100 ASSOCIATION OF ECONOMIC ENTOMOLOGISTS. 



States at any time and increase to such numbers that it will be 

 impossible to prevent its spread before State legislation copes with it ? 

 It is to be regretted, but we may as well frankly admit that the 

 present tendency toward Federal control of all of these police duties 

 is almost entirely due to the inefficiency of most of our State legisla- 

 tures in dealing with such matters. Until very recently the States 

 have been very reluctant to delegate any power to make and enforce 

 regulations to any board or official. In doing this the Gulf States in 

 general have the most desirable type of legislation, permitting effec- 

 tual work against any insect pests which may arise. In most of the 

 States which have legislation upon insect pests the official administer- 

 ing the laws is hampered by petty restrictions and has no funds at his 

 disposal for coping with any new pest which may require immediate 

 action. The average State legislature is very wary of intrusting 

 such poAvers to any scientist, assuming in many cases that it knows 

 much more about the subject. The debates of the Texas legislature 

 upon the boll weevil and the information given the writer by some of 

 its members would prove amusing reading to the entomological fra- 

 ternity. Congress, on the other hand, has consistently recognized that 

 it must depend upon experts in such work and must give them suffi- 

 cient latitude so that they can take immediate action when necessity 

 arises. To this has been largely due the efficiency of the Federal law 

 in very many matters in which the State laws have been conspicu- 

 ously inefficient. 



How many of our seaboard or frontier States have at the present 

 time any system of inspection which will enable them to prevent the 

 importation of injurious insect pests, or how many. even, could pro- 

 ceed to eradicate such a pest when actually within the borders of their 

 State when over a few hundred dollars were necessary for its eradica- 

 tion? As far as I know, California is the only State having any 

 adequate machinery for such work. 



But it is objected that such work of exterminating an insect within 

 a State would be unconstitutional, an interference with the rights of 

 the State, etc. So it would seem, and so it at first appeared to the 

 writer; but the present laws of Congre>s concerning the control of 

 cattle and human diseases and the regulation of the importation of 

 noxious animals effectually dispel this objection. 



At the present time the Public Health and Marine-Hospital Service 

 has charge of most of the maritime quarantine stations and may take 

 charge of any others it sees fit when they are inefficient under State 

 or municipal management. It furthermore may enforce interstate 

 quarantines or may quarantine any portion of a State, and take such 

 measures as it >ce> fit to eradicate disease in any locality when the 

 local or State health officials, either through lack of legislation or 



