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consider me an alarmist. I have no desire that you should look 
upon me as an extremist, but I have not come here this after- 
noon to talk to you in platitudes or glittering generalities, neither 
am I going to tell you what is being done on the mainland to 
take care of the public health. I am going to talk to you about 
things right at home, — what is and what ought to be done in 
order to protect our public health, which will be of lasting and 
untold benefit to Hawaii. 
In the brief time that is allotted to me, I can only sketch for 
you the situation, point out the danger and indicate the remedy. 
First, as to the situation : Hawaii has been called the cross 
roads of the Pacific. She is at once the stepping stone and stop- 
])ing place between all points on the East and the West. 
A glance at the Promotion Committee's map will show her 
lines of commerce running to all points of the Pacific Ocean. 
This from a commercial standpoint is of untold advantage to this 
Territory, but from a sanitary standpoint it is not, because Hono- 
lulu gets it both coming and going. 
Stermiship lines are increasing in number. Steamer speeds are 
increasing annually. They are running to all of these points that 
concern us and the time between grows year by year a little bit 
less. Will you bear with me just a moment as I name some of 
these points on the East and on the West and the diseases they 
harbor. 
From Seattle to Callao, we have, today, plague, smallpox, 
yellow fever and malaria ; to the south and west, we have small- 
pox and plague ; in the Straits Settlements, in the cities of Cal- 
cutta, I)ombay and Singa])orc, we have smallpox, plague and 
cholera ; the cities of Hongkong and Shanghai along the coast of 
China have ])lague and smallpox, and Amoy, not to be outdone by 
her sister on the Straits, has all three of the diseases. The 
same is true of Kobe, Nagasaki and Yokohama. Seattle, San 
Francisco and Los Angeles have within the year had plague. 
They have today smallpox, and the country back of San Fran- 
cisco is infected with plague and will be for years to come. This 
is partly the situation, what is the danger? 
You all know that smallpox, plague, yellow fever and cholera 
are cjuarantinable diseases. They are so called because they have 
shown the power to spread in waves over large portions of the 
earth, claiming for themselves innumerable victims as they move. 
Plague, during the last ten years, has . averaged more than 
half a million deaths in India. In addition to that, there is one 
other disease that is not considered a quarantinable disease, and 
that is malaria. Malaria is more dangerous to this territory than 
3ellow fever. lust a word about how you can get these diseases: 
Plague is a disease primarilv of the rat which is transmitted to 
man by means of the flea. Wherever ships go the rat will go. 
He has the plague in chronic form and where the rat goes, plague 
will go. 
