82 THE LUNG PLAGUE OF CATTLE. 



RECOMMENDATION FOR CONGRESSIONAL ACTION. 



In consideration of what has been set forth above we earnestly rec- 

 ommend such action on the part of Congress as will confer on our com- 

 mission, or upon some department of the government, the authority to 

 prescribe rules and regulations under which the sound cattle of any 

 State or Territory, or of the District of Columbia found infected with 

 the lung plague, may be transported or taken therefrom, and under which 

 healthy cattle may be transported or taken through such infected States, 

 Territory, or District; and to provide for bonded yards and quarantine 

 stations, as recommended in the foregoing. 



An appropriation of $300,000 will be necessary for the purpose of con- 

 structing such bonded yards and quarantine stations and for the super- 

 vision of the same. If already existing yards can be secured and safely 

 availed of the outlay will be materially reduced. 



The regulations aboved referred to, when officially promulgated, should 

 have all the force and effect of law, and such penalties should be pro- 

 vided as may be thought necessary ibr their enforcement. Such author- 

 ity will enable your commission to hedge in the contagion with reason- 

 able certainty and prevent its spread into States now happily exempt; 

 and some such authority, we may add, is absolutely essential to enable 

 an infected State or district to rid itself permanently of this pestilence. 

 New York, New Jersey, or Pennsylvania may stamp out the disease by 

 her local authorities, but so long as it exists on the border of a neigh- 

 boring State she is powerless to protect herself against a new invasion 

 by cattle smuggled across. A constant and expensive surveillance must 

 be kept up all along the line of the infected region, and the stamping- 

 out process must be continually going on, but will never be accomplished. 

 Federal officials controlling this inter- State traffic can punish the offender 

 whenever or wherever found, and should therefore secure a stricter ob- 

 servance of the law. But, besides enabling us to hedge in the plague, 

 such authority will also enable us to fully accomplish the object for 

 which we were appointed, to wit, the giving of a clean bill of health to 

 cattle for export. 



MEANS OF STAMPING OUT THE LUNG PLAGUE IN INDI- 

 VIDUAL STATES. 



Here we enter debatable ground. There are constitutional objections 

 to the interference of the Federal Government within State limits, and 

 with the property of the citizen of a State. Yet much may be said in 

 favor of granting the Federal Government power to take action in a case 

 of this kind. 



REASONS FOR FEDERAL ACTION. 



lst.| The disease is like a common enemy, and as the Constitution does 

 not forbid the operation of the Federal Government within a State for 

 the repulsion or extinction of an enemy of the nation, so nothing should 

 hinder a similar action with such a dangerous and insidious enemy as 

 lung plague. 



2d. The danger being common, the funds to avert the danger should 

 be supplied out of the national exchequer. 



3d. Action under one controlling head will be uniform and harmoni- 

 ous everywhere. In the past the conflicting laws and orders in two 

 adjacent States have been most perplexing to dealers and others, and 

 have furnished a temptation to smuggling. 



