382 
N. H. PAAREN. 
THE CATTLE TRADE STOPPAGE BILL, 
By Dr. , N. H. Paaren, Chicago, III. 
From the Prairie Farmer. 
The losses sustained by contagious diseases of domestic animals, communi¬ 
cated from country to country, in the lines of communication established by 
trade, have been severely felt in Europe. It has been greatly due to a want of 
accurate statistics that no measures have been suggested to, or, at all events, 
adopted by the several governments for their individual and mutual benefit; and 
that Europe is now suffering, to a very considerable extent, from the system by 
which one people attempts to save itself from loss by disposing of diseased and 
infected stock to another. According to British agricultural journals, the admis¬ 
sion of disease with live stock has more than neutralized the benefit of free 
trade in the department of food, and meat would now be less dear than it actually 
is if importation of foreign stock had been precluded entirely. It is certain that 
contagious diseases exist so largely in England that, unless further restrictions 
are applied to the movements of home stock, no restrictions on foreign trade can 
give the least hope of the eradication of these diseases, which is the necessary 
condition of any adequate development of the home supply. It is asserted that 
port inspection has proved unreliable, and that slaughter at the port of debark¬ 
ation—even with the exercise of all possible care and vigilance—will not confer 
absolute safety; and the conclusion has been reached that the largest measure of 
safety was to be found in limiting the food supply from foreign sources to that of 
dead meat—the animals to be slaughtered and their carcases dressed at the place 
of embarkation. Not only would this reduce the danger of receiving contagious 
diseases to the lowest degree, but it would also be most profitable to the exporter, 
better in some respects for the consumer of such flesh, and also prove far more 
humane to the animals themselves, as they would tliei be spared much fatigue, if 
not positive cruelty in transit. There can be no danger that such legislative 
action would interfere with free trade. Free trade was never intended to give 
any one a prescriptive right to deal in that which is prejudicial to the community. 
There is no analogy between damaged corn and damaged cattle. The one, if sent 
from here to England, can never affect the sound cereals of the British farmer; 
the other may work havoc among his healthy stock. Free trade in live stock 
has been an experiment which has injured every country that has tried it, unless 
regulated by laws based on a thorough knowledge of the nature of contagious 
^diseases. A nation cannot lose faster by anything than by contagious diseases 
among live stock. 
Realizing the fact that the British nation has sustained severe damage and 
loss from an extensive importation of diseased animals from other countries, and 
fully alive to the necessity of preventing infectious importations of live stock, the 
British government, in conformity with recent enactments of parliament, now 
notifies the governments of both Europe and the United States of America, that 
will no longer tolerate such traffic, and that all animals landed from abroad in 
