354 
SESSIONS. 
to bear all the burden. They believe that if the public takes 
arbitrary possession of their property and destroys it, that an 
equitable portion of its value should be returned to them. In 
view of all that we know about tuberculosis it cannot be abso¬ 
lutely determined what an equitable proportion is, and the 
matter must be decided by granting an arbitrary part of the 
original value. 
The value of the animal condemned is but a part of the loss 
to the owner. His business is broken into; his herd is dis¬ 
credited; his customers are. afraid of his product; and if perma¬ 
nent future immunity is to be gained by him, he must be to a 
large expense in disinfecting his barns and stables. This disin¬ 
fecting is out of his line but is as necessary to the public health 
as is the slaughter of infected animals. The State should see 
that it is properly done, and it could be done cheaper and more 
certainly by agents of the State than by numerous private own¬ 
ers. Why should not the State provide for this very necessary 
part of the protection of public health. Dr. Law says in the 
paper quoted above “Sanitary laws which in any way ignore or 
disregard the rights of property have within them the seeds of 
defeat. 
“If the stock owner is not fairly reimbursed for his 4 animals 
slaughtered, and for other losses sustained for the protection of 
the public health and of the country’s herds, unscrupulous men 
will find ample means of trading off the as yet incipient and 
occult cases of tuberculosis, thereby planting the infection in new 
herds. Compensation must stop short of making the sanitary 
bureau a profitable customer for tuberculous animals at sound 
prices, but it must be so liberal as to enlist the ready co-opera¬ 
tion of the stock owner in having every infected beast safely 
disposed of.” 
The State is bound to protect the life and health of the peo¬ 
ple and is also bound to do justice to all parties. The State is 
also, for its own good, bound to foster agriculture, for no nation 
can long continue prosperous without a prosperous agricultural 
population. A large per cent, of the successful men of our 
