No. 4.] CATTLE COMMISSIONERS' REPORT. 439 



existence of such disease is demonstrated by this agent which 

 the dairyman has not himself the skill to apply. And, finally, 

 they assert that the policy of seeking out these disseminators 

 of contagion by the use of tuberculin, and destroying them, is 

 a broad public- health policy adopted by the State for the pur- 

 pose of protecting, as far as possible, the lives and property of 

 its subjects ; tliat the real reason which leads to the destruction 

 of these animals is because the food products derived from them 

 are a source of danger to its citizens ; that this danger extends 

 to all those who consume these products, and that therefore it 

 is a measure in which all are equally interested, and the benefit 

 of which will be reaped by everybody, without distinction as 

 to class or calling ; that, inasmuch as this is a public measure, 

 in which the public generally are vitally interested and 

 where the benefit is shared equally by all, the same policy dic- 

 tates that it is equitable and just that the entire expense or loss 

 derived therefrom, whether it be due to the cost of the admin- 

 istration of the law, to its enforcement, or to the loss which the 

 owners of the animals suffer by reason of this destruction for 

 the public good, should be borne equally by all ; and that the 

 only method of doing this is by having the State pay full in- 

 demnity and bear the entire expense, which thus will be equi- 

 tably distributed through the medium of taxation of all its 

 citizens. 



They further assert that, by the adoption of a policy of pay- 

 ino; to owners a fair value for their animals, the State encour- 

 ages such persons to bring forward all diseased animals, and 

 that thus a great assistance will be afforded to the commission 

 in its work by the hearty co-operation of the agricultural class, 

 who thus will feel every encouragement to assist in the stamp- 

 ing out of this disease ; whereas, under a system which provides 

 for destruction without indemnity, unscrupulous men will use 

 every endeavor to dispose of as yet incipient or occult cases of 

 tuberculosis, and thereby plant the infection widely in new 

 herds, and that as a result the State will never be able to 

 thoroughly eradicate the disease. 



Those who oppose the payment of any remuneration on the 

 health basis assert that it is a payment to the farmer by way of 

 a gift of a sum of money, which is not the value of the ani- 

 mal destroyed, but is in the nature of an insurance against the 



