GOVERNMENTAL SERVICES 159 
115. State and National Officers, at Same Time. 
Because of the conflict of jurisdiction in matters 
pertaining to health, between state and national 
officers, and the consequent complication which 
may arise; and also sometimes in order to gain the 
advantage of the experience of those of wide 
observation, it is sometimes arranged to make 
national officers deputy state officials (or less fre- 
quently, perhaps, to give a state officer the posi- 
tion of a deputy of the federal official). In such 
cases it must be remembered that in maintaining 
a quarantine within a state, or in enforcing local 
measures for the stamping out of a disease, the 
officer is really working as a state officer. It would 
seem proper, therefore, that all legal actions be- 
gun by or prosecuted against an officer so work- 
ing should be in state courts. Owing to the pres- 
ence of plague in New Orleans an ordinance was 
passed requiring the rat-proofing of the entire 
city. Assistant Surgeon General Rucker of the 
U. S. Public Health Service, a man with a wide 
experience in this line of work, took charge of 
the work of extermination. Action was brought 
against him by certain citizens, alleging that he 
was overzealous, arbitrary and unreasonable in 
his enforcement of the rat-proofing ordinance; and 
an injunction was asked to restrain his activity. 
The U. S. District Court, before whom the mat- 
ter was brought, claimed jurisdiction on the 
ground that he was a federal officer. With due 
humility we are forced to differ with the learned 
court, although it is a duty of federal officers, 
according to the Statutes of the United States, 
to assist in the enforcement of state quarantine 
