136 N. J. Mosquito Extermination Association 



The Attitude and Part of the State Relative to the Completion 

 of the Drainage of the Salt Marshes. 



BY STATE COMPTROLLER, NEWTON A. K. BUGBEE. 



There is one great ideal that we must recognize as basic in all 

 of our governments — Municipal, State, and National — the pro- 

 motion of the greatest amount of health, happiness and prosperity . 

 for the greatest number of people living under its jurisdiction. Any 

 government that does not exert to the uttermost its strength and 

 influence for the attainment of this ideal fails absolutely and ut- 

 terly in its most sacred duty to its people. Such being an ac- 

 knowledged fact, we have only to intelligently inform ourselves 

 as to the extent of the health, happiness and prosperity, if any, 

 that would come to the people of this State as the result of mos- 

 quito extermination in order to determine what should be the at- 

 titude and the part of the State relative to the elimination of the 

 mosquito pestilence. 



No arguments nor discussion is necessary to establish the fact 

 that the extermination of mosquitoes would bring greater health 

 and happiness to the majority of the people living in the State of 

 New Jersey, therefore there can be only one judgment as to what 

 the attitude and part of the State should be in relation to this project 

 insofar as the health and happiness of the people is to be con- 

 sidered. 



Our study and our discussion, then, of this project becomes 

 limited to the single question as to whether or not the complete 

 extermination of mosquitoes will make New Jersey a more pros- 

 perous State. 



The prosperity of the State is the total prosperity of the people 

 of the State, and the State's prosperity, like the prosperity of the 

 individual, represents both principal and income. It will be upon 

 this basis, therefore, that I shall discuss the benefits that may be 

 reasonably estimated as coming to the State through the complete 

 extermination of mosquitoes. 



The wealth of the State is, primarily, in the value of its land, and 

 prosperity increases and decreases as the value of such land is in- 

 creased or decreased. It must follow logically, then, that a cer- 

 tain way to promote prosperity in the State is to increase the value 

 of its land. 



