tioned there who is a yellow-fever expert when there is no yellow 
fever. I understand this medical corps is an elastic corps. 
Mr. WALTHALL. If the Senator will allow me, the officer 
referred to b3T the Senator from Florida was a quarantine officer. 
I should think he ought to know something about yellow fever. 
Mr. Certainly. I do not say that the service is 
absolutely perfect. My knowledge of the service is only gathered 
from the history of its work, particularly in yellow-fever epidem- 
ics, and the success of the efforts of the medical corps both in 
keeping out yellow fever and other epidemic diseases and in sup- 
pressing those diseases after they have gained entrance into a 
State. It may be that while the physician at the quarantine sta- 
tion at Ship Island had seen but one case of yellow fever he was 
a considerable expert in the matter of yellow fever. One case is 
enough. 
Mr. MALLORY. He had not seen a case before last summer. 
That is what I stated. 
Mr. WALTHALL. He had not seen any case before last sum- 
mer, and then only one. 
Mr. CAFFERY. That, perhaps, can be accounted for by the 
fact that he was the resident physician, and when the yellow 
fever was declared epidemic and became flagrant there were sent 
to this point experts in yellow fever by this same medical corps. 
Mr. WALTHALL. May I ask the Senator a question? 
Mr. CAFFERY. Certainly. 
Mr. WALTHALL. Can the Senator tell us whether the Super- 
vising Surgeon-General himself ever saw a single case of yellow 
fever? 
Mr. CAFFERY. I can not. 
Mr. GALLINGER. Will the Senator from Louisiana permit 
me? 
Mr. CAFFERY. Certainly. 
Mr. GALLINGER. I should like to ask the Senator from 
Louisiana whether he knows of any reason why, if health matters 
and quarantine matters pass from the control of the Marine- 
Hospital Service into the hands of a commission, they will have a 
larger corps of physicians who have had experience in yellow 
fever than the Marine-Hospital Service has? 
Mr. CAFFERY. None in the world. 
Mr. GALLINGER. None in the world. Is it not a fact, I will 
ask the Senator, that the experts in yellow fever and other infec- 
tious diseases, as well as the leading men of the profession, will 
not be employed either by the Marine-Hospital Service or a com- 
mission? They have other work to do that is more important and 
profitable to them. Is not that a fact? 
Mr. CAFFERY. So far as the State health officers are concerned 
that is true, but there are a number of yellow-fever experts attached 
to the Marine-Hospital Service. 
Mr. GALLINGER. Precisely; and I was about to suggest to 
the Senator what very likely he has stated. I have not been per- 
mitted to listen to this discussion. Is it not a fact that the Ma- 
rine-Hospital Service have men like Dr. Guiteras, trained in the 
treatment of yellow fever and other infectious diseases, who are 
sent to those points when yellow fever exists? 47 
Mr. CAFFERY. Precisely. 
Mr. GALLINGER. And under tlieir direction an epidemic is 
controlled? 
Mr. CAFFERY. Precisely. That is substantially what I stated 
in answer to the inquiry of the Senator from Mississippi in that 
regard—that this service is an elastic one. In my opinion, while 
it may be necessary at a port where yellow fever is likely to come 
in to have stationed there permanently a yellow-fever expert, yet 
if yellow fever is not prevalent and the physician at the quaran- 
tine station is perfectly competent to disinfect ships and kill the 
germs, there may not be an immediate necessity for an expert; 
but the very moment yellow fever is declared the Medical Corps 
of the Marine-Hospital Service has at command the best experts 
in the United States, and they are immediately sent to the scene 
of danger. 
They commence their disinfection process; they stamp out the 
disease: and it is perfectly easy for the resident physicians, by a 
species of disinfection which is now applied to all incoming ships 
from yellow-fever or other infectious districts, to stamp out this 
disease, and it is only when it appears that it is necessary to have 
the presence of experts. 
I was going on to state generally the equipment of this medical 
corps. I stated the practice of colleges represented in the medi- 
cal corps by graduates of those colleges now in that corps, and I 
will now state some of the work that this corps has done in yel- 
low fever. 
The Marine-Hospital Service took charge and control of the 
epidemic of yellow fever in Brunswick. Ga., in 1893. They took 
charge and control of the yellow-fever epidemic in Texas in 1882 
and in Florida in 1888. They have taken charge of the smallpox 
wherever it has appeared upon the border of the United States 
and Canada and in other places. They have succeeded in a most 
wonderful degree preventing the introduction of cholera into the 
United States. 
Mr. President, let me read a statement in regard to the success 
of the applications of the Marine-Hospital Service physicians as 
to preventing cholera from being introduced into the United 
States. I read from a statement I have already placed in the 
Record: 
After cholera had been declared epidemic in Naples, three vessels left for 
the United States—the Maailia, Weser, and Cashmere—and all were made to 
conform to the regulations. They all arrived at the port of New York with 
no cholera en route or at time of arrival. During the same period four ves- 
sels with the same class of passengers and their places of origin similar, in 
many cases identical, the water and food supply being the same as on the 
vessels for the United States, left for South America, and all were turned 
back by the South American authorities and returned to Naples. One, the 
Vincenzia Florid, had about 50 deaths: the Andrea Gloria, 90 on the way 
out—total not ascertained; another 84 deaths, and the fourth, 230 deaths 
from cholera. 
Here were seven vessels leaving Naples, three for the United 
States and four for South American ports. Under the disinfec- 
tion process adopted and applied by the medical corps of the Ma- 
rine-Hospital Service, those vessels which cleared for the United 
States were disinfected and the cholera germ destroyed. They 
arrived in the city of New York and not one single death occurred 
from cholera. The other four, due for places in South America, 
which were not subjected to the treatment the three were that en- 
tered the port of New York, coming from the same place, with 
the same kind of passengers, with the same supply of food and 48 
water, suffered to the extent of 238 deaths. There, sir, in that 
one single instance is conclusive proof of the necessity of a mari- 
time quarantine. 
I have argued, and 1 argue still, that the same power which 
has jurisdiction over maritime quarantine ought to have power 
over interstate quarantine, because of the necessity of quick and 
concerted action, because of the greater ability of the United 
States medical corps to treat these diseases, which from the 
nature of their occupation they are familiar with, and because of 
the abundance of means which the United States can supply and 
does supply. 
Mr. President, there are eleven United States quarantine sta- 
tions. They are at the Delaware Breakwater; Reedy Island, Del- 
aware River: Cape Charles, Virginia; Blackbeard Island, Sapelo 
Sound, Georgia: Brunswick, Ga.; Dry Tortugas, Florida; Ship 
Island, Gulf of Mexico; San Diego, Cal.; Angel Island, San Fran- 
cisco Bay, California; Port Townsend, Wash.; Cape Fear Quar- 
antine, Southport, N. C. 
Besides, under the law as it now exists this medical corps is 
represented at every consular port in foreign countries where con- 
tagious diseases that visit the United States originate—cholera, 
yellow fever, bubonic plague, and such diseases. It is their prov- 
ince and duty to make a complete study of these diseases, so that 
ships from those countries may be subjected to the proper scien- 
tific treatment and made so free of disease that they can enter the 
ports of the United States. 
Now, Mr. President, I have been for some days discussing this 
question, having been delayed by the memorial services which 
have taken place in this body in honor of the memory of the late 
Senator from South Carolina, Mr. Earle, and a late member of the 
House, Mr. Simpkins. This subject is one of great moment to 
the whole United States. I have no pride of opinion as to the best 
means of preventing yellow fever, or as to the best branch to exe- 
cute any law that Congress in its wisdom sees fit to adopt. My 
whole purpose, my whole desire, is to relieve the country from 
these dreadful visitations and to place the United States upon a 
basis where some kind of intercourse between its citizens may be 
had safe and secure during the prevalence of these fearful visita- 
tions. 
EXTRACT FROM THE PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE, DECEMBER 6, 1897. 
The recent prevalence of yellow fever in a number of cities and 
towns throughout the South has resulted in much disturbarce of 
commerce and demonstrated the necessity of such amendments to 
our quarantine laws as will make the regulations of the national 
quarantine authorities paramount. The Secretary of the Treas- 
ury, in the portion of his report relating to the operation of the 
Marine-Hospital Service, calls attention to the defects in the pres- 
ent quarantine laws and recommends amendments thereto which 
will give the Treasury Department the requisite authority to pre- 
vent the invasion of epidemic diseases from foreign countries, and 
in times of emergency, like that of the past summer, will add to 
the efficiency of the sanitary measures for the protection of the 
people and at the same time prevent unnecessary restriction of 
commerce. I concur in his recommendation. 
Appendix A. 49 
EXTRACT FROM ANNUAL REPORT OF THE SECRETARY OF THE 
TREASURY FOR THE YEAR 1897. 
NATIONAL QUARANTINE LAW. 
The Surgeon-General reports the necessity for a strictly national 
quarantine law, to which attention has been called in previous 
reports. In his report for 1896 there were shown the unequal 
benefits and at the same time the danger involved in the opera- 
tions of the present quarantine law, that of February 15, 1893, 
which permits State and local quarantines to be conducted under 
their own rules and regulations, provided, in the opinion of the 
Secretary, additional rules and regulations are not required. The 
Surgeon-General maintains that the national quarantine regula- 
tions should be made paramount. He states that under the pro- 
vision of the law which requires him to aid in the execution and 
enforcement of State and local quarantine regulations claim has 
frequently been made by local authorities that this is the chief in- 
tent of the law, and that, however absurd and unnecessary local 
quarantine regulations may be, the Marine-Hospital Service is 
bound to aid in the enforcement of them. 
He recommends that the law of 1893 be amended so that its 
effect shall be to make national quarantine regulations paramount 
and to prevent interference with their enforcement by any State 
or local legislation. This feature of the law should apply to both 
maritime and interstate quarantine. Its necessity with regard to 
maritime quarantine has been amply demonstrated, as shown in 
previous annual reports. With regard to interstate quarantine, 
its necessity has been forcibly revealed during the recent epidemic 
of yellow fever in the South, when local quarantine authorities 
placed restrictions which not only paralyzed commerce, but pre- 
vented the exercise of their full duties by the officers of the Gov- 
ernment in their efforts to prevent the disease spreading from one 
section to another. It is suggested that the law should be so 
framed that it will be within the province of the Secretary of the 
Treasury promptly to establish a quarantine station without re- 
gard to the State or local quarantine at whatever points and at any 
time that he may deem it necessary for the public safety to take 
such action. 
RESOLUTIONS OF LEGISLATURES, BOARDS OF TRADE, MEDICAL 
ASSOCIATIONS, ETC. 
The New York Chamber of Commerce in 1871 passed the follow- 
ing resolution: 
“That the committee on foreign commerce be instructed to pre- 
pare a memorial to Congress asking such legislation of that body 
as shall serve to place the subject of quarantine and immigration 
under the charge of the General Government.” 
Pensacola (Fla.) Chamber of Commerce, October 11,1894, passed 
the following: 
“ Resolved, That the time has arrived when the future growth 
of Pensacola as a shipping port demands the free entry of all ship- 
ping under the supervision of the United States Marine-Hospital 
Service. ” 
Report of the special committee of the Chamber of Commerce 
of the State of New York on quarantine at the port of New York 
during the cholera of 1892: 
“Resolved, That the chamber of commerce memorialize the 
President and the Congress of the United States to enact as speed- 50 
ily as may be a suitable law placing tlie control of quarantine at 
New York and at all other places under national control. 
“ Resolved. That the attention of Congress is respectfully di- 
rected to the injurious influences that continued indiscriminate 
immigration may have upon the welfare of this country, in the 
hope that careful investigation relative thereto may be promptly 
had. 
******* 
“All of which is respectfully submitted. 
“ALEXANDER E. ORR, 
“SETH LOW. 
“SAMUEL D. BABCOCK, 
“J. PIERPONT MORGAN, 
“Special Committee. 
“New York, December 13, 1892." 
Report of the New York Board of Trade on national quarantine, 
dated January 6, 1896, the conclusion of which is as follows: 
“The conclusion of your committee, therefore, is that it is es- 
sential to the safety of our people and the protection of their lives 
that a national quarantine system be established in the United 
States at the earliest possible day. We believe that to be effective 
the system adopted must be national, and that any systems main- 
tained at ports of entry under State or local control should not be 
allowed to conflict or hinder the national system.” 
Resolutions by the physicians of the State of Illinois on national 
control of quarantine: 
“We therefore come to you as medical men simply to express 
most earnestly our convictions that whatever form your legisla- 
tive action may assume, its outcome should be the establishment 
at once of a complete quarantine system, without reserve, under 
national control, paramount to all local systems and as compre- 
hensive in its scope and power as constitutional limitations will 
permit.” 
Resolutions of the Philadelphia Maritime Exchange: 
“Philadelphia, December 31, 1892. 
“At an adjourned meeting of the board of directors of the Phil- 
adelphia Maritime Exchange, held this day, the following pre- 
amble and resolutions were unanimously adopted: 
“Whereas a circular dated December 21, 1892, was mailed to 
each member of the Philadelphia Maritime Exchange, also to about 
3,700 prominent business men and organizations of the city of 
Philadelphia, asking what system of quarantine they favored; and 
“ Whereas the replies received are almost unanimous in favor 
of a national quarantine: Be it, and it is hereby, 
“Resolved, That the Philadelphia Maritime Exchange earnestly 
advocates the immediate passage by Congress of a law establish- 
ing Federal quarantine throughout the United States on the lines 
laid down by the Secretary of the Treasury in his recent annual 
report, believing that such a law would insure a uniform, modern, 
and scientific quarantine throughout the whole country, and give 
maximum protection, with no unnecessary restrictions upon 
commerce, and at the lowest cost: it is further 
“Resolved, That both Houses of Congress be petitioned to pass 
such a law. and to pass it at once, so that the Marine-Hospital 
Service within the next four months may be enabled to complete 
all necessary preparations for keeping out cholera: it is further 
“Resolved, That the Philadelphia Congressional delegation be 51 
urged to use every effort to have such a law passed at once; it is 
further 
“Resolved, That the Board of Trade, the Commercial Exchange, 
the Manufacturers’ Club, the Trades League, and the Vessel Own- 
ers and Captains’ Association, all of Philadelphia, and the mari- 
time exchanges or associations of New York, Boston, and Balti- 
more be asked to cooperate in obtaining the legislation referred 
to: and it is further 
“Resolved, That a copy of these resolutions be forwarded to the 
President of the United States, the Secretary of the Treasury, the 
Supervising Surgeon-G-eneral of the Marine-Hospital Service, the 
governor of the State of Pennsylvania, the State board of health 
of Pennsylvania, the Philadelphia board of health, and to the 
Chamber of Commerce of the State of New York.” 
Resolutions of the Tri-State Medical Association of Tennessee, 
Alabama, and Georgia, October, 1897: 
“Resolved, That the recent outbreak of yellow fever in the 
South, and the numerous conflicting State and municipal quaran- 
tine regulations emphasize the great need of national quarantine 
laws which are uniform and protective. 
“Resolved, That the Tri-State Medical Association, in conven- 
tion assembled, hereby urges upon Congress the necessity of na- 
tional quarantine laws which shall give exclusive charge of quar- 
antine to the United States Marine-Hospital Service in connection 
with the development of cholera, yellow fever, smallpox, and 
plague.” 
The American Medical Association, in June, 1873, appointed a 
committee to urge on Congress the passage of an act for a national 
quarantine. 
The quarantine convention in Jacksonville, February, 1878, 
adopted a report asking that a uniform and efficient system of 
quarantine should be adopted and administered by the National 
Government. 
Resolutions adopted by the board of health, Mobile, Ala.. Octo- 
ber 9, 1873: 
'■Resolved, Inasmuch as no quarantine measures of our seaports 
can be effective against the importation of disease without uni- 
formity in time and method, that Congress be memorialized to 
establish a uniform system of quarantine under national super- 
vision.” 
Resolutions of the Georgia legislature, 1897: 
“ Whereas the present epidemic of yellow fever in the South has 
demonstrated that the local authorities are insufficient to prevent 
the introduction and spread of epidemic diseases, principally be- 
cause of want of uniform regulations governing health affairs; 
and 
“ Whereas the health regulations now in force, viz, State, mu- 
nicipal, and county, each dependent on the other, and one fre- 
quently conflicting with another, have proven disastrous to 
travel, State and interstate commerce, and business generally; 
and 
“ Whereas it is desirable in the interest of the public health and 
State and interstate commerce to provide for a more uniform 
system of quarantine; and 
“Whereas the regulations of the United States Marine-Hospital 
Service are framed with due regard to local and climatic condi- 
tions: Therefore, 
“ Be it resolved by the legislature of the State of Georgia, That 52 
hereafter in case of an outbreak of yellow fever, cholera, small- 
pox, or plague, all quarantine matters in the State of (Georgia 
shall be turned over to the United States Marine-Hospital Service 
during the continuance of such epidemic, under appropriate leg- 
islation to be hereafter enacted by Congress, enlarging the powers 
of the United States Marine-Hospital Service granted under the 
act of Congress approved Februarjr 15, 1893. 
“ Resolved further, That pending such additional legislation by 
Congress all certificates of freedom from danger of conveying in- 
fection from persons, localities, baggage, freight, and vehicles, 
for the transportation of passengers and freight duly signed by 
medical officers of the Marine-Hospital Service shall be accepted 
by the State and local authorities in the State of Georgia. 
‘ ‘ Resolved further, That we respectfully memorialize Congress 
to enact the necessary legislation to effectuate this resolution. 
“ Resolved further, That we request our Senators and Repre- 
sentatives to use all proper means to have such legislation adopted. 
“ Resolved, That the Surgeon-General of the United States 
Marine-Hospital Service be furnished with a copy of this resolu- 
tion.” 
LETTER OF GEORGE C. SMITH, PRESIDENT OF THE ATLANTA AND 
WEST POINT RAILROAD, TO GOVERNOR R. B. BULLOCK. 
Atlanta. Ga., October 25, 1897. 
My Dear Sir: Referring to our recent conversation, I beg to 
hand you the following statement: 
The present visitation of yellow fever in the South has brought 
about a condition of affairs which, 1 believe, is worthy of the 
serious consideration of all thoughtful people. 
Never before in the history of epidemics in this country has the 
power of quarantine been exercised in such an arbitrary and dis- 
astrous manner. 
Yellow fever was announced in New Orleans, Ocean Springs, 
Biloxi, Mobile, and other places in Louisiana and Alabama early 
in the month of September, 1897. The effect of this announce- 
ment was to bring into action several distinct quarantines, acting 
concurrently under assumed legal authority. The boards of 
health of various cities immediately prohibited all passenger 
trains running from or through infected points from stopping 
within the corporate limits of such places and placed their in- 
spectors upon all trains arriving and departing on the direct line 
of travel to and from infected points. Municipal restrictions 
were also placed in effect preventing not only the receipt of 
freight from infected points, but the through passage of such 
freight, as well as the receipt of through passage of empty equip- 
ment. 
Simultaneously the boards of health of several States adopted 
restrictions against both passengers and freight entering such 
States from infected poi nts or the return of equipment into such 
States which had been in infected places. The State also placed 
its own inspectors upon the trains of railway companies forming 
direct lines to and from the infected districts. The rules of the 
State and city quarantines were materially different in many par- 
ticulars, causing great confusion in the adaptation of the trans- 
portation service in their varying requirements. 
Unusual and arbitrary rules were promulgated by State boards 
of health, prohibiting even the transportation of flat cars, coal 53 
cars, or ore cars without fumigation. Places like the city of At- 
lanta, Ga.. which had been proven by long experience exempt 
from yellow fever, were subjected to quarantine restrictions, pre- 
venting the movement of both passengers and traffic. 
With the utmost difficulty modifications of such quarantine re- 
strictions were obtained after several weeks’ negotiation with 
State and municipal authorities, although but one single yellow- 
fever case existed in the city of Atlanta, and that a refugee. 
Varying periods of residence in uninfected localities were re- 
quired by different States and cities before persons who had been 
in infected places were allowed to enter quarantined territory, 
causing great confusion and frequent detention to passenger traf- 
fic. Shotgun quarantines were established in many localities, 
preventing the movement of either freight or passenger trains 
through large sections of the country. The alarm was so great 
in the State of Alabama that the State board of health prohibited 
the citizens of that State from obtaining refuge at any place 
within its limits. All citizens of Alabama from infected places 
were, therefore, obliged to seek an asylum beyond the boundaries 
of their own State, although many places within their State were 
willing to receive them. 
In addition to municipal, county, and State quarantines and the 
numerous shotgun regulations prevailing in country communi- 
ties. the United States Marine-Hospital Service established a 
supervisory control over the movement of passengers and baggage 
to and from infected districts. Inspectors of the United States 
Marine-Hospital Service were placed upon all trains and assumed 
charge of the fumigation of all baggage and personal effects of 
passengers. It is proper to say, the operation of the United States 
Marine-Hospital Service has been systematically and intelligently 
conducted under the supervision of experienced physicians famil- 
iar with the standard requirements for the suppi'ession and spread 
of yellow fever, and its methods have been in marked contrast 
with the State, city, and county regulations. 
The multiplicity of officers, inspectors, rules, regulations, and 
orders which have been emitted by the numerous boards, govern- 
ors, and health officers have tended to greatly confuse and embar- 
rass the efforts made by the transportation lines to conduct busi- 
ness in a systematic and orderly manner. 
All railway companies reaching the infected districts have made 
continuous and well-directed effoi’ts to meet the sudden and pi’ess- 
ing demands for transportation and to comply with all require- 
ments of the various authorities which have assumed jurisdiction 
over them, whether legally constituted or not. The entire com- 
mercial system of many States in the South has been thrown into 
a chaotic condition, largely attributable to the want of a uniform, 
intelligent, axid authoritative supervision over quarantine regula- 
tions. 
The spread of the disease from one city to another until a half 
dozen States have become infected is undoubtedly due to the lack 
of an effective and intelligent administration of quarantine regu- 
lations. The control of the entire subject of quarantine by the 
United States authorities would, in my judgment, accomplisli the 
following results: 
First. Prevent the spread of contagious diseases like yellow 
fever from the original point of infection. 
Second. Provide uniform and scientific methods of quarantine 
where many foci of infection have to be dealt with. 54 
Third. Prevent unnecessary and disastrous interruptions to the 
commerce of the country by providing reasonable, intelligent, and 
effective supervision over transportation lines. 
I trust the foregoing will give you some information of value 
on the subject referred to. 
Yours, very truly, GEO. C. SMITH, 
President and General Manager. 
Governor R. B. Bullock, Atlanta, Ga. 
LETTER OF EX-GOVERNOR RUFUS B. BULLOCK TO THE PRESIDENT. 
English-American Loan and Trust Company, 
Atlanta, Ga., October 27, 1897. 
Mr. President: The diversified and irregular enforcement of 
quarantines by towns, counties, and States is a serious and dan- 
gerous hindrance to commercial and individual travel. The ne- 
cessity for uniform action under Federal authority is so apparent 
as to make any argument superfluous. 
My object in writing is to ask, Mr. President, that you call the 
attention of Congress to this subject in a line of your coming mes- 
sage. I can safely assure you of the support of our leading South- 
ern journals for any proper legislation taking national control of 
this most vitally important subject. 
Your attention is invited to the communication of President 
Smith on this subject, inclosed. 
Very respectfully, RUFUS B. BULLOCK. 
The President of the United States, Wm. McKinley, 
Washington, D. C. 
FROM THE STATE BOARD OF HEALTH OF MICHIGAN. 
In illustration of the interest which the interior States have in 
maritime quarantine and their desire for a strictly national system 
and as demonstrating that the expenses of quarantine should be 
met by the whole people rather than by vessels entering the several 
ports, I insert here the following communication from the board 
of health of Michigan, a copy of which was forwarded to the 
Marine-Hospital Bureau: 
State Board of Health, 
Office of the Secretary, 
Lansing, March 18, 1896. 
To the honorable the Senators and Congressmen 
from Michigan, Washington, D. C. 
Gentlemen: We, the officers of the Michigan State board of 
health, having in mind especially the protection of the citizens of 
Michigan from danger of contracting communicable diseases from 
immigrants and immigrants’ baggage passing through the port at 
Portland, Me., to which port many immigrants bound for Michigan 
and beyond sometimes come, especially in winter, when the St. 
Lawrence River is not navigable, and understanding that it is the 
desire of the local and of the State health authorities of Maine 
that a national quarantine station be established at the port of 
Portland, Me., do most respectfully urge the honorable the Senators 
and Representatives in Congress from Michigan to use their in- 
fluence to bring about this desired improvement. 55 
We believe that a frequently changing municipal government, 
with its varying ideas of the expediency of making expenditures 
which are more largely for the protection of citizens of other 
parts of this country than of the citizens of Maine, is not equal to 
the task of the continuous maintenance of a quarantine station 
which shall meet the requirements for safety to the health of our 
people. 
We believe that the interests of the whole country would be 
much better served if there were at Portland, Me., a quarantine 
station under the control of the National Government. 
Again expressing a desire that you use your influence in bring- 
ing about this desired change, we remain, 
Very respectfully, 
FRANK WELLS, President. 
HENRY B. BAKER, Secretary. 
Appendix B. 
EXTRACTS FROM DAILY PRESS. 
ALABAMA. 
[Montgomery Advertiser. December 5,1897.] 
The report of the Birmingham Commercial Club showed com- 
munications from a number of trades bodies in the South and 
North, including those in Nashville, Chattanooga, and Philadel- 
phia, heartily indorsing the project of national quarantine. 
[Mobile Daily Herald, January 27, 1898.J 
This matter of quarantine is too serious a one to be made sub- 
servient to theories or prejudices. We must have adequate pro- 
tection from yellow fever this summer, and there must be Con- 
gressional action. We can see no reason why Congress should 
not pass the Caft'ery quarantine bill as amended in the Senate. 
[Mobile Sunday Item, January 2,1898.] 
The shotgun quarantines and the jarring and conflicting regu- 
lations of towns, counties, and States are what Governor John- 
ston properly named them—intolerable. They killed trade, prog- 
ress, production, personal liberty, and interstate commerce at one 
fell swoop. 
CALIFORNIA. 
[San Francisco Daily Report, November 3,1897.] 
It is this very disregard of local conditions that makes the na- 
tional quarantine service better than the State service. The offi- 
cers may be no better, though their long special experience should 
make them so; but they are far more independent. Their posi- 
tions and livelihood do not depend on the maintenance of friendly 
relations with those affected by the quarantine rules, and they 
can act regardless of all personal considerations. The State offi- 
cial’s term is short, and, like other State officials, he may feel that 
he must make hay while the sun shines. Hence he is always more 
likely to be improperly influenced than is the Federal official. 
[SanFrancisco Daily Report, January 1.1898.] 
In two or three Southern States where the danger of disease im- 
portation is greatest the local authorities are delighted to have 
Federal officers take charge of their quarantines, not only because 
thev are thus relieved of considerable expense and responsibility, 
but because they know how the United States quarantine can be 56 
depended upon. One thing that goes to make the Federal quar- 
antine especially efficient is that the United States has agents 
at foreign ports whose business it is to transmit to the home Gov- 
ernment—by telegraph if necessary—news of the sanitary condi- 
tion of the ports at which they are respectively stationed. This 
is an advantage the State quarantine officers do not possess. 
There is no earthly need of the State quarantine service. 
[San Francisco Argonaut, October 30, 1897.] 
It is estimated that the loss of business even at Mobile Has 
already amounted to $4,000,000 and that at New Orleans to $25,- 
000,000, as the cotton freight business has been completely stopped. 
After this new invasion of the yellow plague shall have been 
checked, we are of the opinion that the Southern States, and we 
hope all the States of the Union, will be content to place quaran- 
tine in the hands of the Federal Government, where it belongs, 
CONNECTICUT. 
1 Bridgeport Standard, October 19,1897.] 
The need of general quarantine regulations, uniform every- 
where and impartially applied, is all the more evident as time 
passes on, and the people of all the South must see the need and ad- 
vantage of such an arrangement. 
[New Haven Evening Leader, January 3, 1898. 
This subject is of paramount interest to the people of the United 
States, for nothing enters deeper into the daily and business life of 
the people and the safety and welfare of the country than the 
question of protection from epidemic diseases. It is, however, 
not a question of persons or places or power. 
It is a question of reasonable and logical methods of the Gen- 
eral Government, dealing with one of the phases of maritime 
trade and commerce, a function which it exercises by the Consti- 
tution. It seems to us that there can be but one view which rea- 
sonable people will take of this question, and that is one which 
looks to the General Government as the powerful and uniform 
conservator of the public health. The bill of Representative 
Hepburn, of Iowa, practically identical with that of Senator 
Caffery, confers the necessary power to deal with these epi- 
demics. This measure should pass. 
DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA. 
[Washington Star, October 6, 1897.] 
In an emergency like an outbreak of a deadly fever there is no 
time for disputes between medical officers, governors, sheriffs, 
and other public servants. Jealousies are almost sure to arise if 
they are not prevented by wise efforts by some central authority 
with power and discretion to act freely. The Government has 
assumed charge of the interstate features of the transportation 
system of the country, and its action has resulted in better condi- 
tions generally. It can as well and much more profitably be given 
charge of the interstate features of the public health, for when- 
ever an epidemic occurs or threatens, the smallest detail of the 
management of the protective work in one State has a most inti- 
mate relation to the health of all residents of all neighboring 
States. 
[Washington Star, October 29, 1897.] 
The futility and danger of the quarantine methods employed 
by the Gulf States and surrounding communities during times of 57 
disease contagion have been amply demonstrated during the past 
season of prevalence of yellow fever throughout a large area in 
that vicinity. 
[Washington Post, September 20, 1897.] 
The General Government should take charge—absolute charge— 
of quarantine regulations, or it should withdraw finally from the 
field. We should have one harmonious and uniform system, or 
we should surrender the yellow-fever belt to chaos and to bar- 
barism. These conflicts of authority, these jealousies, resent- 
ments, and animosities only complicate the difficulties of the sit- 
uation. In the name of civilization and humanity. Congress 
ought to take hold of the question next winter and give us some 
intelligent and conclusive legislation in the premises. 
[Washington Post, January 10,1893.] 
We trust that Congress will give us a national, absolute, and 
uniform system of quarantine. 
FLORIDA. 
[Pensacola Daily News, January 11,1893.] 
A national system would correct the panicky quarantine of the 
States and interior towns against the seaboard cities which has 
often operated to the great loss of the latter; would greatly lessen 
the present imposts on commerce. The expenses would not be 
borne by the vessels, but by the whole country, which is but just 
and right. The National Government should protect us against 
disease as against any other invasion. 
[Pensacola Daily News, October 5, 1891.] 
One of the principal reasons why the control of all quarantine 
affairs should be relegated to the Federal authorities is found in 
the constant conflict between different local boards. 
GEORGIA. 
Atlanta Journal, December 16,1897.] 
Atlanta does want. So does all Georgia, and so do the press 
and people of all of the Southern States with almost unanimity. 
True, a few captious papers along the Gulf littoral have persist- 
ently whined against the adoption by Congress of any action look- 
ing to national supervision of a matter which gravely affects the 
business of the whole nation. But, as the Journal has shown from 
the beginning, this opposition, when not based on small local in- 
terests, is the result of hidebound adherence to effete ideas or to 
small personal prejudice. 
[Atlanta Journal, January 31,1897.] 
Georgia was untouched by the yellow fever last summer, but 
she did suffer from the clumsy and ineffective quarantine methods 
which were adopted in neighboring States. Very few of those 
citizens of Georgia who had good opportunities to observe how 
State and local quarantine regulations worked then will be found 
now to oppose the movement for a national quarantine law. The 
fear of Federal interference with State rights will not deter them 
from advocating scientific, just, and uniform quarantine regula- 
tions, and there seems to be no way to secure these so long as every 
bailiwick is permitted to remain a quarantine law unto itself. 
[Atlanta Journal. December 8, 1897.] 
The local quarantine regulations of the States and cities re- 
cently afflicted with yellow fever proved not only ineffective but 
ridiculous. 58 
[Atlanta Journal, November 10,1897.] 
To prevent the spread of epidemics, as well as to prevent un- 
reasonable attacks upon business and interference with the rights 
of the public without just cause, the proposed enlargement of the 
powers of the Marine-Hospital Service should by all means be 
accomplished. 
[Savannah Morning News, October 10,1897.] 
The whole matter of quarantine should be in the hands of one 
authority—an authority having the means and the power to act 
in accordance with the actual demands of the situation. That 
authority is the General Government. 
[Atlanta Constitution, October 9,1897.] 
As matters now stand, the commercial interests of the South 
are wholly at the mercy of ridiculous and unwarranted measures, 
and scarcely a day passes without giving rise to some develop- 
ment which grievously emphasizes the need of centralized and 
uniform regulations. 
[Macon Telegraph, October 24, 1897.] 
No State government is strong enough to deal with him [Yellow 
Jack—i. e., yellow fever ] adequately, and the expense of the task 
should be put upon the National Government, for one case of the 
imported plague on the Gulf coast injures business in New York 
and Seattle. We must turn the whole matter of handling Yellow 
Jack over to the Federal Government. It is the only way to do. 
[Macon Telegraph, January 26, 1898.] 
Those who have been insisting that the rights of the State would 
be invaded by Federal intervention should now sing small. The 
question is not an issue at all. Here in Georgia we can not trust 
to Mississippi methods, for that State has little money to spend 
for anything, and we have had enough of the risk of accommo- 
dating refugees. Georgia has no voice in the Mississippi legisla- 
ture, but she does have a considerable voice in the National Con- 
gress. We can be protected from neglect in Mississippi only by 
the Federal Government. As we have said repeatedly, yellow 
fever is a foreign foe, and can be dealt with successfully only 
through uniform Federal laws. 
LOUISIANA. 
[New Orleans Daily Picayune, January 19,1898.] 
All arbitrary and lawless interference with interstate and trans- 
continental trade will be prevented, but no proper and substan- 
tial right of States or people will be interfered with. This sort of 
sanitation is proper and practicable, and no valid objection can be 
made to it. There could be no better arrangement than to place 
the administration of a proper national health service uifder the 
Marine-Hospital management. That body is entirely out of poli- 
tics and can have no interest to raise unnecessary alarms or to 
discriminate in its operations against sections or localities. 
[New Orleans Picayune, October 8,1897.] 
The people of the United States seem to be drifting rapidly 
toward nationalism. The Marine-Hospital Service, the Army and 
Navy medical departments, are permanent institutions. They do 
not go in and out with every change of the National Administra- 
tion, and some fair and unpartisan treatment could be expected 
from either of them if they were intrusted with the control of 
quarantine. But a department of public health, whose political 
complexion would change at every Presidential election, would 59 
be a mere political machine, through whose operation the South 
would be sure to suffer. 
[New Orleans Picayune, November 7, 1897.] 
The people who stop trains under the pretense of quarantines 
are violating the law as much as do those who hold up trains for 
the purposes of robbery. To bar the progress of an interstate 
carrier and to prevent the transportation of passengers, mails, and 
merchandise to the persons to whom they belong is in effect rob- 
bery, no matter what may be the pretense upon which such acts 
are perpetrated. 
[New Orleans Times-Democrat, January 19,1898.] 
The Caffery bill places the Federal quarantine in the hands of 
the United States Marine-Hospital Service and greatly increases 
the powers and responsibilities of the Federal Government in the 
matter of the protection of this country from the invasion of dis- 
ease from abroad. The Southern people, after last year’s expe- 
rience, are thoroughly willing to extend the Federal power in that 
direction, and see no danger to the States from doing so. They 
are therefore willing and. indeed, desirous that the marine quar- 
antine shall be placed under Federal control, so that it may be 
uniform for the entire country. 
[New Orleans Times-Democrat, January 33.1898.] 
We want some quarantine system that will assure us the best 
protection against the invasion of disease. 
[New Orleans Times-Democrat, December 12,1897.] 
We in Louisiana have a perfectly efficient system of maritime 
quarantine; but we saw a few months ago of how little account 
the possession and maintenance of that efficient system were 
when disease could invade neighboring States, owing to their in- 
efficient quarantine, and could then be passed on to us. There- 
fore it was we contended that quarantine should be taken from 
the State authorities and put in the hands of the Federal power, 
which alone could systematize the differing and frequently con- 
flicting quarantines, make them uniform, and enforce them. 
MARYLAND. 
[Baltimore American, November 24,1897.] 
The Government should have absolute control of all quaran- 
tines. Had this been the case in the South, the disease would 
doubtless have been confined within a narrower compass, and 
more valuable information would now be at the disposal of the 
professions for use in future epidemics. 
MASSACHUSETTS. 
[Springfield Union, October 14, 1897.] 
The national officials should be given full authority, and State 
and local boards of health and officials should be compelled to 
subordinate themselves to them. The only way to make such 
attempts to prevent widespread suffering and serious embarrass- 
ment to trade and commerce is to avoid the divided responsibility 
that comes from State quarantine control, and by centralization 
of responsibility in the Federal health officers. 
[Boston Traveler, October 14,1897.] 
There should be a national law strong enough to reconcile all 
the differences between the various authorities. Uniformity of 60 
sanitary regulations can not but prove beneficial to the country 
as a whole, and the intermittent flurry for safety when a conta- 
gious disease breaks out will be done away with. 
MISSISSIPPI. 
[Biloxi Herald, October 16, 1897. J 
Congress will fail in the discharge of one of the most sacred 
duties which it has ever been called upon to perform if it d#es 
not at its next session pass a law conferring the necessary authority 
and carrying a sufficient appropriation to insure its efficient exer- 
cise. 
[Gulfport Southward, January 14, 1898.] 
Cholera, yellow fever, typhus fever, and bubonic plague are 
practically the only diseases which quarantine stations pretend to 
keep out, and these diseases, taken together, have not caused an 
average of 1,000 deaths per year in the United States for the past 
twenty years. On the other hand, three diseases alone, viz, tuber- 
culosis, typhoid fever, and diphtheria, destroy 157,000 lives an- 
nually. 
NEW YORK. 
[New York Commercial Advertiser, February 19, 1898.] 
Shotguns or Uncle Sam? 
Necessity of national quarantine both for protection of com- 
merce and for public health begins to be recognized, especially 
at the South. The control by city and State health officers of 
international commerce and travel in quarantine matters, while 
the same interests are supervised by national authority in customs 
and immigration matters, is a great anomaly. There is really no 
middle course between shotgun quarantine and national quaran- 
tine. 
[New York Herald, February 12,1898.] 
National quarantine and the Marine-Hospital Service. 
With the experiences of the late epidemic of yellow fever in 
fresh recollection, the necessity for a national system of quaran- 
tine can hardly be questioned. While the friends of the various 
measures are consistently working in the direction of a compre- 
hensive form of national quarantine, it is quite evident that the 
odds are in favor of developing a system we have already at hand 
rather than institute new ones, however comprehensive and 
efficient they may promise to be. The Caffery bill offers seem- 
ingly the best solution of these difficulties. The public has every 
confidence in the ability of the Marine-Hospital Service and every 
hope in the amplification of its resources. 
[New York Herald, January 11, 1898.] 
The people of the United States demand a national quarantine. 
[New York Commercial America, February 8, 1898.] 
The objection to the local municipal quarantines is that they 
are necessarily conflicting, irregular, and variable, and this to 
such an extent that with the best intentions and the utmost care 
it is all but impossible for a railroad to be operated in conform- 
ance with such regulations: and those regulations are most disa- 
greeable and oppressive to passengers. Moreover, these local 
municipal quarantines are of doubtful legality, and it is question- 
able whether the railroad companies may not hereafter be asked 
to pay damages on account of delay to freight and passengers by 
reason of complying therewith. 61 
[New York Tribune, October 38, 1897.] 
State and Federal quarantines. 
The continued spread of yellow fever through the Gulf States 
seems to argue more and more f ircibly the breakdown of that 
haphazard system of local quarantine on which the South has 
depended for years past, and still depends, to bar the progress of 
infectious diseases. That a well-organized and liberally-equipped 
Federal service would close most of the gaps through which the 
epidemics of the past have found an entrance to our ports will 
not be disputed. 
[New York Journal of Commerce, October 14, 1897.] 
Every community that is threatened with yellow fever is enti- 
tled to sympathy and aid in its self-defense, but it should be com- 
pelled to limjt its defense to modern and scientific means and to 
inflict the minimum losses upon trade instead of instantly resort- 
ing to the methods that seemed reasonable when the black death 
ravaged Europe five centuries ago. 
[New York Mail and Express, October 20,1897.] 
The need of uniformity in quarantine regulations is imperative. 
The old, conflicting State systems are grossly inadequate to pre- 
vent the advance of epidemic disease, and besides that they often 
actually expose whole neighborhoods to the danger of infection. 
Senator Caffery’s struggle in getting through the various lines 
of State quarantine now guarding the yellow fever districts in the 
Southwest is but an example of thousands of instances that happen 
whenever such diseases make their appearance. 
State and local regulations will never provide the efficient safe- 
guards which can be gained from a national quarantine system, 
and it is therefore particularly gratifying to learn that Mr. Caf- 
fery is already at work on the draft of such a measure for sub- 
mission to Congress at the approaching session. His recent expe- 
rience abundantly qualifies him to explain the necessity for such 
legislation. 
[New York Mail and Express, December 10,1897.] 
Senator Caffery’s promptness in proposing this urgent meas- 
ure of public safety is actuated by the soundest considerations of 
prudence and patriotism. It is almost inconceivable that there 
should be any respectable opposition to an act so indispensable to 
national interests. 
[Albany Press and Knickerbocker, October 19, 1897.] 
The need of a strong Federal quarantine system in the Gulf 
States is at this time the subject of earnest discussion by the news- 
papers of the region now exposed to yellow-fever visitation. That 
region in some seasons when conditions are favorable for the spread 
of the disease may infect other districts. The weak links in our 
chain of defenses against this destroyer are danger points for the 
country. This danger is in an extremely important sense a 
national peril, and preventives should be administered on a na- 
tional basis. 
PENNSYLVANIA. 
[Philadelphia Record, January 24,1898.] 
The whole matter should be placed in the hands of the Federal 
authorities, where it properly belongs. There has been quite 
enough toleration of chaotic management and shotgun quarantine. 
Epidemics of cholera and yellow fever ought to be made impossi- 
ble in this country, and they would become so if we could have a 62 
national quarantine law which should provide ample resources 
and give proper authority for restricting and controlling them. 
[Philadelphia Press, January 21,1898.] 
As a rule, the Southerners, who are accustomed to the Marine- 
Hospital Service, as they are in the habit of calling it to their aid 
in yellow-fever and smallpox emergencies, owing to local igno- 
rance, favor the extension of the Marine-Hospital Service. This is 
also the plan of %uch experts as our own Dr. Guiteras. who be- 
lieve the development of the service as a national health bureau 
is practicable and easy of accomplishment. This is the situation, 
and the Caffery bill meets it through the granting of additional 
powers to the Hospital Service which are drastic enough in times 
of emergency to meet all cases and yet will permit local authori- 
ties at other times to get along with the cooperation or mere ad- 
vice of the service, and without surrendering thei? identity or 
organization. 
[Philadelphia Public Ledger, October 6,1897. J 
The need of a strong Federal quarantine system in the Gulf 
States is at this time the subject of earnest discussion by the 
newspapers of the region now exposad to yellow-fever visitation. 
Weak links in our chain of defenses against this destroyer are 
danger points to the country. This danger is in an extremely im- 
portant sense a national peril, and preventives should be adminis- 
tered on a national basis. 
[Philadelphia Evening Telegraph, October 16,1897. 
Experience has demonstrated that these local quarantines do 
not afford effective protection even at home, while as to localities 
beyond their purview they are of course utterly useless. Epi- 
demics do not move with reference to State boundaries, and a 
thoroughgoing quarantine established in one State is of no avail 
if disease is allowed to come in next door on the other side of 
an imaginary line. In view of these known facts, persistent and 
consistent efforts have been made to establish a national quaran- 
tine system extending not only to all coasts of the country, but 
all over the interior as well. These efforts have been constantly 
thwarted by the obstinate opposition of the Southern people, in- 
spired by their State rights sentiments. The national quarantine 
authorities, in deference to these sentiments, have been cribbed, 
cabined, and confined on every side by legal restrictions, and are 
to this day forbidden to take any action whatever, no matter how 
necessary, except by and with the advice and consent of hostile 
State officials. 
[Philadelphia North-American, October 8,1897.] 
The objection to a uniform system of quarantine to De estab- 
lished by Congress and administered by the Federal authorities 
seems to root in the insane jealousy of State rights. The estab- 
lishment of national quarantine would not interfere with the 
function of the local boards of health in any way, but the Federal 
authorities would find the local boards great helpers in such 
emergencies as that now presented in the Gulf States. 
[Pittsburg Press, November 21, 1897.] 
The idea is antagonized, but it is significantly observed that the 
most serious objection to Federal regulation is made in those parts 
of the South which were exempt from the late visitation of yellow 
fever. 63 
[Erie Graphic, November 21,1897.] 
The outbreak of yellow fever in the Southern States this year, 
the complete failure of local control of quarantine, and the need- 
less embargoes placed on business in those districts that escaped 
the disease have stirred up the movement in favor of what is called 
a national quarantine law. 
[Easton Express, October 14, 1897.] 
There is only one rational conclusion to be drawn from this 
year's experiences of the yellow fever, and that is that Congress 
should, at its next session, enact a law providing for a national 
system of quarantine. 
[Scranton Truth, October 23,1897.] 
Congress ought to take up and place on the same footing na- 
tional defense against invasion by war and invasion by pestilence. 
We have had occasion to say this before. The present yellow fever 
visitation furnishes occasion to repeat it. 
TENNESSEE. 
[Memphis Scimetar, February 8,1898.] 
The patchwork system of State and municipal quarantines is a 
most costly example of local inability to deal with a problem that 
is essentially national. 
[Chattanooga News, October 21, 1897.] 
Sure relief can only come from the National Government. If 
the task is left to a dozen different State governments, a repetition 
of the present unfortunate state of affairs is always to be feared. 
The temptation is ever present to popularize a port by relaxing 
the rigidity of the inspection of shipping which is to land there. 
Our commercial bodies, even the foremost movers in matters of 
general concern, will do well to begin an agitation which shall 
secure effective legislation for our protection from the approach- 
ing session of Congress. 
[Chattanooga Times, October 19,1897.] 
As to the power of the General Government to protect the 
country from invasion by disease, that rests on the same broad 
ground that does the power to repel a foreign navy or army from 
ravaging the coasts and carrying fire and sword into the interior. 
TEXAS. 
[San Antonio Daily Express.] 
Kansas, Nebraska, or any other inland State is as much con- 
cerned in the maintenance of a proper border quarantine service 
as is Texas. 
The prevention of the spread of epidemic diseases being a mat- 
ter of national importance, it is but just and right that the whole 
people should bear their fair proportion of the expense of prevent- 
ing the entrance into our borders and the spreading of epidemic 
disease. 
[Fort Worth Mail-Telegram, October 12,1897.] 
The extemporized and unauthorized citizen quarantines, the 
senseless shotgun cordons of outlying-districts by volunteer bands, 
and the threatened mob violence against the establishment of hos- 
pitals prove the necessity for a more general and more system- 
atized method of quarantine administration than has heretofore 
been possible. 
[San Antonio Daily Express, October 12,1895.] 
The guarding of the nation’s boundary properly devolves upon 
the people of all the States so guarded, and the interior is as much 64 
concerned as the boundary territory. This is a matter for Con- 
gressional action. Texas can with all justice take the lead in the 
agitation. 
[Dallas News, October, 1895.] 
The protectiqn of the national boundary is none the less the 
duty of the Federal Government because it happens also to be the 
boundary of a State. 
Appendix C. 
The New England Medical Monthly, in its issue of March, 1898, 
says editorially: 
“ But while a public health department is hot at this time feasi- 
ble, the necessity for the establishment of a national quarantine 
system remains, and we believe that the Marine-Hospital Service 
should be intrusted with this duty. The splendid contributions 
to medical science and the quarantine results already achieved 
by the Marine-Hospital Service entitle it to the gratitude and re- 
spect of all medical men, and in no better hands could the enforce- 
ment of national quarantine be placed. 
“The experience already gained by the service in arresting and 
preventing epidemics is invaluable, and it should have every op- 
portunity for increased usefulness along these lines. The Caifery 
bill, now pending, should receive the fullest professional and pub- 
lic indorsement, as it will be the means of making national quar- 
antine at once possible and efficient.” 
The Philadelphia Medical Journal, in its issue of January 8,1898, 
says editorially: 
“ The distinguishing feature of the bill which flies the flag of 
the American Medical Association, but which was never adopted 
by that body, is that it proposes to establish a ‘department of 
public health.' To the ear of the sanitarian this has a very seduc- 
tive sound. He has long felt that the protection of the public 
health was one of the great national issues, as well as entitled to 
recognition as a coordinate branch of Government as either of 
those the chief function of which is the destruction of human life. 
The bill, however, does not fulfill the promise of its title. It es- 
tablishes not a true department, with representation in the Cabi- 
net. but merely a commission. 
“As a rule it may be affirmed that a system or institution which 
has been developed by the process of growth is more serviceable 
and has in it more elements of permanence than one which has 
been artificially constructed on theoretic principles, and this be- 
cause its provisions have been devised to meet actual emergencies. 
It is not strange, then, that the committee to which was assigned 
the duty of drawing up a bill for the establishment of such a de- 
partment found that it could not do better than to adopt the pro- 
visions already formulated and put in force by the Marine- 
Hospital Service, and to propose that the new department should 
take into its capacious maw that entire service, Surgeon-General, 
‘building, offices, officers, laboratories and appurtenances, and 
property of whatever name and nature.’ 
“It seems, therefore, to be little more than a change of names 
which is proposed, with the creation of a few additional salaried 
officers. We have the thing already. The Marine-Hospital Serv- 
ice is in reality the national department of health. The dog in the 
fable lost his bone in trying to seize its magnified reflection in the 65 
rippling stream. Let us be careful how we risk the perpetuity of 
our present tried and practical, although not thoroughly ideal, 
system in the troubled waters of a Congressional struggle. The 
wiser alternative, as we view the matter, is that suggested by that 
eminent and well-trained sanitarian, the now lamented Jerome 
Cochran, health officer of Alabama, and then chairman of the very 
committee which now proposes the bill we have been considering, 
viz: ‘To endeavor to improve the Marine-Hospital Service and to 
make it a more satisfactory national health department than it 
now is.’ ” 
The Medical Record, of New York, a professional journal of 
commanding position, with a clientele extending throughout the 
civilized world, and which is read in every clime, says editorially 
in its issue of February 12, 1898: 
“There is just now not so much a necessity for educating the 
public in sanitary matters as for perfecting suitable police regu- 
lations for threatening epidemics. Thus it would naturally appear 
to be reasonable to elaborate, strengthen, and amplify what we 
may already have in that line, rather than to aim at some new, 
untried, and obviously unwarrantable measures. From such a 
point of view the bill of Senator Caffery, ‘granting additional 
quarantine powers and imposing additional duties upon the 
Marine-Hospital Service,’ deserves the support of everyone who 
may hope for a logical settlement of the great question at issue. 
“ This bill has for its purpose such a development of the Marine- 
Hospital plant as will make it possible for the General Govern- 
ment efficiently to control all maritime and inland quarantine, 
and is framed on the practical basis of aiding and advising the 
local authorities and not interfering with them, unless in cases of 
emergency or when large districts of country are affected and 
when a general, impartial, and uniform system of protection is 
demanded. The Secretary of the Treasury naturally remains at 
the legitimate head of the department. 
“ Much as it would compliment the medical profession to have 
a physician in such position as a member of the Cabinet, the pro- 
posed measure is the next best solution of a question concerning 
which there are many pros and cons. The Secretary has already 
supreme control of maritime customs, and can, on sufficient 
grounds, refuse the entry of any vessel bound for our ports. 
When to such power that of enforcing quarantine is added, it is 
easy to conclude that both functions can work together harmoni- 
ously and consistently. Then, again, there can be no question, 
in this instance, regarding the constitutionality of so-called inva- 
sion of State rights, as Congress has the right to regulate com- 
merce and can interfere with anything that pertains to it. 
“ One very forcible argument in favor of the bill is the fact that 
the Marine-Hospital Service, having done so much in arresting 
and preventing epidemics, is fully competent to exercise increased 
powers in the line of work with which it is already perfectly fa- 
miliar. With such great interests at stake as the health of the 
entire nation, there will be no possible temptation to make dis- 
tinctions in favor of one or other district, but all can come under 
a uniform regulation, ‘ as far as climatic conditions will justify.’ 
“The main opposition to national quarantine comes quite natu- 
rally from local authorities, which are jealous of the privileges of 
revenue and of political patronage. This is evidenced by offers on 
the part of several States to purchase the present quarantine plants 
of the Government and manage them as independent establish- 66 
ments. The pecuniary measures which comprise the levying of 
arbitrary and excessive fees on coi amerce, and which are the main 
ones considered by the different State quarantines, are to the last 
degree oppressive, burdensome, invidious, and unnecessary. 
‘ By a new order of things there will be no call for special fees, 
and all the ports of entry will be on an equal basis as regards 
quarantine regulation. The advantages of the latter system are 
already proven in those localities where only national inspection 
prevails, by the fact that increased trade is naturally attracted to 
such favored ports to the exclusion of neighboring ones not so 
favored. Thus it will be seen that millions of dollars can be 
saved to commerce which are now demanded on the purely tech- 
nical ground of State rights to collect special fees. 
“It is useless, however, to multiply arguments in favor of na- 
tional quarantine. The real question that concerns us now has 
reference to the best and readiest means to the desirable and im- 
perative end. The best answers to objections urged against all 
bills heretofore presented are very effectively, consistently, and 
practically given in the admirable, far-reaching, comprehensive, 
and just provisions of the Caffery bill. The Marine-Hospital 
Service eminently deserves every opportunity for increased use- 
fulness and good work. Even with its limited resources it has 
made an admirable and unimpeachable record. The profession 
and the public should be ready with their indorsement at the time 
when such is so much needed to make all the really necessary 
quarantine reforms within the reach of ready realization/’ 
The Medical Standard, of Chicago, in its issue of January, 1898, 
says editorially: 
“ The recent epidemic in certain parts of the South has directed 
public attention to the necessity for broader and more efficient 
regulations for the protection of the public health. Many objec- 
tions that formerly were urged against the proposition to place 
the quarantine power wholly in the hands of the Federal officials 
have been withdrawn, and that section of the country which here- 
tofore has most strenuously opposed Federal control has now 
asked Congress to provide such control. The bill recently intro- 
duced by Mr. Caffery, of Louisiana, in the United States Sen- 
ate is in response to this demand. 
“ In view of these circumstances, it would appear that the wisest 
course lies in introducing a bill in Congress which will take the 
Marine-Hospital Service as a nucleus and establish an unattached 
bureau clothed with the authority for national quarantine that is 
asked for from the South. Under the direction of this bureau, 
then, such investigations as that proposed into yellow-fever condi- 
tions in Cuba and leprosy in Hawaii, which, it is reported, are to 
be made subjects of Congressional action, may be conducted. The 
unattached bureau would not cost more than will the performance 
of the same duties under separate divisions, and certainly would 
prove far more efficient. Thus equipped and permitted to show 
the public its field of usefulness, this bureau of public health will 
have every opportunity to develop at an early date into one of the 
Departments.” 
The Sanitarian, of New York, one of the oldest journals of its 
class in the United States, says editorially in its issue of Decem- 
ber, 1897: 
“ Indeed, the foundation of a national board of health is already 
laid. The proposition to extend its scope by such emendations 
and additions to the laws now governing it as would secure the 67 
cooperation of the sanitary authorities of the States severally and 
jointly, as suggested by the late Dr. Jerome Cochran, after a 
critical examination, is eminently commendable. And in this 
reference to the judgment of Dr. Cochran it should be borne in 
mind that it was the deduction of a practical sanitarian—of one 
who had devoted many years of his professional life to preventive 
medicine, and after he had, as chairman of a committee, specially 
appointed to consider the question of a ‘ Department of public 
health. ’ 
‘'Considering all the circumstances and the relations of the 
» leaders of the proposition to supersede the Surgeon-General of 
the Marine-Hospital Service to the present chief of that service, 
we can but regard the proposition as being alike discreditable to 
both the American medical and the American public-health asso- 
ciations. 
“The proposition reflects political preferment to practical 
knowledge of preventive medicine; it deserves not only the repro- 
bation of every practical sanitarian, but of every person who is 
alive to the importance of an effective health service. ” 
The Bulletin of the North Carolina board of health, in its issue 
of December, 1897, says editorially: 
“For carrying out the idea of a national quarantine two plans 
have been suggested. One is to commit it to the Marine-Hospital 
Service, which Bureau has for many years been engaged in quar- 
antine work, by enlarging its powers and adding to its duties; 
the other is the establishment of a department of public health. 
“In pursuance of the former plan Senator Caffery, of Louisi- 
ana, introduced in the Senate the following bill: 
“ ‘A bill amending “An act granting additional quarantine powers 
and imposing additional duties upon the Marine-Hospital Serv- 
ice,” approved February 15, 1893. 
“ 'Be it enacted, etc., That “An act granting additional quarantine 
powers and imposing additional duties upon the Marine-Hospital 
Service,” approved February 15,1893, be amended by striking out 
the following words in section 1: “And with such rules and regu- 
lations of State and municipal health authorities as may be made 
in pursuance of or consistent with this act,” and striking out 
section 3 and inserting the following in the place of said section: 
“ ‘ “ Sec. 3. That immediately after the passage of this act the Sec- 
retary of the Treasury shall make such rules and regulations as 
are necessary to prevent the introduction into the United States 
of any infectious or contagious disease from any foreign port or 
place, or the spread of such diseases from one domestic port to 
another, and such necessary rules and regulations as shall be 
observed by vessels or vehicles departing from foreign ports or 
places for ports or places in the United States to secure the best 
sanitary condition of such vessels or vehicles, their cargoes, pas- 
sengers, and crews, which rules and regulations shall be pub- 
lished and communicated to and enforced by consular, quaran- 
tine, and customs officers of the United States and the State and 
local quarantine officers of the United States. All rules and reg- 
ulations made by the Secretary of the Treasury shall operate 
uniformly, so far as climatic conditions will justify, in the inter- 
est of security against the introduction or spread of said infec- 
tious and contagious diseases, and shall not discriminate against 
any port or place. None of the penalties herein imposed shall 
attach to any vessel from a foreign port, or owner or officer 68 
thereof, until a copy of this act, with the rules and regulations 
made in pursuance thereof, has been posted up in the office of 
the consul or other consular officer of the United States for ten 
days in the port from which said vessel sailed, and the certificate 
of such consul or consular officer, over his official signature, shall 
be competent evidence of such posting in any court of the United 
States. Nor shall the penalties imposed by this act attach to any 
common carrier or officer, agent, or employee of any common car- 
rier crossing the border of the United States until a copy of this 
act, with the rules and regulations made in pursuance thereof, 
has been published and made publicly known. 
“ ‘ “At any port or place in the United States where the Secretary 
of the Treasury shall deem it necessary for the prevention of the 
introduction of contagious or infectious disease from a foreign 
port or place that incoming vessels, vehicles, or persons shall be 
inspected by a national quarantine officer, such officer shall be 
designated or appointed by the Secretary of the Treasury, on rec- 
ommendation of the Surgeon-General of the Marine-Hospital Serv- 
ice, and at any such port or place no vessel, vehicle, or person 
from a foreign port or place shall be admitted to entry or enter 
without the certificate of said officer that the United States quar- 
antine regulations have been complied with. 
“ ‘ “Any vessel sailing from any foreign port without a United 
States consular bill of health and arriving within the limits of 
any collection district of the United States, and not entering or 
attempting to enter any port of the United States, shall be subject 
to such quarantine measures as shall be prescribed by regulations 
of the Secretary of the Treasury, and the cost of such measures 
shall be a lien on said vessel, to be recovered by proceedings in 
the proper district court of the United States and in the manner 
set forth above as regards vessels from foreign ports without bills 
of health and entering any port of the United States. 
“ ‘ “ National quarantine stations now in operation shall be con- 
ducted in accordance with the provisions of this act, and the Su- 
pervising Surgeon-General, with the approval of the Secretary of 
the Treasury, is authorized to designate and mark the boundaries 
of the quarantine grounds and quarantine anchorages for vessels, 
which are reserved for use at each United States quarantine sta- 
tion; and any vessel, or officer of any vessel, or other person, tres- 
passing upon such grounds or anchorages, in disregard of the 
quarantine rules and regulations, shall be deemed guilty of a mis- 
demeanor and subject to arrest, and, upon conviction thereof, 
be punished by a fine of not more than $300, or imprisonment for 
not more than one year, or both, in the discretion of the court. 
“ ‘ “And any master or owner of any vessel, or any person violat- 
ing any rule or regulation made in accordance with this act, relat- 
ing to inspection of vessels, or relating to the prevention of the 
introduction of contagious or infectious disease, and any master, 
owner, or agent of any vessel making a false statement relative to 
the sanitary condition of said vessel or its contents, or as to the 
health of any passenger or person thereon, shall be deemed guilty 
of a misdemeanor and subject to arrest, and, upon conviction 
thereof, be punished by a fine of not more than $500, or imprison- 
ment for not more than one year, or both, in the discretion of the 
court. 
“ ‘ “Medical officers of theUnitedStates,dulyclothedwithauthor- 
ity to act as quarantine officers at any port or place within the 
United States, and when performing such duties, are hereby 69 
authorized to take declarations and administer oaths in matters 
pertaining to the administration of the quarantine laws and regu- 
lations of the United States. 
“ ‘ “ The Secretary of the Treasury shall, whenever in his judg- 
ment it is necessary, make rules and regulations to prevent the 
introduction of infectious or contagious diseases into one State or 
Territory, or the District of Columbia, from another State, Terri- 
tory, or the District of Columbia, and when such rules and regu- 
lations have been made they shall be promulgated by the Secretary 
of the Treasury and enforced by the sanitary authorities of the 
States and municipalities when the State or municipal authorities 
will undertake to execute or enforce them: but if the State or 
municipal authorities shall fail or refuse to enforce said rules and 
regulations, or other rules or regulations made under the pro- 
visions of this act, the President shall execute and enforce the 
same, and adopt such measures as in his judgment shall be neces- 
sary to preven the introduction or spread of such diseases, and 
may detail or appoint officers for that purpose. 
“ ‘ “Whenever yellow fever, cholera, plague, or typhus fever has 
passed the quarantines of the United States, or in any manner any 
one of these diseases has gained entrance or has appeared within 
the limits of any State, Territory, or the District of Columbia, the 
quarantine regulations of the United States, prepared under the 
direction of the Secretar}T of the Treasury, shall be supreme and 
have precedence of State or municipal quarantine laws, rules, or 
regulations, and the President is authorized to enforce the same 
within the limits of any State, Territory, or the District of Colum- 
bia. and to control the movement of vessels, railway trains, vehi- 
cles, or persons within any State, Territory, or the District of 
Columbia, to prevent these diseases from spreading from one State, 
Territory, or the District of Columbia to another State, Territory, 
or the District of Columbia, and to prevent unneccessary restric- 
tions upon interstate commerce; and whenever, in accordance with 
the rules and regulations made as herein authorized to prohibit 
or permit the movement of vessels, railway trains, and vehicles, 
or transportation of persons, prohibitions or permits have been 
made or granted, any person violating said prohibition or permit 
shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor, and shall be subject to 
a fine of not more than $1,000, or imprisonment for not more than 
twelve months, or both, at the discretion of the court; and any 
violation of said prohibition or permit shall be reported to the 
United States district attorney for the district in which the offense 
has been committed, who shall thereupon institute necessary 
proceedings for the recovery of the penalty herein imposed. ” 
“ ‘That section 6 of said act shall be amended to read as follows: 
“ ‘ “ That on the arrival of an infected vessel at any port not pro- 
vided with proper facilities for treatment of the same, the Secre- 
tary of the Treasury may remand said vessel, at its own expense, 
to the nearest national or other quarantine station, where accom- 
modations and appliances are provided for the necessary disinfec- 
tion and treatment of the vessel, passengers, and cargo; and after 
treatment of any infected vessel, or inspection of any vessel not 
infected at a national quarantine station, and after certificate 
shall have been given by the United States quarantine officer at 
said station that the vessel, cargo, and passengers are each and all 
free from infectious disease, or danger of conveying the same, said 
vessel shall be permitted to enter and admitted to entry at any 
port of the United States named within the certificate. But at 70 
any ports where sufficient quarantine provision has been made by 
State or local authorities, the Secretary of the Treasury may di- 
rect vessels bound for said ports to undergo quarantine at said 
State or local station.” 
“ ‘ That section 8 of said act shall be amended to read as follows: 
“ ‘ “ That whenever the proper authorities of a State shall surren- 
der to the United States the use of the buildings, grounds, and dis- 
infecting apparatus at a State or municipal quarantine station, 
the Secretary of the Treasury shall be authorized to purchase 
them at a reasonable compensation, or pay a reasonable rental for 
their use, if in his opinion they are necessary to the United States; 
and the expense of said purchase or rental is made payable from 
the epidemic fund.” 
“We would call attention to the fact that the author of this 
bill is a Southern Democratic Senator, and doubtless a thorough 
believer in the doctrine of State sovereignty; and also to the fact 
that he represents Louisiana, whose quarantine facilities and 
methods are unexcelled anywhere. 
“ The Marine-Hospital Service, as at present constituted, is as 
far from the baneful influence of ‘ practical politics ’ as are the 
Army and Navy. Its members are appointed solely for fitness, 
and their business in life is fighting disease—large throughly quar- 
antine work. They are seasoned veterans in that peculiar war- 
fare. 
‘ ‘ Their commanding officer, the Surgeon-General, is always one 
of their most experienced men, and while it might happen that 
he was not the man in the service best fitted for that position, it 
would ahvays be true that he had been thoroughly trained in the 
business. And if it were our personal business involving great 
consequences to us, as the proper management of our quarantine 
service does to the people of our country, we would not hesitate a 
moment in deciding in favor of the trained experts—and we do not 
believe the candid reader would, either.” 
The Georgia Journal of Medicine and Surgery, in its issue of 
August, 1897, says editorially: 
“In this issue we quote in full the ‘bill to establish a depart- 
ment of public health and to define its duties,’ as reported at the 
last meeting of the American Medical Association at Philadelphia. 
The bill was not adopted by the association, but was received and 
the committee continued. 
“So important a matter as this should be fully discussed and 
thoroughly understood, and the present condition of affairs at 
Washington, as regards the Marine-Hospital Service, known and 
appreciated, before the indorsement and aid of the profession is 
given to it. 
“How much more just and fair and how much better for the 
country, therefore, it seems to us, to draft a bill imposing addi- 
tional duties and enlarging the field of usefulness of that very 
important department of public health (which it now is), the 
Marine-Hospital Service, and including in the Marine-Hospital 
bill all the good features (for they are practically and virtually 
carried out in toto by the Marine Service at this moment) of the 
new bill under discussion, without its objections. 
“An epidemic or emergency fund is at the disposal of the Ma- 
rine-Hospital Service in case of necessity in occurrence of epidem- 
ics in any of the States or Territories. The service has means at 
its disposal, and is thoroughly capable of fulfilling the most minute 
requirements of the new bill.” 71 
The New York Medical Journal, in its issue of December 25, 
1897. says editorially: 
“It is unfair to criticise the work of a person or a number of 
persons who are operating at a disadvantage by reason of insuf- 
ficient tools or inefficient laws. The national control of epidemics 
through the Marine-Hospital Service has been largely hampered 
in the past by the objections of State-rights theorists. This has 
been largely overcome by practical experience. The Marine-Hos- 
pital Service has had to wait until the inefficiency of certain local 
measures was established, and only then would it step in and 
exert its powers. 
“ Thus the early and favorable time wTas lost when work should 
have been done to restrain the onward progress of a threatened 
epidemic. It is the fault of the law and not of the service that 
certain concessions have not been made to the satisfaction of per- 
sons who are interested, or profess to be interested for one reason 
or another, in the development of an improved health service. 
Senator Caffery’s bill, which would confer great powers upon 
the Secretary of the Treasury, seems to us a far more promising 
measure than any scheme for a national board of health.” 
The Medical News, of New York, in its issue of February 5, 
1898, says editorially: 
“Any movement which has for its cardinal text the relegation 
of the Marine-Hospital Service, which has done so much pioneer 
work in the interests of public health, to a secondary or even 
more obscure position in the ambitious plans of its enemies will 
not meet with a responsive chord in the minds of the majority. 
‘ ■ The service is developing in the exact direction which the pro- 
moters of the proposed department of public health expect to at- 
tain by one act of legislation. 
“The Senate, upon the recommendation of its Committee on 
Public Health and Quarantine, has already indefinitely postponed 
two bills for the establishment of a department of public health, 
and favorably reported the Caffery bill, which imposes additional 
powers and duties upon the Marine-Hospital Service. 
‘ ‘ In view of the state of the national finances and the improbabil- 
ity of Congress assenting to the large and indefinite expenditure 
necessary for the establishment of a department of public health, 
it seems to us that the profession should turn its attention to de- 
veloping and supporting the Marine-Hospital Service as the public 
health service de jure as well as de facto, and that those who are 
now. as we think, mistakenly, if honestly, expending their efforts 
in the attempt to create a department of public health should join 
with their fellows in strengthening the hands of their professional 
brothers in the Marine-Hospital Service who have been so long 
and faithfully serving the public.” 
Editorial expressions of a similar character, appearing in the 
issues of this journal under date of December 4, 11, and 18 and 
February 19, might be cited if it were necessary to submit cumu- 
lative views from the same source. 
MARINE-HOSPITAL SERVICE. 
The function of the Marine-Hospital Service may he seen by an 
enumeration of the various duties of its officers, as follows: 
1. The management of hospitals and relief stations for the care 
of sick and disabled seamen of the merchant marine of the United 
States, over 50,000 seamen being treated annually. 
Appendix D. 72 
2. The active management of eleven national quarantine sta- 
tions, including the steam vessels belonging thereto. These na- 
tional quarantine stations, particularly in the South, are the refuge 
stations for neighboring local quarantines, and for a large num- 
ber of years have done the greater part of the actual cleansing 
and disinfecting of infected vessels. In the last fifteen years their 
hospitals have, with but few exceptions, received and cared for 
all the yellow-fever patients taken from vessels entering United 
States ports. 
3. Inspection of local quarantines, under the act of February 
15, 1893 
4. Investigation of reported cases of epidemic disease, including 
bacteriologic examinations and local sanitary conditions. 
5. The suppression of epidemic diseases and enforcement of the 
interstate quarantine regulations. 
3. The collection and dissemination of mortality statistics and 
sanitary information. 
7. Scientific investigation into the causes of disease. 
8. The examination of pilots for color-blindness. 
9. Physical examination of keepers and crews of the life-saving 
stations; professional examination of their claims on account of 
disability and their treatment in hospital. 
10. Physical examination and treatment of the officers and 
crews of the Revenue-Cutter Service, both prior and subsequent 
to enlistment, and medical and surgical service under special de- 
tail on revenue cutters engaged in arctic cruising or on other 
long voyages. 
11. Physical examination of immigrants under the law exclud- 
ing those afflicted with contagious disease. 
12. Service in the office of consuls at foreign ports to assure the 
accuracy of bills of health given to vessels. 
13. Miscellaneous duties imposed from time to time by the 
Treasury Department. 
A few words now regarding the organization and scope of the 
Marine-Hospital Service. 
MEDICAL CORPS. 
The medical corps of the Marine-Hospital Service consists of a 
supervising surgeon-general, 16 surgeons, 32 passed assistant sur- 
geons, 17 assistant surgeons, and 96 acting assistant surgeons, 
making a total of 161. The regular corps, that is to say, all of 
the above excepting the acting assistant surgeons, are appointed 
by the President after thorough physical and professional exam- 
ination. 
The acting assistant surgeons are appointed by the Secretary of 
the Treasury, on recommendation of the Supervising Surgeon- 
General. who satisfies himself as to the professional qualifications 
of the officer. The employment of acting assistant surgeons in 
times of emergency for temporary service, and the discontinuance 
of their services when the emergency is over, furnishes an excel- 
lent method of increasing or contracting the medical corps as 
occasion requires. 
The acting assistant surgeons are men who have been long in 
the service and are trained in Government routine. When newly 
appointed in emergency they are usually assigned to a marine 
hospital under the observation of the commanding officer and one 
of the older assistants, detailed to meet the emergency. 
I have heal’d that intimations have been made concerning the 73 
youth and inexperience of the members of the regular corps, the 
absurdity of which is shown by a table which I have caused to be 
prepared, giving the age and date of graduation of every officer of 
the service. From this table it will be seen that the average age 
of the surgeons is 50 years, the average age of the passed assistant 
surgeons is 35 years, and of the assistant surgeons, 29 years. 
The medical colleges represented are as follows: 
Medical College of Maine. 
Western Reserve Medical College. 
Jefferson Medical College. Philadelphia. 
Pennsylvania Medical College. 
Chicago Medical College. 
Rush Medical College. 
University of Georgetown, D. C. 
University of Michigan. 
Columbia College, Washington, D. C. 
Bellevue Hospital Medical College. New York. 
National Medical College, Washington, D. C. 
University of Pennsylvania. 
University of Maryland. 
College of Physicians and Surgeons, New York. 
College of Physicians and Surgeons, Baltimore. 
College of Physicians and Surgeons, Boston. 
Dartmouth Medical College, New Hampshire. 
McGill College, Montreal, Canada. 
Harvard Medical School, Boston. 
Howard University, Washington, D. C. 
Medical College, South Carolina. 
Virginia Medical College. 
University of Virginia. 
Miami Medical School, Cincinnati. 
Long Island Medical College, New York. 
St. Louis Medical College. 
It will thus be seen that the membei’s of this corps are fairly 
representative of the medical profession of the country. Many of 
them, in spite of the fact that they are subject to change of sta- 
tion every four years or oftener, have held and are now holding 
professorships in the medical colleges of the cities in which they 
are stationed. 
Concerning the new admissions to the corps, the law requires 
that they shall be appointed to the grade of assistant surgeon 
only, and provision is made for subsequent promotion. The ex- 
amination is held once or twice a year, as occasion requires, and 
the applicant must pass a very severe test, making an average of 
80 per cent on all branches. 
The successful candidates are relatively few. For example, this 
month, out of 29 who appeared for examination, only 4 made the 
required grade. These new appointees represent the very best 
men among the newer graduates of the colleges: but very rarely 
do they come direct from the medical college, most of them hav- 
ing had hospital or private practice before seeking admission to 
the corps. Out of the total 61 medical officers, 53 had hospital 
practice before entering the service, 7 were engaged in private 
practice, and only 2 had neither private practice nor hospital 
service. 
There are 20 hospitals owned and operated by the service and 
107 additional relief stations where at contract hospitals seamen 
are admitted and treated by acting assistant surgeons. 74 
The Marine-Hospital Service, even when considered solely in 
the light of its original function—the care of sick and disabled 
seamen—is a very important element in public-health work. The 
name itself now conveys no adequ%te idea of its scope, but the 
service is a century old, and its functions have been added to 
from time to time by Congress to such an extent that it is a some- 
what laborious and tiresome task to enumerate all that it is doing. 
But in its original restricted capacity it has by careful selec- 
tion of its officers, and appointment only after rigid examination, 
and its entire removal from political influence, established a corps 
of medical men, under strict discipline, divorced from local influ- 
ences and made familiar, to a degree unusual among medical men. 
with correct business habits and the systematic methods upon 
which is dependent the success of all large organizations and of 
government itself. 
DISTRIBUTION AND QUALIFICATIONS OF THE CORPS. 
The officers of the medical corps just mentioned are stationed 
in every important port on the coast, lakes, and rivers, and being 
trained in the execution of Government business, become valu- 
able agents for the immediate execution of any sanitary measures 
which may be imposed upon them by telegraph or otherwise from 
the Bureau. It is always possible for the Marine-Hospital Serv- 
ice, in any part of the country, on the shortest notice, to have 
qualified agents at a place of danger. There is scarcely an officer 
of the regular corps who has uot had actual quarantine experi- 
ence. and the corps numbers among its members men whose names 
have become national by reason of their effective service in vari- 
ous epidemics. 
The corps embraces a number of skilled bacteriologists, also 
men who have had large practical experience in the treatment of 
yellow fever and other contagious diseases, men thoroughly ac- 
quainted with all the military duties connected with sanitary 
cordons, detention camps, and with the methods of train and ves- 
sel inspections, scientific disinfection, etc. The effectiveness of 
this corps is the result of special care exercised to secure within 
it men who, by natural inclination and special education, are 
fitted for sanitary work, and is also the result of long and active 
experience. 
The Marine-Hospital Service dates as far back as 1798. It was 
reorganized and put upon its present basis in 1871. Though estab- 
lished for the purpose of caring for sick and disabled seamen of 
the merchant marine of the United States, there have been from 
time to time other responsibilities imposed upon it. growing out of 
the necessities of other branches of the Government, with which 
it is intimately and necessarily associated. For example, the 
Revenue-Marine Service, a branch of the Treasury Department, 
relies upon the Marine-Hospital Service for the physical examina- 
tion of its officers and men and their professional treatment when 
sick or disabled. 
The Life-Saving Service relies upon the Marine-Hospital Service 
for the physical examination of the keepers and surfmen. Hun- 
dreds of rejections of physically unsound men seeking to be- 
come surfmen have been made by the officers of the Marine- 
Hospital Service. The Steamboat- Inspect on Service, a most im- 
portant branch of the Treasury, relies upon the medical officers 
of the Marine-Hospital Service for a determination as to the ability 
of the pilots to distinguish signal lights, and large numbers of ap- 75 
plicants for pilots’ licenses are annually rejected by the officers of 
the service on account of color blindness. The Immigration Bu- 
reau relies by law upon the Marine-Hospital Service for the med- 
ical inspection of immigrants. 
Naturally, too, by reason of the intimate association of the Ma- 
rine-Hospital Service, through its sailors, with shipping and com- 
merce, the National Government has imposed upon this service 
the execution of the national quarantine laws, to which reference 
has already been made. I will only add here that so far as na- 
tional quarantine is concerned, the service, by tradition and con- 
stant activity, save for a period of four years, is the natural exec- 
utor of the same. National quarantine received its first executive 
impulse through the first Surgeon-General of the Marine-Hospital 
Service, Dr. John M. Woodworth, in 1878. 
Both prior and subsequent to this last date the Bureau has con- 
trolled, wholly or in part, epidemics of yellow fever and of small- 
pox. 
YELLOW FEVER. 
Notably yellow fever in 1873, 1876, 1877, 1878, 1882, 1887, 1888, 
and in 1893, the Brunswick epidemic, when it was confined within 
the cordon lines established by the service. 
It had complete control of the quarantine measures against yel- 
low fever in Texas in 1882 and in Florida in 1888. 
And the operations of the service during the yellow fever out- 
break last fall are of too recent occurrence to require special de- 
scription. The satisfactory results of these, both in restricting 
the spread of this disease and at the same time removing, so far 
as was practicable under the present law, unnecessary restrictions 
upon commerce, have been freely and favorably commented upon 
by the press of the South. 
SMALLPOX. 
It also took charge of railroad quarantine against smallpox in 
Canada in 1888 and 1891, and at Harris Neck, Ga., in 1891, it 
stamped out the disease. 
In 1894 it very materially assisted the District Commissioners 
and health officer of the District of Columbia in promptly sup- 
pressing the smallpox which had appeared in the city of Wash- 
ington. 
In 1895 it corralled at Eagle Pass., Tex., 400 immigrants from 
Mexico to Texas, with smallpox among them, and prevented their 
disseminating the disease through Texas and other States. 
It established quarantine camps in Arkansas in 1896, preventing 
the disease from being spread across the river into Tennessee. 
And at Key West, Fla., in 1896, it materially aided the State 
health officer in suppressing the epidemic of smallpox then pre- 
vailing. It aided materially the same year in suppressing the dis- 
ease in Staunton, Va., and in New Orleans. 
At the present time it is engaged in suppressing an epidemic of 
smallpox in Birmingham and other localities in Alabama and 
Georgia. 
CHOLERA. 
With regard to cholera in 1893, when one case of cholera had 
gained admission into Jersey City, with the supervision of its ex- 
perienced officers and with their trained assistants it prevented 
any extension of the disease. The value of its service in 1893 in 
preventing cholera in reaching the shores of the United States 76 
may be illustrated by one example, viz., the record of the service 
at Naples, Italy: 
After cholera had been declared epidemic in Naples, three ves- 
sels left for the United States—the Masilia, Weser, and Cash- 
mere—and all were made to conform to the regulations. They all 
arrived at the port of New York, with no cholera en route, or at 
time of arrival. During the same period four vessels, with the 
same class of passengers, and their places of origin similar, in 
many cases identical, the water and food supply being the same 
as on the vessels for the United States, left for South America, 
and all were turned back by the South American authorities and 
returned to Naples. One, the Vincenzia Floria, had about 50 
deaths; the Andrea Gloria, 90 on the way out—total not ascer- 
tained. Another, 84 deaths, and the fourth, 230 deaths from 
cholera. 
THE NATIONAL QUARANTINE STATIONS. 
The Marine-Hospital Service has under its immediate control 
eleven national quarantine stations equipped with modern appli- 
ances for disinfection of vessels, hospitals for the care of the sick, 
and barracks, where required, for the detention of suspected im- 
migrants. 
These stations are located at Delaware Breakwater, Reedy Is- 
land, Delaware River; Cape Charles, Virginia; Blackbeard Island, 
Sapelo Sound, Georgia; Brunswick, Ga.; Dry Tortugas,Fla.; Ship 
Island, Gulf of Mexico, off the coast of Mississippi; San Diego, 
Cal.: Angel Island, San Francisco Bay, California; Port Town- 
send, Wash.; Cape Fear Quarantine, Southport, N. C. 
These stations are so far remote from populous centers as to be 
seldom visited, but their completeness and the scientific care ex- 
ercised in isolation of the sick, the surveillance of those suspected 
and held under observation, the cleansing and disinfection of ves- 
sels, have excited the surprise and commendation of the few mem- 
bers of Congress who have visited one or more of said stations. 
There is a fleet of thirteen vessels connected with these stations, 
three of them being old vessels turned over from the Navy for the 
purpose of receiving and housing people in quarantine. 
COOPERATIVE ASSOCIATIONS. 
Now, referring to the work done by the Marine-Hospital Service 
for other branches of the Government—namely, the Revenue Ma- 
rine, the Life-Saving Service, Steamboat-Inspection Service, and 
Immigration Service—a return service on the part of these branches 
of the Government adds to the strength and ability of the Marine- 
Hospital Service for quarantine work. For example, the Revenue- 
Cutter Service, under the same Secretary as is the Marine-Hospital 
Service, may be called upon at any time, and frequently is, to 
assist in quarantine measures through the medium of their fleet 
of vessels. 
In 1893 they patrolled the Southern coast in aid of th6 quaran- 
tine cordon around Brunswick. They carried medical officers and 
supplies to the Sea Islands, off the coast of South Carolina, in the 
sanitary work demanded of the Marine-Hospital Service by rea- 
son of the great storm. They have furnished vessels for the Ma- 
rine-Hospital Service repeatedly in New York Harbor, and in fact 
practically form a fleet subject to demand for service at any time 
in the aid of quarantine. 
In 1893, when it was feared that the immigrant detention camps 
at Camp Low and at Delaware Breakwater, both under the control 77 
of the Marine-Hospital Service, might of necessity be occupied by 
immigrants held under observation, an arrangement was made 
with the Revenue-Marine Service for the immediate detail of their 
enlisted and armed men from the several cutters, to form the nec- 
essary guards around these camps, the places of the enlisted men 
to be supplied by new enlistments on the vessels. 
The Steamboat-Inspection Service, in return for the examination 
of pilots, furnishes experts to examine the hulls, boilers, and ma- 
chinery of the vessels which belong to the Marine-Hospital Service. 
The Life-Saving Service, on request of the Supervising Surgeon- 
General of the Marine-Hospital Service, is required by its Superin- 
tendent to watch carefully for all dunnage and other stuff that 
might float ashore from infected vessels, thrown overboard before 
said vessels reach port; to gather up with rakes such material and 
burn it. 
The presence of medical officers at the immigrant reception sta- 
tions at the several ports enables the Bureau to keep fully in- 
formed with regard to immigrants and their baggage, which con- 
stitute so large a proportion of the danger in the matter of 
epidemic importation. 
OFFICIAL REQUESTS FOR THE ASSISTANCE OF THE MARINE- 
HOSPITAL SERVICE. 
The demands for the assistance of the Marine-Hospital Service 
on the part of State and local quarantine authorities have been 
almost innumerable. In 1893 the legislature of Pennsylvania 
made a request by resolution, duly forwarded by the governor of 
the State, calling upon the Marine-Hospital Service to establish 
the Reedy Island quarantine station to protect the city of Phila- 
delphia and the rest of the State of Pennsylvania from cholera. 
Requests to prevent the spread of smallpox have been received 
from the health officers of the State of Virginia. 
Request for aid in suppressing the cholera was made by the 
State and local authorities at Jersey City, N. J., in 1893. 
Requests have been received from the mayors of several munic- 
ipal localities in North Carolina and through State health officers 
to assist in the suppression of smallpox. 
Also from the representatives and municipal authorities in 
Georgia for the same purpose. 
Also from the governor and health authorities in Florida in 
suppressing yellow fever and smallpox. 
Also from the governor and State health officer of Alabama for 
the suppression of smallpox. 
Also from the representatives and State health authorities of 
Mississippi in the suppression of yellow fever. 
Request has also been received from the State health authori- 
ties of Louisiana for aid in disinfection and other sanitary meas- 
ures necessary to prevent the spread of yellow fever; from Ten- 
nessee to protect the State from smallpox invasion; from the State 
health officer of Texas for the same purpose; also from Arkansas. 
Requests have also been received from the State health authori- 
ties in California to protect them from the invasion of smallpox 
from Mexico. In fact, wherever expert service is required through 
reason of doubt as to diagnosis on the part of local authorities, or 
where sanitary rules, laws, and regulations are insufficient, or 
where the local authorities are unfamiliar with the methods neces- 
sary to suppress epidemic diseases, or where funds are absolutely 78 
lacking, the Marine-Hospital Service is called upon constantly to 
supply the several deficiencies. 
SCIENTIFIC INVESTIGATIONS. 
A schedule of work performed in the hygienic laboratory of the 
Marine-Hospital Service since its establishment in 1887 to date. 
1887. 
In August, 1887, a bacteriological laboratory was established at 
the port of New York for the purpose of utilizing the rich clinical 
material in the marine hospital in pursuing investigations regard- 
ing the etiology and pathology of disease, more especially the 
acute infectious and contagious maladies. 
In October, 1887, the steamships Alesia and Britannia arrived 
from Naples, Italy, the former having several well-marked cases 
of cholera aboard. These were utilized in making a bacteriolog- 
ical study* Two weeks after the arrival of the Alesia the Britan- 
nia arrived, and having had three deaths en voyage, the cause of 
which was obscure, two of the persons on board were found to be 
slightly ill, and, on bacteriological examinations, were found to 
be suffering from Asiatic cholera. 
An analysis of the water of the New York bays was made dur- 
ing the same year, to determine whether there was a possibility 
of cholera reaching the shore from the dejecta from those suffer- 
ing from the disease. 
1888. 
Investigation and report on gaseous and other disinfecting 
agents for quarantine purposes. 
Report on the inspection of the Louisiana State quarantine sta- 
tion with recommendations. This report and subsequent studies 
caused the authorities of the State to entirely remodel their appa- 
ratus and was the commencement of the adoption of the perfected 
apparatus with which the national and State quarantine stations 
are equipped to-day. 
1889. 
Studies in the etiology of malarial fever. 
Report on entero-malarial fever. 
Report on the influence of low temperatures on the symbiosis 
of microorganisms. 
Experiments relating to the cure of cholera by the administer- 
ing of cobra venom. 
1890. 
Report on the work performed in the laboratory of the Marine- 
Hospital Service, and observations and studies in the laboratories 
in Berlin and Paris. (Kinyoun.) 
Report of laboratory of the Marine-Hospital Service, Tortugas, 
Florida. (Geddings.) 
Official experiments with tuberculin. (Geddings.) 
1894. 
Report on the preparation and use of diphtheritic antitoxin. 
Report on examination of specimens from suspected cases of 
cholera. 
Report on the ventilation of the House of Representatives. 
1895. 
Preliminary report on the serum-therapy of variola. 
Preparation of diphtheria antitoxin. 
Investigation of the pollution of water supplies of the District 
of Columbia with special reference to typhoid fever. 79 
Experiments were continuous in devising and perfecting appa- 
ratus and appliances for use at quarantine stations—maritime 
and interstate. 
PAPERS AND REPORTS PROM THE HYGIENIC LABORATORY FOR 1S9S-97. 
1. Formaldehyd as a disinfecting agent. 
2. The disinfection of the railway coach. 
3. On the bacillus of the bubonic plague. 
4. On the clinical diagnosis of enteric fever. 
5. A contribution to the study of malarial fevers in the District 
of Columbia. 
6. A preliminary report on the sero-therapy of pneumonia. 
7. A report on the cause and treatment of smallpox. 
8. A report on the international congress relating to the sanitary 
condition of railways and vessels. 
9. A report on the international leprosy conference. 
10. A report on the preparation, conservation, and use of ani- 
mal vaccine. 
1888-1895. 
[Southern Pacific Company. W. G. Van Vleck, manager; T. Fay, manager’s 
assistant.] • 
New Orleans, La., December 17, 1897. 
My Dear Sir: In further reply to your letter of December 10 
on the subject of the effect of quarantine on traffic of this com- 
pany during the late fever, I will endeavor to give you a complete 
history of this matter as it affected the Southern Pacific road and 
the country through which it passes. In the New Orleans papers 
on September 6 the board of health announced officially one death 
from yellow fever in this city. The next morning many towns in 
Louisiana along our line placed an embargo on passengers and 
freight from New Orleans, Jeanerette being the first town to take 
such action. 
From this date quarantine restrictions were enacted in rapid 
succession, and on the 11th day of September practically every 
town in Louisiana on this road had placed an embargo on freight 
and passengers from or passing through New Orleans. On that 
date, according to statement of the board of health, there had 
been only one death from yellow fever in this city and no new 
cases had been reported. Appreciating that our country friends 
might not have entire confidence in the board of health here, and 
feeling assured that traffic was being interfered with to a greater 
extent than the situation justified, I called upon Mayor Flower to 
see if he would nok telegraph the situation to the mayors of the 
different towns, which I hoped would serve to allay the then 
groundless fears of the people and prevent the utter demoraliza- 
tion of business and railroad traffic. The mayor wrote with his 
own hand the following telegram: 
“New Orleans, September 11, 1897. 
“There is no authentic case of yellow fever in New Orleans 
to-day. Development of any yellow fever will be promptly re- 
ported.” 
This was sent at once to the mayors of Houma, Morgan City, 
Thibodaux, Pattersonville, Franklin, Jeanerette, New Iberia, St. 
Martinsville, Lafayette, Opelousas, Washington, Alexandria, 
Crowley. Lake Charles, Rayne, and Abbeville. 
Appendix E. 80 
This message produced absolutely no effect, as there was not a 
single instance of modification of restrictions following it. A 
new feature of quarantine restrictions was brought out this year 
in the quarantining of whole parishes, which was not attempted 
during any previous visitation of yellow fever to this section. 
Formerly towns and villages quarantined, but there was no such 
thing generally as a parish quarantine. 
On the same day we received notice of quarantine by Galveston 
against New Orleans, which was the first Texas town to take such 
action. On September 12 the city of Houston quarantined against 
New Orleans and commenced to stop all trains at city limits for 
examination. On September 13 the whole State of Texas quar- 
antined against all freight or passengers from or through New 
Orleans. On September 14 we found it necessary to discontinue 
running the daylight passenger trains between New Orleans and 
Houston, as all points had. quarantined and the trains were doing 
no business. The Texas health authorities, on September 13, noti- 
fied us that they would not permit the United States mail agents 
(postal clerks) to pass beyond the Louisiana State line after that 
date. 
On the night of September 13, Dr. Swearingen, State health 
officer of Texas, being in Houston, a conference was held with 
him and the mayor of that city by the officials of the railroad 
company with the view to keeping open for transcontinental freight 
the New York steamship line via Algiers. It was shown to the 
Texas authorities that there had not been even a suspicious case 
of fever in Algiers, and as the wharves of the Southern Pacific are 
isolated, it was thought impossible for any danger to come to the 
State of Texas by allowing New York freight from these ships, 
transferred from ship tonars at Algiers, to go into or pass through 
Texas. 
The health authorities of that State finally’ took this view of the 
matter, with the understanding that they would send an inspector, 
appointed by themselves, to supervise the loading of freight from 
ship to cars on the Algiers wharf, which cars were to be allowed 
to go into Texas and to pass through, upon a certificate from the 
inspector tacked on each car. 
This company even went further than required byT the Texas 
authorities in throwing safeguards around the handling of freight 
in this manner, and we arranged to employ none but Algiers 
labor, temporarily, in unloading these ships and loading cars. 
The necessity for this was explained to the laborers from New 
Orleans as requisite to the continued handling of the ships from 
and to this port. 
Before this arrangement was made we were in hourly fear of 
interruption of through traffic into Texas, and had each of the 
steamers call at the passes for orders in anticipation of being com- 
pelled to send them to Galveston. 
The Texas authorities, however, though allowing the New York 
freight to be handled in accordance with the above arrangement, 
positively refused to allow any freight from or passing through 
New Orleans to enter that State, and before we could get notice 
to them about 100 cars of freight delivered to us by connecting 
railroads at New Orleans for the West were thrown on our hands. 
Such articles as iron water pipes, iron, coke, etc., from Alabama, 
machinery, hardware, etc., while recognized by all authorities in 
health matters as being impossible of conveying infection, were 
refused entrance into Texas, and we were also forbidden to haul 81 
coal for the use of our engines through New Orleans to the coal- 
ing stations at Beaumont and Houston. Several cars containing 
such articles as sugar and molasses, which left New Orleans be- 
fore Texas adopted any restrictions, were stopped at Sabine River, 
and we were forced to bring them back to New Orleans and return 
to shippers. 
On September 15, in spite of the arrangement made with the 
State health officer of Texas to handle New York freight for Texas 
points by ships through Algiers, the city of Gfalveston instituted 
quarantine on its own account, and declined to allow any more of 
this freight to come into that place. Without any previous warn- 
ing, and without giving time to stop shipments of Galveston 
freight at New York, these regulations were put in force, and we 
were caught with a number of carloads of Galveston freight on 
the line and in ships due, which we were eventually forced to re- 
turn to New York and reship by direct steamer to Galveston. 
On September 16 the parish of Rapides refused to allow any 
more trains from New Orleans to enter that parish, and this com- 
pany was forced to discontinue the operation of trains on the 
Alexandria branch beyond Cheneyville, and about the same time 
the town council of Opelousas passed a resolution imposing a pen- 
alty of $1,000 fine on any common carrier landing merchandise of 
any kind in that town from any point on and after September 18. 
On September 16 the steamer Aransas, arriving here, had some 
Chinese in bond going through to Hongkong. They were exposed 
absolutely to no infection, and a request on the Texas authorities 
to allow them to pass through the State was refused, though it 
was well known that this company is always compelled to send 
guards with Chinese to see that they do not escape into the United 
States; hence there was no possibility of their getting off the 
train in Texas. 
One of the many brutal features of the quarantine restrictions 
was brought out about this time by a request made upon me by 
Mr. John Day, the chief clerk of the Railway Mail Service here, 
to have an empty car placed in a siding at the Louisiana State 
line for use of mail clerks running out of New Orleans. Although 
the Texas quarantine officers had ample accommodations for these 
clerks at their camp. I was informed they refused either to give 
or sell the clerks food or shelter, and until this empty car was 
furnished by us these clerks were forced to sleep in the woods by 
the inhumanity of the guards. Some of them went nineteen and 
twenty hours without food. 
From the 16th to the 18th of September there was nothing re- 
markable to record, except a general tightening up of the restric- 
tions at all points. On the afternoon of September 18 the city of 
Houston declined to allow any more passenger trains from Louisi- 
ana to enter its limits, and the night passenger trains over the 
line were run only to and from the Sabine River on that date. 
The next day, however, this was modified, provided we would 
agree to fumigate all passenger cars at Algiers immediately before 
departure. This was carried out promptly, and the trains re- 
sumed their runs. 
On September 20 State Health Officer Swearingen, of Texas, 
issued instructions to us that he would not allow the mail cars to 
go directly into Texas, but that they must be switched off at the 
Sabine River and held there twenty four hours for fumigation at 
his hands. 
On tihe morning of September 22 we were advised by State Health 82 
Officer Swearingen that there was a suspicious case of fever at Beau- 
mont, and the company would probably not be allowed to run any 
more trains in either direction through that place. Later in the day 
this threat was put into effect, and no more trains were allowed 
to pass through Beaumont in either direction. This not only com- 
pelled the entire abandonment of passenger and mail service be- 
tween New Orleans and the West, but it also stopped immediately 
the passage of all New York freight from ships at Algiers. After 
the agreement made with the Texas authorities for the continued 
handling of this freight, it was an act of exceeding bad faith on 
their part to abrogate it on a moment’s notice. 
The result was one ship’s cargo was tied up at Algiers and the 
large part of a previous ship’s cargo was caught east of the Sabine 
River, necessitating its being returned to Algiers, unloaded, and 
subsequently returned to New York for forwarding by direct 
steamer via Galveston. The alleged reason for this sudden and 
unwarranted interference with all traffic was that there was a 
case of yellow fever at Beaumont. Whilst bowing to the arbi- 
trary action of the Texas health authorities, their attention was 
called to the fact that these two cargoes were on hand, brought 
here under an arrangement made with them which the railroad 
company had more than complied with and naturally had the 
right to expect would not be abrogated on a moment’s notice. 
As the ostensible reason given by the Texas State health officer 
for their stopping the entire traffic of a large transcontinental 
railroad was that there was a case of yellow fever at Beaumont, a 
request was made on him for permission to send the two cargoes 
on hand into Texas by way of the Texas and Pacific to Dallas, 
thence down the Houston and Texas Central, leaving Beaumont 
several hundred miles to the south. Strange to say. however, 
such an entirely reasonable request was promptly refused. 
As a last resort, the opinion of Dr. Carter, of the Marine-Hos- 
pital Service, was sought as to the chances of the cars containing 
these two cargoes carrying infection from Beaumont in merely 
passing through that place. Dr. Carter said there was no possible 
danger, but in order to make sure he would personally attend to 
the proper disinfection of the cars in any manner designated by 
the Texas health authorities and give a certificate with each and 
every car. This proposition was laid before the Texas health 
authorities and also refused. 
Being unable to longer continue the handling of freight of 
any kind into Texas, the New York steamers due were held at the 
Passes and ordered to proceed to Galveston, and those in New 
York were ordered to Galveston direct. 
Thus was the entire traffic of one of the principal transconti- 
nental lines absolutely stopped, and a line which for years has 
handled some 75 per cent of the through traffic from New York, 
Boston, and other Eastern seaboard points to California was com- 
pelled to abandon its trains, send its ships to ports without ade- 
quate facilities to handle its business, close down its shops, and 
allow the grass to grow upon its tracks, all because a 12-year old 
boy at Beaumont was sick and the health officer of the great 
State of Texas thought he had a case suspicious of yellow fever. 
The arbitrary action of the Texas authorities was quickly fol- 
lowed by similar action on the part of Calcasieu Parish and other 
western Louisiana points. 
Meanwhile the condition of affairs along the line had become so 
burdensome and objectionable to the more conservative people 83 
that a conference between the health authorities of the Louisiana 
towns was suggested. Dr. Carter, of the Marine-Hospital Service, 
Dr. Guiteras, the Government vellow-fever expert, and Dr. Olli- 
phant, president of the Louisiana Board of Health, were invited 
to attend, as was also Dr. Swearingen, of the Texas board. A 
special train was furnished by this company, which left Algiers 
on the morning of September 29, picking up the doctors at the 
different points on the line. This train on reaching Bayne, in the 
parish of Acadia, was stopped by an armed mob and prevented 
from proceeding further, notwithstanding the fact that authority 
was given for it to pass through the day before the outrage 
occurred. 
These events were followed in a few days by the appearance of 
fever (pronounced later by Dr. Guiteras to be yellow fever) at 
Galveston and also at Houston, and at once there was another 
avalanche of quarantine restrictions, not only in Louisiana, but 
also over all Texas. The health authorities of these cities, how- 
ever, in a short while passed a resolution that no yellow fever 
existed, and Texas quarantines against them were generally raised. 
Not so with Louisiana towns, however. Lake Charles, with two 
outlets to the North still open, maintained her embargo against 
the Southern Pacific, and with other points declined to allow trains 
to pass in either direction. 
A merchant of Crowley, La., had a carload of rice sacks from 
some Northern point shipped to Lake Charles. The Southern 
Pacific was asked as a favor (as it could run no trains) to haul the 
car with switch engine to Crowley. This they agreed to do, but 
Calcasieu and Lake Charles authorities would not permit it, 
though they did allow this same car to be hauled by wagon by a 
resident of Lake Charles to the Mermentau River, at a cost of 
$140—considerably more than it cost to bring it hundreds of miles 
to Lake Charles. 
With the assistance of the fumigation plans adopted by the 
United States Marine-Hospital Service and through the efficient 
cooperation of Dr. Carter and his assistants, this company was 
enabled through all these troublous times, to run a mixed train 
between New Orleans and St. Martinsville and handle the mails 
and many classes of freights, after fumigaTion. 
From St. Martinsville to Alexandria and the Sabine River, 
however, traffic of all kinds was practically abandoned. This con- 
dition of affairs continued until an accumulation of freight from 
California for New Orleans at Houston on October 20 induced the 
railroad officials to apply to Texas health authorities for permis- 
sion to bring the freight east to destination. 
This was consented to with the proviso that no loaded cars of 
any description could move west, but the railroad would be al- 
lowed to move empty cars west if they would stop them at Sabine 
River and fumigate to the satisfaction of the Texas authorities. 
This was agreed to by the railroad, and whilst the authorities of 
Calcasieu Parish were not unwilling to this arrangement, some of 
the citizens of Lake Charles called a mass meeting, which declared 
that that town mus{ be the eastern terminus of the Southern 
Pacific Company, and to make the declaration more emphatic the 
same night a trestle bridge just east of there was burned, convey- 
ing the hint of further destruction of property unless their de- 
mands were complied with. 
On October 27 the objections at Lake Charles were removed and 
permission given to handle loaded cars east and empties west after 84 
fumigation. On October 30 they again objected, and this state of 
affairs continued until November 10, when the railroad was per- 
mitted to move a few cars east bound. On November 12 Houston 
raised its quarantine unconditionally, and on November 15 the 
State of Texas took similar action; and it was not until about this 
time that the Lake Charles authorities, realizing that they could 
no longer maintain their absurd commercial quarantine restric- 
tions, amended them to some extent, and a limited amount of 
traffic was resumed. 
It was not until November 25, however, that all through freight 
and passenger tragic was resumed, and several weeks afterwards 
before restrictions covering local freight to Louisiana points were 
entirely abrogated. 
The business of the Southern Pacific Company was thus inter- 
rupted from September 7, and a great part of the time entirely 
stopped in portions of Texas and Louisiana, until November 25, a 
period of eighty days, during which time the company actually 
lost the sum of $1,118,112.61. 
In addition to this actual loss, as compared with the same 
period last year, up to September 15, the company’s traffic had 
shown a very gratifying increase, and the outlook for a further 
increase was bright. The loss from the prospective increase, as 
well as the enormous increase in the expense of handling freight 
via Gal vest ion, due to the inadequate facilities and high charges 
of that port, made the real loss not less than $1,500,000, besides 
having the bulk of its through business to and from California 
and other Western points diverted to its Northern competitors, who 
were not affected by quarantine restrictions. Most of this traffic 
it will take years to regain, and some of it has been lost forever. 
There is not the shadow of a doubt that the quarantine restric- 
tions of many towns and cities during the prevalence of this fever 
were more of a commercial than a health measure. I have made 
careful inquiry at the principal points on this company's line 
and I am reliably informed that the necessaries of life were ad- 
vanced to consumers from 10 to 50 per cent. To cite one instance 
of many: A merchant at Crowley says he paid 8 cents per can for 
baking powder at wholesale at Lake Charles that he sold himself 
at retail before quarantine at 5 cents per can; sugar advanced 25 
per cent at the same point. These advances were general from 
St. Martinsville to Cheneyville and Lake Charles. 
In this lengthy letter I have given you a record of the principal 
events as they occurred from day to day and such information as 
it seems to me will be of service. 
These facts are given for your own use, as you can understand 
we can not afford to publicly criticise the action of the people in 
a matter of this kind, and we really have no fault to find with lo- 
cal quarantine restrictions imposed to protect the health of the 
people, but restrictions imposed for commercial purposes, and 
those which prevent the handling of through traffic, are unwar- 
ranted acts of tyranny which there should be some power to pre- 
vent. 
Wishing you success with your admirable measure, I remain, 
Yours, very truly, 
T. FAY, Manager's Assistant. 
Hon. Don. Caffery, 
Washington, D. C. 85 
My Dear Sir: In writing you on quarantine matters on the 
18th instant. I failed to give you the facts about the effect the 
quarantine restrictions had on steamship business to Florida 
ports, which ports, while practically open to Habanaat all times, 
were closed to traffic by steamers from New Orleans during the 
prevalence of the yellow fever here. One of the strongest reasons 
for placing quarantine regulations under the control of the Na- 
tional Government is illustrated by the action of the health au- 
thorities of Florida, who permit the free entrance of steamers from 
Habana throughout the year. 
The distance from Habana to Key West is only about 90 miles 
and is easily made by fast steamers in six or seven hours. After 
landing passengers and freight at Key West they proceed to Port 
Tampa, which is reached in twenty-four hours after leaving Ha- 
bana. The ships in this trade belong to the Plant Line, carry a 
large number of passengers, and in connection with the rail lines 
in southern Florida form the quickest route between New York 
and other Eastern points and Habana. On arrival at Port Tampa 
passengers take the trains at once and are soon distributed through- 
out the country, some coming to New Orleans and other points 
along the Gulf. You can understand how extremely difficult it 
would be to trace such passengers after they leave Port Tampa or 
determine whether or not during the summer months they do not 
communicate yellow fever to those with whom they happen to 
come in contact on trains or after they reach their destination. 
These steamers are allowed to maintain this open intercourse 
with such a constantly infected port as Habana on the ground 
that they enter that port in the morning and leave again before 
sundown, and that the crews are not allowed to go ashore, yet it 
is a known fact that captains and pursers, both of whom have 
necessary business to attend to on shore, invariably land, and the 
ship whilst at anchor is receiving and unloading freight and sup- 
plies, with boatmen and laborers coming and going between it and 
the shore. It is claimed passengers are only allowed on board af- 
ter an examination is made as to their health, previous residence, 
etc., by a physician, but it can be appreciated how extremely un- 
reliable such an examination is when in many cases the physician 
can only accept the mere statement of passengers in the premises. 
In connection with this subject I inclose you a clipping from 
the Times-Democrat of yesterday which may be of interest. 
There is no way to prevent such methods as outlined in the report 
in the Times, except by placing the entire control of quarantine 
matters under the United States Government, as such authority 
would not maintain the present efficient quarantine in the Mis- 
sissippi River and at the same time allow the notoriously ineffi- 
cient quarantines at Florida and the other Gulf ports. There are 
many persons in this section who attribute the origin of the yel- 
low fever at Ocean Springs during the pas<t summer to passen- 
gers who came to that point from Habana to Tampa by ship and 
thence by rail. 
Nearly every trip these steamers had aboard refugees from the 
Island of Cuba, who scattered all over the South, many coming to 
New Orleans, Mobile, and the Lake Shore points. The quaran- 
tine at Mobile has also been notoriously lax, that port having 
been so anxious to encourage the fruit trade from Central America 
that.they have allowed steamships to arrive and unload without 
any detention; yet it is well known that there had been more or 
New Orleans, La., December SI, 1897. 86 
less fever at many of the Central American ports during the past 
summer. 
As long as quarantine regulations are under the control of the 
local and State authorities there will never be any certainty of 
this section of the country escaping the importation of yellow 
fever. What is needed, in the first place, is a quarantine which 
will prevent the importation of the fever, and, in the second place, 
to have such restrictions uniformly and impartially enforced at 
all ports, especially south of Cape Hatteras, as north of that point 
the fever, though occasionally imported, has not spread for many 
years. There is no other country in the world where such a con- 
dition of affairs as existed in our section during the months of 
September, October, and November would have been possible. 
Every State, county, parish, and town had its own ideas of quar- 
antine, and in most cases they seemed to work on a different basis. 
In some instances, where the duly constituted authorities imposed 
reasonable restrictions, their orders were nullified by action of 
mobs. No assistance was given by either the State or General 
Governments toward an amelioration of the condition of affairs, 
and even the United States mail was at the mercy of petty local 
authorities, who in many cases refused it passage for months. 
Had such a law as you propose been in effect, the condition of 
affairs would have been entirely different. In the first place, the 
fever would never have been imported, and if it had found lodg- 
ment here, no such ruin to commercial interests as occurred 
would have been possible. Whilst local communities could have 
taken the necessary action to protect the health of their people, 
they would not have had the power to prevent the passage of 
through trains which do not stop, and through freights, mail, and 
express, as well as passengers, would have been handled with en- 
tire safety. 
The railroads could have arranged to change their crews at 
isolated and properly guarded points and put on other crews who 
had not been exposed to infection, thus doing away with every 
possible danger of spreading the disease and throwing around the 
handling of their through business all necessary safeguards to pro- 
tect the health of the communities through which they pass. 
Yours, truly, 
T. FAY. 
Hon. Don. Caffery, 
Washington, D. C. 
[Queen and Crescent Route. New Orleans and Northeastern Railroad Com- 
pany; Alabama and Vicksburg Railway Company; Vicksburg, Shreveport 
and Pacific Railroad Company. C. C. Harvey, president and general man- 
ager.] 
New Orleans, La., December S3, 1897. 
Dear Sir: I have received from the Southern Pacific Company 
copy of your letter of the 10th instant addressed to Mr. Owen, and 
with reference thereto I beg to say that traffic arrangements on 
these lines were most seriously interrupted by yellow fever quar- 
antine, and nearly every town and corporation issued different 
regulations, often in conflict with the regulations issued by the 
State authorities, which complicated matters very seriously. 
Many of these regulations were, no doubt, issued for the sole 
purpose of keeping dut yellow fever, although unnecessarily 
stringent according to the views of experts, but there can be no 
doubt, I think, that several towns quarantined against other towns 
in the hope of securing business. 87 
On the line of the New Orleans and Northeastern road we man- 
aged to keep freight trains running and handled certain classes of 
business, but we had to discontinue running local trains, as for 
many weeks no passengers were allowed to go from one town to 
another along the line, and only a few trains were therefore run 
to accommodate through business. 
To do this we had to run a local service between New Orleans 
and Slidell (28 miles), where there was a quarantine station. 
Passengers there changed into another train, with a separate crew, 
and were taken 3 miles out of Meridian to another camp. and. after 
examination, the trains were allowed to go north through Meridian, 
no passengers or any members of the train crews being allowed to 
alight at Meridian. 
On the Alabama and Vicksburg and Vicksburg, Shreveport and 
Pacific roads the passenger and freight trains were annulled for 
many days, the people along those lines positively declining to 
allow any train service, and near Jackson a trestle was burned 
and track torn up by people from Jackson, owing to a misunder- 
standing between the State authorities and the superintendent as 
to the regulations under which the trains could be run. The 
regulations issued by the authorities covered an excessive rate of 
speed through the town and across other railroad tracks to which 
it would have been dangerous for the company to conform. 
The loss on traffic from the 15th of September to the 31st of Oc- 
tober, 1897, entirely owing to quarantine restrictions, amounted 
to $128,500, being a falling off of 35 per cent as compared with 
the corresponding period of the previous year. There was also a 
continued loss in passenger business during November, but the 
freight traffic held up. 
It seems to me very necessary that there should be uniformity 
in the quarantine restrictions and that these regulations should 
be prepared by persons having knowledge of how yellow fever is 
spread, and that local authorities should not have the power to 
stop through railroad traffic, and their regulations in local mat- 
ters should, I think, be confined within the lines prepared by 
higher authorities. 
If you would like further details, I shall be pleased to furnish 
you with the same. 
Yours, truly, C. C. HARVEY, 
President and General Manager. 
Hon. Don. Caffery, 
Washington, D. C. 
[Louisville and Nashville Railroad Company, New Orleans and Mobile 
Division.] 
New Orleans, La., January 17, 1898. 
Dear Sir: A copy of your letter of December 10 has been 
nanded me by Superintendent Owen, of the Southern Pacific 
Railroad. I have been prevented by pressure of affairs from 
writing you earlier. 
I would say that while this line suffered greatly by the epi- 
demic, we did not experience the difficulties in dealing with the 
quarantine regulations as did some of the other lines. The terri- 
tory through which my division runs was for the most part “ in- 
fected;” hence our people were the “quarantined” rather than 
“ quarantiners. ” However, there were quarantine regulations 
enough everywhere along the line. 88 
In some instances quarantine was apparently maintained to 
conceal the fact that there was fever in the places. Many of the 
circumstances were equally as eccentric. There are in Missis- 
sippi three different bodies in each county with the power to es- 
tablish quarantines, without counting the “ shotgun ” element. 
For the want of uniformity it was impossible almost to keep track 
of the regulations. The officials themselves, in some instances, 
were ignorant of their relations to each other. I know of an in- 
stance of a body forgetting its own orders. We got permission 
from all the proper authorities to forward a carload of grain (or 
fertilizer) originating in the North to a small station in Missis- 
sippi, but on arrival one or two people in the vicinity prevented 
its delivery to the owner. 
The Harrison County (Miss.) quarantine guards prevented for a 
time small vessels from passing through the Bay St. Louis draw- 
bridge. which were loaded fn Mississippi Sound and destined to 
the town of Bay St. Louis, which, as you know, is situated on the 
south shore of the bay. The drawbridge is toward the north shore 
of the bay of St. Louis, and said to be within Harrison County. 
These vessels were not working contrary to any quarantine regu- 
lations. and, I believe, were operating at the request of the town 
authorities of Bay St. Louis to afford employment to the people, 
who would otherwise be dependent upon public charity. 
I mention these cases as examples. I would mention another 
peculiarity of the quarantine. Places maintained strict quaran- 
tine after they had become ‘‘infected” themselves. The cities of 
New Orleans and Mobile did so. The explanation was that these 
cities were spending large sums of money in isolating the foci of 
infection, hence the necessity to keep out new foci. But the fail- 
ure of the physicians to report cases destroyed any chance to stamp 
out the disease by such efforts. 
It seems to be an acknowledged fact that only a small propor- 
tion of the cases were reported. Still, it may be proper to isolate 
only one focus, if no more, in the midst of an epidemic. No tell- 
ing how much spread might take place from the one focus. It 
may therefore have been right for an infected place to maintain 
quarantine against another, but it looks unreasonable. 
Respectfully, 
C. MARSHALL, Superintendent. 
Hon. Don. Caffery. 
United States Senate Chamber, Washington, D. C. 
[Illinois Central Railroad Company.] 
Chicago, December 31, 1897. 
Dear Sir: Referring to your letter of 10th instant, addressed 
to Mr. Owen, superintendent of the Southern Pacific Company at 
New Orleans, advising that you have introduced a bill in the 
United States Senate providing for national quarantine over in- 
terstate commerce and travel, and asking for information which 
will aid you in establishing the utility of such a law. 
In reply to your first inquiry as to how long trains of our road 
were stopped during the late epidemic, I beg to advise that through 
passenger-train service on the Illinois Central Railroad, between 
New Orleans and Chicago and New Orleans and Louisville, was 
not interrupted at any time, but we were compelled to take off a 
number of our local passenger trains on account of the rigid and 89 
varying quarantine regulations, which effectually prevented local 
travel. 
On both the Illinois Central and the Yazoo and Mississippi Val- 
ley Railroad as well through freight-train service between New 
Orleans and points in the North was not seriously impeded, but 
the local freight service in Louisiana and Mississippi was greatly 
hampered through quarantine regulations which prevented the 
handling of many classes of freight from districts alleged to be 
infected. 
In reply to your second question, I will state that the period of 
greater or less interference with traffic by quarantine regulations 
may be set at sixty days from, say, September 6 to the early part 
of November. 
In reply to your third inquiry, will state that quarantine regu- 
lations were made by municipal, county, and State authorities. 
In reply to your fourth inquiry, will state that we have made no 
estimate as to the loss sustained by either the Illinois Central or 
the Yazoo and Mississippi Valley companies. 
The Constitution of the United States gives to Congress power 
“to regulate commerce with foreign nations and among the sev- 
eral States, and with the Indian tribes;” that is to say, all com- 
merce, foreign and domestic. 
It would be no stretch of this power to have the Federal Gov- 
ernment control quarantine at all interior points, as well as at 
the seaboard, and obviously a uniform and efficient quarantine 
should be adopted, which, owing to diversity of local interests, 
sectional jealousies, and other causes, can not be maintained ex- 
cept under Federal authority, as is abundantly shown by the ex- 
perience in this and in other previous visitations of yellow fever 
and other forms of epidemic diseases. 
The matter should be considered from a national standpoint, 
and in the interest of every State and every one of our seventy- 
odd million citizens. The question should not be looked at from 
a Southern point of view alone, as there are other contagious dis- 
eases of greater virulence than yellow fever which may come in 
through our other boundaries on the North Atlantic seaboard, on 
the Great Lakes, or from Canada, or Mexico. 
We have a certain safeguard against yellow fever—that it is not 
indigenous anywhere in the United States—while other diseases, 
•like typhoid, typhus, diphtheria, etc., do originate within our 
borders. 
It seems to me, therefore, that the Federal Government should 
take the whole question of quarantine, as affecting commerce, 
into its control and enact and enforce laws which, while ade- 
quately protecting the public health, shall admit of commerce 
being carried on without subjecting it, as heretofore, to purely 
local and in many cases utterly inefficient and unnecessary re- 
strictions. 
Yours, truly, J. T. HARAHAN, 
Second Vice-President. 
Hon. Don. Caffery, 
United States Senate, Washington, D. C. 
Appendix F. 
Maritime quarantine unquestionably can prevent the introduc- 
tion of infectious disease. It is not necessary to quote authority 
for this—certainly not in America, where it is universally held 
and all quarantine practice based on it. 90 
The aim is to allow no infected vessel or person to come to entry. 
It is in two parts: 
1. Measures to prevent infection of the vessel in the foreign 
port, or there cleanse it, so that it comes clean to our quarantine 
stations. 
2. Measures of disinfection and quarantine at our quarantine 
stations of such vessels as report there infected. 
The first is only possible to the United States, and is especially * 
advocated by American sanitarians—Billings and Holt, of Louis- 
iana; Bell, of New York; Woods and Ranch, of Illinois, and 
others—the resolutions of the Montgomery conference of 1889 and 
the Mobile conference of 1897 (see below), at both of which con- 
ferences the resolutions were carried unanimously. 
A resolution looking toward the sanitary inspection and sanitation of foreign 
ports that menace us most and to the establishment of a system of interna- 
tional quarantine. 
Resolved, First. That the Congress of the United States be requested to 
authorize the President to take such steps, by treaty or otherwise, as may 
aid in inducing the respective governments of the intertropical American 
ports to secure proper and adequate sanitation, together with the adoption 
by them of such restrictive measures as may be necessary to render such 
ports in good sanitary condition and to prevent the introduction of yellow 
fever. 
Second. To provide for the maintenance of a medical force of this country 
in each such port to give warning of the existence of yellow fever therein, 
with adequate power for the most efficient possible prevention of the com- 
munication of the disease therefrom: and that Congress be memorialized to 
make such appropriation as may be necessary to maintain a proper medical- 
inspection service in intertropical American ports of sufficient importance 
to warrant such appointment. 
Third. That the Congress of the United States be memorialized to make a 
suitable appropriation and provide for the early calling of a conference of 
port sanitary authorities to deal with the subject of international quaran- 
tine and preventive sanitary regulations. 
Respectfully submitted by- JOHN B. HAMILTON, 
S. R. OLLIPHANT, 
H. R. CARTER, 
R. P. DANIEL, 
P. J. HAMILTON, 
Committee. 
The efficiency of this foreign work is well shown by the small 
number (2) of infected vessels arriving at United States quaran- 
tine stations during the cholera epidemic of 1898, the most widely 
spread epidemic ever known, and the only widespread European 
epidemic which did not spread to the United States. During thi£ 
year officers of the United States were stationed in foreign ports 
and carried out measures of disinfection and quarantine to prevent 
the infection of these vessels. Commerce this year with cholera- 
infected ports was not interrupted. 
That maritime quarantine at stations in the United States can 
prevent the introduction of disease is shown by the history of the 
Southern cities. Charleston. Savannah, Mobile, and New Orleans, 
which, since the institution of proper quarantine about a score of 
years ago, have escaped visitations of yellow fever for from nine- 
teen to twenty-one years, prior to which time it was common in all 
and of almost yearly occurrence in the first and last. Every sani- 
tarian in the South, except Dr. le Hardy, of Savannah, relies ab- 
solutely on the efficiency of maritime quarantine to prevent the 
introduction of yellow fever. 
That proper sanitary measures can, in general, prevent an epi- 
demic of yellow fever if the earlier cases be discovered is also tne 
belief of all or nearly all sanitarians. 91 
Jerome Cochran, of Alabama, a sanitarian of highest authority 
on yellow fever, submitted to the Montgomery conference the 
proposition: “ When a few cases of yellow fever occur in a com- 
munity * * * it is generally possible by the employment of 
proper sanitary measures to prevent the development of an epi- 
demic,” which proposition was, after full discussion, adopted by 
the conference, which contained almost every sanitarian in the 
United States having practical knowledge of yellow fever. 
The experience this year at Franklin, La., as well Baton 
Rouge, La., and at Perkinston, Cayuga, and Clinton, Miss., shows 
the truth of this most beautifully (especially if it be compared 
with towns where no such means were taken). The fever in all 
these towns was suppressed by the means taken. In Edwards, 
while not suppressed, it was absolutely confined to the cordon. 
No fever spread out of the “infected district” during the Bruns- 
wick epidemic. During this epidemic commerce through Jessup, 
in the infected district, was carried on without let or hindrance, 
and that with Brunswick with little interference, in both cases 
without conveying infection. 
Porter, of Florida, may be quoted as inculcating the safety of 
commerce from a place infected with yellow fever, carried on 
under proper supervision, as may the late Jerome Cochran and 
the no less eminent Dr. Thornton, of Memphis, and this principle 
was agreed to in practice in 1897 by the State boards of Mississippi 
and Tennessee. In fact, not a few sanitarians hold—among whom 
I may again quote Cochran and Thornton—that commerce under 
careful regulation is safer than regulations of absolute noninter- 
course, if the latter are to be kept up for any length of time, as it 
has been found well-nigh impossible to prevent some smuggling 
in of persons or things if no legitimate means of communication 
is allowed, and the danger from even a very small amount of un- 
regulated communication is greater than much carried on under 
sanitary supervision. 
The experience of 1897 is in point. Alabama towns almost uni- 
versally had a quarantine *>f nonintercourse with infected points, 
and yellow fever was reported in nine of them (not counting Mo- 
bile) . In Louisiana the towns east of Arcadia Parish, with few 
exceptions, allowed commerce with New Orleans, and in only 
two—and one of these Baton Rouge, a nonintercourse town—did 
fever develop. Nor did any fever develop in any of the Missis- 
sippi towns, which allowed commerce (under United States super- 
vision) with New Orleans. 
During the Brunswick fever the pratique of the United States 
for persons and commerce was taken without the slightest friction 
by Savannah. Macon, Augusta, and all other towns in Georgia, 
and by the State boards of Florida and South Carolina. 
Appendix G. 
ANSWER TO OBJECTION TO MANDATORY PRATIQUE. 
The provision of the proposed act, by which a vessel, after proper 
disinfection at a United States quarantine station, is pronounced 
free to enter port, “ shall be admitted to entry ” on the certificate 
of the United States quarantine officer—to which Mr. Mallory 
so objects—has already been in force for five years, being provided 
for in the act of February 15, 1893. section 6. 92 
In the preamble of the United States Quarantine Regulations 
now in force, however, we find the following (page 9, paragraph 7): 
Vessels having been treated at national quarantine stations that are lo- 
cated a distance from the ports of entry of said vessels may be 
inspected by the local quarantine officer, and if for any sanitary reason it is 
considered inadvisable to admit the vessel, he should report the facts imme- 
diately to the Supervising Surgeon-General, Marine-Hospital Service, detain- 
ing the vessel pending his action. 
This shows that there is no disposition to object on the part of 
the Unifed States quarantine authorities to the inspection of their 
work by local quarantine officers. It is rather invited. 
This provision of the act of 1893—the ‘‘mandatory pratique” of 
maritime quarantine—has been operative five years, and this sec- 
ond inspection has been made under this paragraph of regulations 
by local quarantine officers during the whole of that time, and 
there has no single case occurred in which there has been any 
complaint by local quarantine officers of its action. 
This mandatory pratique, however, was not without its use. 
At not a few ports in the South—the Gulf especially—quarantine 
was sometimes administered for other than sanitary reasons—for 
the fees of ballast and disinfection, from jealousy between sta- 
tions, etc.—and this power was needed to prevent this unneces- 
sary quarantine of clean ships, and needed for that purpose alone. 
The history of its operation for five years, and the paragraph of 
the United States Quarantine Regulations quoted, show* that it 
has never been used, or intended to be used, to force a vessel on 
a quarantine officer objecting to its entry in good faith. 
Nor is quarantine for commercial purposes a rarity on land. 
This disinfection of clean vessels was mainly at the smaller ports. 
Vessels from South Africa—Cape Town, Port Algoa, and Port 
Elizabeth—were habitually quarantined for yellow fever at Pasca- 
goula. At these ports there has never been a case of yellow fever. 
For instance the bark Castilla, disinfected at Chandeleur in 1890 
by steam and every modern appliance, was quarantined at Round 
Island, Miss., and some sulphur burned in pots in her hold, and 
the disinfection fee collected; the quarantine officer at Round 
Island stating in a letter that he regarded the process as ‘ ‘ unnec- 
essary and inefficacious, ” but he was directed to do it. 
Other cases have occurred at the same quarantine and similar 
ones at Apalachicola, and in the same line was the compulsory 
removal of disinfected rock ballast at the Pensacola quarantine, 
for which fees were charged, now discontinued by the Florida 
State board. At this time the same vessels were allowed entry 
into the larger ports—New Orleans, Mobile, Tampa, Savannah, 
and Charleston—without quarantine. 
Appendix H. 
Letter from Dr. White, in charge of immigration bureau, Ellis 
Island, N. Y. 
Treasury Department, 
Office of the Supervising Surgeon-General 
Marine-Hospital Service, 
Washington, D. C., March 19, 1898. 
Dear Doctor: Referring to my conversation with you last 
night, and to the fact that Senators Caffery and Frye both 
seemed interested in the matter, I submit the following statement 
of facts. 93 
The Marine-Hospital Service assumed control of Brunswick 
(Ga.) quarantine in the summer of 1893, and of the epidemic of 
yellow fever already implanted there prior to that time. 
So well was the service work done in both sea and land quar- 
antine that all Georgia cities and towns accepted the pratique of 
both classes, business went on with a minimum of hindrance, 
and not one solitary hint ever emanated from any person that 
any infection was carried to any place outside our lines. Savannah, 
the most prominent commercial seaport of the Southeast, was so 
well pleased as to request, on or about July 1,1894, after one year’s 
observation of the work, that we should take over and assume 
full charge of her local quarantine. You are in position to sup- 
ply the pi’oof of this offer. 
None of the local quarantines in Georgia or South Carolina 
dare handle infected ships, but send every one of such to the na- 
tional station at Sapelo Sound, thus contradicting any statement 
that they do not rely upon the Marine-Hospital Service, and, in- 
deed, with rare exceptions, this applies to the whole Southern 
coast. Nearly all of them send vessels to national quarantines, 
and maintain only what are properly inspection stations. 
Before the mandatory law of 1893 many of these local stations, 
as Surgeon Carter has told you, made pretense of disinfection and 
collected fees therefor after vessels were released by our stations 
and needed no further treatment. This was done in Savannah in 
1886, and only stopped by my threatening the health officer of 
Savannah with a recommendation for discontinuance of our ig- 
nored station. The health officer's back-down then showed con- 
clusively whose work was trusted, even at that early date. 
Very respectfully, 
J. H. WHITE. 
Dr. Walter Wyman, 
Supervising Surgeon-General, M. H. S. 
Appendix I. 
Correspondence touching transfer of Savannah Quarantine Sta- 
tion to Marine-Hospital Service. 
City of Savannah, Department of Health, 
June 29, 1894. 
Sir: I ain directed by Mayor McDonough to say that, by resolu- 
tion of city council, a committee will wait on you, at your con- 
venience, to arrange for the transfer of the quarantine service of 
this city to the National Government. 
He desires me to say that it is not a question of selling our plant, 
but to ascertain from you the policy of the service, etc. 
This committee will report back to city council, who will then 
take action in the matter. The committee will be in Washington 
on Friday, July 6, if in answer to this letter you express a desire 
to confer with them on that date. 
Very respectfully, 
W. F. BRUNNER, Health Officer. 
Surg. Gen. Walter Wyman, 
United States Marine-Hospital Service, 
Washington, D. C. 94 
City of Savannah, Department of Health, 
July 27, 1894. 
Dear Doctor: Things are getting very interesting in this city 
On the quarantine question. The Morning News and Evening 
Dispatch have favored national control, while the Press has fought 
it persistently in its local and editorial columns. Ex-Senator Nor- 
wood and Dr. Le Hardy have come out in the latter paper denounc- 
ing the movement, hinting at centralization of power, etc. Find- 
ing that this maudlin statement was having some effect, I went 
to-day to Mayor McDonough and advised that he send the com- 
mittee to Washington within the next few days. 
He has advised me if you will be ready to meet the committee 
on Monday, July 2. I would earnestly urge that you act quickly. 
I will be in the party which leaves here on Sunday, if I receive a 
favorable answer. Let me know by wire as soon as you get this, 
which will be Friday morning at the latest. I have assured them 
that your service will take charge of our quarantine. 
The city authorities have a great deal of confidence in Joe 
White, and I would suggest that you have him in Washington 
with the committee. I would again say that delay in this mat- 
ter is dangerous. 
Yours, truly, W. F, BRUNNER. 
Savannah, Ga. , June 21, 189If.. 
Dear Doctor: City council acted on the quarantine matter 
yesterday to the extent of passing' a resolution appointing com- 
mittee of three lito confer with the proper Government authori- 
ties in regard to having the National Government take charge of 
Savannah’s quarantine station through the Marine-Hospital Serv- 
ice. ” 
Vote stood 8 to 2 in favor of. If the Government will give the 
city anything like a fair sum, the matter is settled. 
Dr. Graham, who you know is engaged by the city at a salary 
of $2,000 per annum, and I feel a moral obligation to request of 
you. should the change be made, that you keep him in charge 
until January 1. You have met him; Carter, Murray, and White 
know of his work, and I feel that I am not asking too much when 
I ask this. 
With sincere regards, yours, 
W. F. BRUNNER. 
City of Charleston, S. C., 
Department of Health, 
Thursday, June 21, 189J. 
Dear Doctor: Mr. McGee, chairman of our maritime sanita- 
tion committee, and I desire to have a conference with you as to 
quarantine matters on next Tuesday, June 26. in Washington. 
Will you please telegraph, on the receipt of this note, if it will 
suit you for us to meet you on that day. 
Respectfully', 
H. B. HORLBECK, Secretary. 
Dr. Walter Wyman, 
Supervising Surgeon-General Marine-Hospital Service. 
8186 95 
City of Savannah, Department of Health, 
June 27, 189J/.. 
Sir: I am requested by Mayor McDonough to state that a com- 
mittee from city council of this city wishes to confer with you in 
reference to turning over to your service the control of our mari- 
time quarantine station. 
If agreeable, the committee will reach Washington on Monday 
morning. July 2. 
I would ask that you kindly wire me your answer as soon as you 
receive this communication, in order that the members of the 
committee can arrange for the trip. 
Very respectfully, 
W. F. BRUNNER, Health Officer. 
Surg. Gen. Walter Wyman, 
United .States Marine Hospital Service, 
Washington, D. C, 
3186