lo Proceedings of Ninth Annual Meeting 



yacht or maintain the estate ? What does it cost New Jersey to 

 maintain her mosquitoes ? It costs her the annual toll in human 

 life and the resultant sadness and sorrows that it brings; it costs 

 her the annual cases of malaria with all its misery and suffering 

 with the economic loss ensuing; it is costing her far more than 

 can be computed to maintain her reputation as a mosquito-ridden 

 state, a stock joke of the press which has cost New Jersey mil- 

 lions by deterring people and enterprises from coming intO' our 

 state. It is costing her the produce on thousands of acres that 

 would be green in the summer sun with crops and fruits, but 

 for the mosquito which prevents their development. It is costing 

 her the increased values of these lands which is by far the greatest 

 cost, running into hundreds of millions of dollars. It is costing 

 her on her ocean playgrounds, where the finest summer hotels 

 in the country have attractions to draw the multitudes and service 

 for every purse, literally millions of dollars every year, by keep- 

 ing away thousands of vacationists and guests who otherwise 

 would go delightedly to these beautiful beaches. 



New Jersey has had the mosquito- habit for centuries to her 

 great cost and suffering, and it is high time she got rid of it. She 

 has been a mosquito addict, and on the basis of the estimate of 

 the Conservation and Development Department it will cost her 

 $25,ooO',ooo.ooi per year for the next twenty years unless she 

 gets rid of the mosquito. I wish I had the power to put this 

 truth and its vast importance clearly into the minds of all our 

 legislators — perhaps they would then see that the state should 

 do its part and increase the appropriation for this work to an 

 amount commensurate with its importance. 



I cannot close without referring in this meeting of earnest 

 men and women, who are determined in all seriousness to put an 

 end to this devastating enemy in our state, to the heroes who 

 have given their best to relieve humanity of the awful toll of 

 human life every year the mosquito exacts. I refer to the brave 

 soldiers who lent themselves and their bodies to the experiments 

 to ascertain the facts in yellow fever infection by mosquitoes, and 

 I refer particularly to Dr. James Carroll who nearly lost his life, 

 and to Dr. Jesse W. Lazear and Dr. Walter Reed and Dr. Howard 

 B. Cross, who gave their lives that we might have the knowl- 

 edge to carry on the fight. These are heroes of peace who should 

 be no less renowned than the heroes of war. They truly gave 

 their lives for the betterment of the human race and are to be 

 honored of all men, and it is fitting that in this gathering of 

 workers in the field in which they were pioneers, that your presi- 



