to publish facts than that of city authorities to
proclaim the prevalence of small-pox in the town. Still,
startling facts have sprung from original sources of inquiry.
A town meeting is called in the State of Connecticut,
terror-stricken owners in New Jersey, Maryland, and
Pennsylvania meet for council. Massachusetts had a Governor
twenty years ago bold in telling truth, which led to
searching investigations by experts and officers of the
State. With autocratic power they made a diagnosis of
diseases, which led to the stamping out of the infection by
law, and a truthful proclamation that the plague was stayed.
The sacrifice of 1,000 brutes at a cost to the Commonwealth
of about $70,000 was a trivial sum compared to the perils
that beset a State valuation of $7,000,000, for bovines, and
the cattle of the Nation, numbering 40,000,000, and worth
nearly $1,100,000,000.
The monarchies of the Old World have set us an example; even
Denmark, Norway, and Sweden have pioneered for the world by
sagacious acts and the stern enforcement of law in
prevention.
AN AMERICAN POLICY
worthy of us is not secrecy, but boldness--sacrifice
commensurate with exposure. This will lead to the formulation
of a bill by the Washington Convention, which Congress will
enact in the interest of individuals, the State, and for the
National protection. If State-Rights theorists bring
objections, the law may be so equitable to the States that
its ratification may be asked on the ground of a just
National policy and a right which inheres to the General
Government under the Constitution in the regulation of
commerce between the States. This implies a power to destroy
a contagious disease which if allowed to spread would arrest
all commerce in bovines between the States. A State may and
ought to waive the question of damage if it is fixed by a
neutral Commissioner, and the General Government and not the
State meets the losses to which unfortunate cattle owners
maybe subject. This will be the touchstone--trust by the
State and statesmanlike generosity by the Nation--that means
courage for the now fearful ranchman of the unfenced domain,
and the furnishing of a "clean bill of health" for our
products seeking a foreign market. Having evinced zeal in
doing justice, it can ask for justice--t
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