104 ASSOCIATION OF ECONOMIC ENTOMOLOGISTS. 



while actually it is, of course, entirely improbable. New Hampshire 

 and other States can not appropriate to aid Massachusetts. "Why, 

 then, is it not the duty of the Federal Government to protect the inter- 

 ests of the neighboring States by checking the spread of the gypsy 

 moth and aiding in its control. The same reasoning will apply to 

 all other introduced insect pests of serious importance. "We will all 

 admit that the Federal Government may prevent their importation, 

 but some of us would claim that as soon as a pest has come upon the 

 territory of any State that the National Government is then powerless 

 to prevent its spread to other States. This same argument has been 

 fully thrashed over in Congress concerning human disease, and the 

 present law as above outlined and administered seems to the writer 

 to have fully demonstrated that the Federal Government has such 

 a right and may make and execute such regulations as seem necessary. 

 With such national laws and regulations we believe that the introduc- 

 tion and spread of insect pests, either by transportation or natural 

 agencies, could be largely prevented. At present under the State 

 laws they are not and can not be. 



Your serious consideration as to whether it is not entirely feasible 

 for Congress to so legislate as to empower the Bureau of Entomol- 

 ogy, or such agency as it may deem best, to make and enforce such 

 regulations as will prevent the introduction and dissemination of 

 insect pests, and to appropriate sums sufficient to allow such work 

 to be done at once, without awaiting special appropriations, is there- 

 fore urged. It would seem to the writer that only in this manner 

 can we have efficient means of preventing the future importation 

 and spread of insect pests which will cost the Nation millions upon 

 millions of dollars, as those have done with which we are now familiar. 



If such legislation seems desirable, no one association in the coun- 

 try could have more influence toward bringing it about than the 

 Association of Economic Entomologists, through the wide acquaint- 

 ance and close touch and influence with the interested organizations 

 of its members in their respective States. 



In conclusion, might not this association invite the officers of the 

 National convention which met in 1897 to call a second meeting of 

 that convention at such time as might seem best, and urge the organ- 

 izations represented in it to vote sufficient sums so that wise counsel 

 might be secured and the legitimate expenses paid of men who might 

 work toward the passage of such legislation. To secure such another 

 meeting would require at least several months, possibly a year's work. 

 Is the time not ripe for such a movement \ Should not the Associa- 

 tion of Economic Entomologists be sponsor for it? 



