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A Plain Statement Of Facts Presented To The Governor By the Chamber Of Commerce. Lack Of Judgment and Wilful Blindness To the Truth On the Part Of the State Health Officer Have Caused the Loss Of Thousands Of Dollars To the City Of El Paso.—A Strong Case Against Dr. Blust.—Absolute ly No Cause For the Quarantine Exists, and It IS Time That El Paso’s Voice Were Heard at Austin. Yesterday the following letter was sent to Governor Sayers by President Freudenthal of the El Paso chamber of commerce, protesting against the further continuance of the oppressive and unjust quarantine now in force against San Francisco: CHAMBER OF COMMERCE. Incorporated Under the Laws of Texas. EL PASO, TEXAS. El Paso, Texas, August 24, 1900. His Excellency, Joseph D. Sayers, Governor, Austin, Texas, Sir. We beg to renew our earnest re quest that the quarantine maintained by the state of Texas against San Francisco on account of the alleged presence of bubonic plague in that city, be raised at once, and the fact published to the world that the ave nues of travel through this state are no longer hedged about by harassing and burdensome restrictions. We deem it useless to approach the State Health Officer again with regard to this matter. In Texas, as in Cali fornia, it appears necessary to appeal from the dominant quarantine author ities to the governor. We trust our appeal will be as successful 48 was that of the people of San Francisco to the governor of California. Since our last communication was addressed to you August 16th we have received the following letters from the State Health Officer: ‘QUARANTINE DEPARTMENT OF TEXAS. ‘AUSTIN, Texas, Aug. 16th, 1900, “S.J. Freugenthal, President, Chamber of Commerce, El Paso, Texas. “Dear Sir. “Yours of recent date to the gov ernor, also your telegram of this morn ing, have been referred to me. The modifications in the quarantine re strictions which were already in progress when you first took the mat ter up, and which have been con siderably extended, must have almost entirely relieved the commercial in terests, as there is now no embargo against anything except it has been directly connected with the China town of San Francisco. For reasons best known to ourselves there will be no further modifications for the pre sent. In this connection I desire to say that the public has never been fully advised of the situation there. ‘*[ am very respectfully, Your obedient servant, (Signed) W. F. BLUNT, State Health Officer.” “QUARANTINE DEPARTMENT OF TEXAS. (Signed) ‘AUSTIN, Texas, Aug. 19+h, 1900. “Ernet E. Russell, Secretary, v. Fl Paso, Texas. 'Dear Sir: “Your communication of the 16th mnat. received from the Governor., Yesterday I received the following telegram: “One white case; lived in Chinatown, One new case today; Chinaman. (Sigie¢) Chas. F. Nor ton.’ This shows ‘‘that the lapse of time has NOT demonstrated the truth of your contention that the quarantine is not justified by existing conditions.’’ “The Health Officer of the state is res ponsible for his actions’’and is ready to be “called to account for them at any time.’’ [have pervensity visited San Francisco, have a reliable repre sentative on the ground, and am in consultation with the best health au thorities of the country who approve my attitude. You only bear one side, that of the commercial element and the railroads. I hear ail. I see no justification for any further modifica tion of the quarantine at present. “Yours very truly W. F. BLUNT, State Health Officer. In the face of the above letters we reassert that ‘the lape of time has demonstrated the truth of our conten tion’. If ‘the best health authorities of the country approves the attitude” of the State Health Officer, why do not other states establish quarantine’ And why did the one state, Colorado, which did establish quarantine, raise the quarantine almost immediately” Texas, by her attitude in this matter, is not only causing great loss and trouble to extensive and varied interests, but is bringing upon herself the ridicule of the same and efficient health authorities throughout the country. I t is preposterous to sup pose that the citizens of San Fran cisco would have permitted the sus pension of all quarantine restrictions in that city the first week in July, and kept everything open since that time, if there were any substantial danger there. It is idle for Texas quarantine offi cials to assert that ‘‘the public has never been fully advised of the situa tion’’ in San Francisco. The federal and state authorities and the news papers in California investigated the matter fully, and all the facts neces sary to enable men of sound sense and unbiased attitude to draw a correct conclusion have been before the pub lic for two months We desire to quote again in this connection the following statement by the Texas State Health Officer in his letter to us of August 3rd: ‘One-half of the families in ’Frisco employ Chinese servants that have free daily communication with China town, and it is strange that the disease has not been scattered over the city, but it seems not to have been.” . That statement is correct, and we might safely rest our case against the Health Officer upon this single admis sion of life. If the people of San Fran cisco continue to employ Chinese laun dries, and continue to purchase their vegetables from Chinese hucketers; and if—as is the fact—these servants, laundrymen and hucksters ‘‘have free daily communication with Chinatown,” and yet ‘the disease has not been scat tered over the city,’’ we are surely justified in declaring that to maintain a quarantine twelve hundred miles away from San Francisco is not only unwarranted but absurd. [In order to secure direct, fresh and reliable testimony upon the matter in controversy, the following tele gram w was sent by the El Paso Chamber of Commerce August 22nd to Henry Gage,Governor of California; F. W. Dohermann, President of the Merchants’ Association of San Francis co; and U.S. Surgeon-General Walter Wyman at Washington. “You being acquainted with the situation in San Francisco as to bubo nica plague, in your opinion is the con tinuance of the quarantine by Texas against San francisco warranted ?”’ To this inquiry the following replies have been received: ‘*I am pleased to report that there is not the slightest cause for the quaran tine by Texas against San Francisco or against any other portion of Cali fornia. The quarantine referred to is wholly unwarranted. (Signed) ‘HENRY GAGE.” “It is doubtful if there ever were cases of plague here to justify Texas quarantine, and there certainly is no Cause to maintain it at the present time. (Signed) “F. W. DOHRMANN, President Merchants’ Association. ‘‘My relations in health matters are with state health officers, and it is in cumbent not to discuss questions like that propounded by you except with them (Signed) ‘‘'WYMAN,Surgeon General.”’ The opinion of Surgeon-General Wyman, however, can be gathered from the fact that he visited San Francisco himself and investigated the matter, that he took no section as an Officer of the Federal Goverment to place restrictions on the movements of the people of that city, and that evidently he has not recommended quarsetine by other states against California, since no estate except Texas has made any prolonged, systematic effort to bar out travelers from San Francisco. We also inevite your attention to the following resolutione ‘unanimously adopted after full discus sion’’ by the El Paso Board of Health, August 23rd: “RESOLVED, That this Board here by endorses and approves the action of, the Chamber of Commerce n request ing that the quarantine against alleg ed bubonic plague in San Francisco be raised immediately. It is the sense of this Board that no necessity exits for quarantine. “RESOLVED, That a copy of these resolutions be transmitted by the Secretary of the Board to the Cham ber of Commerce,’’ The members of the Board of Health, all of whom were present and voted for the resolutions, are Dr. W.N. Vilas, president, Dr. Chas. T. Race, city health phy sician, secretary, Ex-District Judge C. N. Buckler, Captain T. J. Beall, Mr. C. RK. Morehead, president State National bank and president school board, Mr. E. C. Pew, member of school board, Dr. M. O. Wright. How many million dollars this qua rantine has cost the state of Texas we will not try to estimate. It is esti mated here that El Paso alone is losing twenty-five thousand to fifty thousand dollars per month because of it. The Health Officer may, indeed, strive to belittle this phase by saying that it is “one side, that of the commercial ele menta, and the railroads.’’ To this we reply, firat, that in any aspect the com mercial and railroad elements consti tute a very large and important side; and secondly, that in this case there is no other side. The other side does not exist except in the imagination or self interest of the Texas Quarantine Department. The only ‘‘other side”’ that could be considered in this connec tion would be the safety of the people of Texas; and it is proved by the whole course of events since last March, when the first alleged case of bubonic plague was reported in San Francisco, that the awful peril from ’Frisco which has hovered over the Texas Quarantine Department for all of these months, is a phantom, a creature of the imagi nation. The ‘modifications’ of the quaran tine restrictions upon which the State Health Officer lays 80 much stress do not meet the case. We want not mo dification but abolition. Much of the injury, indeed, cannot be undone by any action now possible. This quar antine has definitely turned the tide of travel away from the southern route and sent it over more northern routes. It is well known that when once thus deflected, travel does not readily re turn to its former channel, even when the obstruction which caused the de flection is removed. So long as it is published to the world that Texas maintains ths quarantine, so long the tide of travel will continue to run away from Texas, even though the indivi dual traveler who starts from some other point than San Francisco may be told that he has no reason to fear de tention. Travelers fear a quarantine. We have definite information that peo ple from Southern California and other points outside of the district quarantined against, have taken a northern route because of the vague, undefined, but nevertheless controlling fear that in some way the quarantine might cause them trouble. The very word quarantine is potent to turn the traveler away. The only effective relief for the situation is to restore public confidence by raising the quar antine absolutely and wholly. Then the work of recovering the deflected tide of travel and business may begin. We wish to emphasize the character and extent of the investigations made in San Francisco to determine the ex tent of the danger. The Governor of California, U.S. Judge W. W. Mor row, Senator Perkins, Surgeon-Gen eral Wyman, the business and mercan tile organizations of San Francisco, the practicing physicians of the city, in dividual citizens whose families are employing Chinese servants and are subjected to daily exposure if the plague exists there, the newspapers of San Francisco, with their enormous facilities for ferrating out the truth— all these and many other investigators have pursued the avenues of informa tion to the very end, and then deliver ed the verdict that there has never been anything to warrant the plagueec are raised by the City Health Department of San Francisco and still nursed by the Texas Health Officer. We beg you, sir, to believe that in using terms which approach peril ously near the boundaries of parlia mentary speech, we mean no disre spect to you. If we were to employ the terms that are suggested by the mainntenance of these quarantine re strictions, we should go far beyond the bounds of parliamentary language. The indignation, the sense of injustice and wrong, under which our people are smarting, have reached large proportions, and the language to which the State Health Officer’s ac tion is denounced in private conversa tion here is not to be quoted to writ ing or print. We will not undertake to bring and maintain against the Texas Quarantine Department such charges as have been brought, and apparently sub stantiated, against the motives of the Health Department of the city of San Francisco. Even if it be true that cases were ‘‘manufactured” in San Francisco by the health officer of that city for political ends, all that we desire to charge against the Texas State Health Officer at ths time is that through lack of judzement and refusal to act upon the evidence presented to him, he has needlessly prolonged a costly and vexatious quarantine far beyond the time when it was justified even #5 a precautionary messure. It is the duty of a quarantine depart ment to protect the people against epidemic, but it is no less the duty of a quarantine department to pro tect the people against quarantine. An efficient quarantine officer will know not only when to quarantine, but when not to quarantine, and when to raise @ quarantine. The State Health Officer of Texas should know, without waiting to be told, that for at least six weeks past there has been no warrant for maintaining this quarantine; and he should know, and should act upon his knowledge, that just as soon as there is no reason for maintaining a quarantine there is every reason for raising it. Next to epidemic nothing is more to be feared by @ people than unnecessary quaran tine. We fully recognize the neces sity for prompt efficient quarantine when epidemic threatens; but an offi cious, meidlesome quarantine depart ment that overdoes the thing is almost so much to be feared as a weak, in efficient or negligent quarantine department that underdoes the thing. The only reason why the present quarantine has not been far more de structive in its effects upon business interests is that it has not been ef fectively maintained. It has been maintained to the extent of doing great damage to the business inter ests without being maintained to the extent of affording the state protec tion if there had been real danger. Texas has not had bubonic plague, not because the quarantine has kept it out, but because the plague has never tried to get in. Passengers from San Francisco, who have urgent reasons for securing admission to the state, easily suffer lapses of memory as to the length of time since they left San Fran cisco. Other passengers find it was impossible to cross the line into Mex ico and enter the state of Texas by that route. Others have found it preferable to skirt Texas on the north and enter it from the east. Still others, and many of them, have been passed in by authority of the State Health Officer where no other ground can be found for such action then that they were so prominent and influen tial that it was not prudent to harass them as more humble citizens have been and still are harassed. As to the shipments of freight, it did not take Texas merchants long to discover that even though it involved delay and expense, freight from San Francisco could be shipped to some point outside of Texas and from there reshipped to a Texas point. We repeat that if there had been any plague to bring in, Texas would have had hundreds of cases of it before this. That the State has been free from plague is not due to this un necessary and inefficient quarantine, and for the State Health Officer to claim credit for the exemption is to invite a still larger measure of ridicule. There is another important conside ration to which we invite your attention. It is put alone the present quarantine against San Francisco which causes us concern. That 's probably nearly at an end. Even the Texas State Health Officer will not much longer dare defy the public sense in this matter. But that has been done this year may be repeated next, and the next. The same disposition to magnify small chapters, the same inability or indisposition to see things in their true proportions, the same perverse and obstinate at titude in the face of his own admissions (as in regard to the general employ ment of Chinese servants in San Fran cisco without harmful result)—all of these must be reckoned with as long as the present Health Officer continues to fill the exceedingly responsible, im portant, and, under certain circum stances, powerful pass which he now occupies. In view of the above, we most respectfully but most urgently request that you procure the immediate raising of the quarantine against San Fran cisco. We have the honor to be. Very respectfully. Your obedient servants, EL PASO CHAMBER OF COMMERCE, By S. J. FREUDENTHAL, President. ERNEST E. RUSSELL, Secretary.
Newspaper Details
El Paso Daily Herald
El Paso, Texas, US
Sat, Aug 25, 1900
Page 3
Full Page
Clipped by
Donaly B.
USA 01 Jun 2026
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