THE CATTLE TRADE STOPPAGE BILL. 
383 
any part of the United Kingdom will, after the first of January next, be slaughU 
ered at the port of debarkation. The British government has especially notified 
the United States government that, in case the latter desires to be exempted from 
the operations of “The Contagious Diseases (animals) Act, 1878,” the lords will 
require a statement of the laws which regulate the importation of auimals into 
this country, and the method adopted to prevent the spreading of any contagious 
disease, when it exists in any part of the United States. 
The reply which the United States government can give to this official notifi¬ 
cation by Great Britain, even if couched in the most approved style of diplomatic 
lore, and accompanied with ever so many expressions of distinguished considera¬ 
tion, must certainly be one of a most humiliating nature. On its face it will 
certainly bear its own condemnation; and unless the reply contains the most 
sincere promise to speedily inaugurate stringent measures to prevent the spread¬ 
ing of contagious diseases in the United States, and this promise be carried out im¬ 
mediately, there can only be one solution of the problem, and that is, that after 
the 1st of January next, the exportation of live stock from this country to Great 
Britain must cease. It is, however, not likely that the* people of this country 
will submit quietly to this state of affairs. The great cattle-producing states will 
undoubtedly bring such a pressure to bear upon the government as to wake it up 
from its hitherto assumed indifference and most reprehensible lethargy. If the 
members of Congress, who are now sojourning among their constituents, cannot 
be made to understand their plain duty in this matter, let the state board of agri¬ 
culture of each state, memorialize the state legislatures, with a view of having 
such action taken that Congress be appealed to direct by these legislative bodies. 
The United States cannot plead that there are no contagious diseases existing 
at present in this country; for we have among our cattle in the eastern and mid¬ 
dle states one of the very diseases which England dreads the most, (although 
perhaps not in so malignant a form as abroad), and from the ravages of which 
that country has sustained losses, representing nearly 100,000,000 pounds sterling, 
and which to-day still holds sway among its herds of cattle—namely the con¬ 
tagious pleuro-pneumonia. To give an idea of the enormous losses from diseases 
to which all classes of domestic animals are subject we will mention that, ac¬ 
cording to a tabular statement compiled from information received from 1,100 
counties, the annual losses in the United States, among all classes of domestic 
animals from various diseases, represents nearly $17,000,000. As this statement 
is based on the returns from only half the country, it is suggested that the 
animal loss from this cause may be placed at $30,000,000. 
During a number of years, the so-called hog cholera has caused a loss of 
over $10,000,000 yearly. After many futile attempts to impress upon the gov¬ 
ernment the necessity lor investigating the nature and causes of this disease with 
a view of eradicating it, a paltry appropriation was at last made by Congress. 
A commission has been appointed to investigate that disease. The manner in 
which the investigation is directed by the powers that be, is notoriously ridiculed 
by the agricultural press of the whole ^country, and no results of practical value 
are expected to ever accrue therefrom to anybody. As evidence of the care with 
which the members comprising this so-called hog cholera commission was selected, 
may be mentioned the fact that one Dr. Alfred Dunlap, of Iowa City, Iowa, js 
