40 Proceedings of the First Convention 



Chairman : You have heard the resokitions, gentlemen ; 

 what is your pleasure? 



The resolutions were duly seconded, and upon being put to 

 a vote were unanimously carried. 



Chairman : We had expected to have with us Mr, William 

 H. Baldwin, Jr., President of the Long Island Railroad Com- 

 pany (Penn. R. R. Co.), to talk on the subject of "What Rail- 

 roads Can Do." He is not here, but Mr. Weeks has a com- 

 munication from him which he will read. 



LETTER FROn WM. H. BALDWIN, Jr. 



LONG ISLAND RAILROAD, 



Office of President, 



128 Broadway, New York, N. Y 



December 9, 1903. 



Dear Sir : I have your letter of the 7th asking me to pre- 

 pare something to be read at the Anti-Mosquito Convention to 

 be held on December i6th, in view of the fact that absence from 

 the City will prevent my attending the meeting. 



It seems to me that the preparation of papers on this very 

 important subject should be left to the scientists who have 

 made it a study. My experience, as a member of the North 

 Shore Improvement Association, gave me a general understand- 

 ing of the scope and magnitude of this problem, but as a lay- 

 man I can not compete with the scientist who would approach 

 it from a technical standpoint. I realize that whether as indi- 

 viduals or as citizens, or as members of corporations, we must 

 all co-operate to do what we can to minimize the attacks of 

 this pest. It is not only a torment, but, as has been clearly 

 shown by the experiments in Cuba and elsewhere, a menace 

 to pubHc safety, much greater than influences which receive 

 a far larger share of public notice. A very slight epidemic of 

 typhoid fever causes the greatest concern, and methods for pre- 

 venting its spread are promptly forthcoming; but the dangers 

 from malaria, which are far more serious, hardly attract atten- 

 tion. 



Since I have come to understand this subject somewhat I 

 have felt it to be one of such gravity that the State should take an 



