CONGRESS, UNITED STATES. (BUREAU OF ANIMAL INDUSTEY.) 



187 



ately available, or BO much thereof as may be neces- 

 sary, is hereby appropriated, out of any moneys in 

 the Treasury not otherwise appropriated, to carry into 

 effect the provisions of this act. 



SEC. 12. That the Commissioner of Agriculture 

 shall report annually to Congress, at the commence- 

 ment of each session, a list of the names of all persons 

 employed, an itemized statement of all expenditures 

 under this act, and full particulars of the means 

 adopted and carried into effect for the suppression of 

 contagious diseases among domestic animals. 



The advocates of this measure assumed the 

 existence of infectious diseases among cattle in 

 certain parts of the country, and urged the 

 necessity of immediate action to prevent their 

 spread, and extirpate them from the infected 

 districts, a great work which it was contended 

 the Federal Government alone could adequate- 

 ly perform. Mr. Hatch, of Missouri, who had 

 charge of the bill in the House, stated the case 

 as follows: 



" This bill in its entirety assumes that the 

 disease known as pleuro-pneumonia not only 

 exists, but exists to an alarming extent east of 

 the Alleghany Mountains, confined, as the re- 

 port shows, at this time to parts of five States. 

 That it is contagious and infectious there can 

 be no doubt at this day. That question has 

 been too well settled to admit even of discus- 

 sion. It has been determined by the experi- 

 ence in European countries and by the experi- 

 ence of this country that it is a virulent and 

 violent disease, and that when it gets a foot- 

 hold among the grazing herds in any section 

 it requires years and millions of money to con- 

 trol it. 



" Holland and England and Australia have 

 spent millions of dollars in their efforts to con- 

 trol this disease. In the judgment of your 

 committee, the first step necessary in our coun- 

 try is to prevent the transportation of cattle 

 affected with pleuro-pneumonia from one dis- 

 trict or locality to another. That can be done 

 only by invoking the Federal power. 



" In this bill we provide that no railroad 

 company, steamboat corporation or company, 

 or private person shall transport from one 

 State to another cattle known to be affected 

 with this disease. And, to bring the question 

 of knowledge and of notice directly to the 

 transportation company, we provide that a 

 written notice shall be served by the Commis- 

 sioner of Agriculture upon all such transporta- 

 tion companies within the infected district ; 

 so that under this bill, before any transporta- 

 tion company can be held liable, the disease 

 must be located by the Department of Agricult- 

 ure, and notice served on the transportation 

 companies within the infected district. 



" When the bill was under consideration be- 

 fore in the House some objection was made to 

 this power. If the provision of the bill in this 

 regard can be strengthened or improved or in 

 any way made better, I will be very glad to re- 

 ceive a suggestion from any member of an 

 amendment to that effect. But unless yon can 

 prevent the spread of this disease from the lo- 



calities where it exists, any bill that you can 

 pass upon this subject will not be worth the 

 paper upon which it is printed. The experi- 

 ence not only of this country but of all Euro- 

 pean countries proves conclusively that you 

 must draw a cordon of fire around this disease 

 before you can ever extirpate it ; you must hem 

 it in by quarantine and police regulations ; you 

 must prevent the transportation of cattle af- 

 fected by this disease from one farm to another, 

 which we admit can be done in our system of 

 government only by the State authorities. 

 The transportation of such diseased cattle from 

 one State to another is within the power of 

 the Federal Government alone. 



"But the mere preventing the transporta- 

 tion of cattle affected by this disease will not 

 extirpate it ; it will not stamp it out. Other 

 means are necessary for this purpose. This 

 bill provides that after the inspection by the 

 Federal authorities, after the location of the 

 disease, after the notification to the State au- 

 thorities, it shall be the duty of the Federal 

 Government, in co-operation with the State 

 authorities, to use all the means within its 

 power to eradicate the disease, by quarantine, 

 by local police regulations, and by the destruc- 

 tion of such private property as may be neces- 

 sary for that purpose. That means the destruc- 

 tion of the animals that may be diseased, and 

 of such stables or barns as it may be thought 

 expedient to destroy. 



" In the execution of a similar law in the 

 State of Massachusetts there have been in- 

 stances when it was deemed proper to destroy 

 a barn. After the barn had been under quar- 

 antine and police regulations for more than a 

 year, it was decided by the highest veterinary 

 surgeons of that day they could not rid the barn 

 of the disease, and that the only way to extir- 

 pate the disease was to destroy the barn by 

 fire. So virulent is the disease at times that 

 all the means of disinfection known to science 

 will not destroy it. 



" The most difficult point that has been sub- 

 mitted to the Committee on Agriculture to de- 

 cide in connection with this bill has been the 

 means by which co-operation of the State could 

 be secured in the enforcement of this law. If, 

 as some gentlemen perhaps will contend during 

 this discussion, and as delegations which have 

 appeared before us have urged, the Federal 

 Government alone should take this matter in 

 hand, then you will prevent all efforts on the 

 part of the State authorities to control this 

 disease. 



" If the Federal Government is to go into 

 the State of New Jersey, which State has al- 

 ready a law upon this subject, and makes an 

 annual appropriation to carry it into effect, or 

 into the State of West Virginia, or into Mary- 

 land, and say to either one of those States that 

 we propose to take this matter in hand, you 

 will paralyze all State efforts; the State will 

 make no further appropriations; it will not 

 appoint a force of officers to carry out any law, 



