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active and vigorous methods of segregation. Again in the firstmentioned period the number of lepers at the settlement ranged from two to eight hundred, the average being about 500. recent years the number has varied from 1,000 to 1,200. This large excess is explained by the health authorities on the ground that lepers are now sent here at an earlier stage of the disease and live longer than formerly. The annual death-rate among the lepers, which was formerly from 20 to 25 per centum, has been reduced to from 13 to 15 per centum.

As bearing upon the question of the increase or decline of leprosy, it is interesting to compare the opinions of the government physicians, which appear in the last report of the Board of Health. A few of them assert that there is "as much leprosy as ever"; most of them, however, sound a more hopeful note and declare that there are very few or no known cases of leprosy in their respective districts. Notwithstanding this optimistic view, the fact remains that the annual consignment of lepers to the settlement shows little diminution in number. This yearly increment of fresh admissions which goes to recruit the ranks of the rapidly dying population of Molokai is made up of previously undiscovered cases. All the indications point to the existence of a vast deal of latent leprosy, which, as the disease develops into a recognizable form, must continue for many years to come to furnish a constantly recurring series of subjects for the leper colony.

Finally, there remains to be considered the practical question of the danger to the health interests of this country involved in Hawaiian annexation. In addition to the 1,200 or more lepers at Molokai there are probably two or three times as many at large in whom the disease is latent, or in the incubative stage, yet none the less sure to develop. Each of these lepers carries with him the seeds of a deadly contagion. If it were a question of the transportation of this mass of infectious material into our midst there could be no doubt of the imminence of the danger. There is little ground, however, for apprehension on this score. The Hawaiian is essentially insular in his tastes and habits and shows little disposition to leave his native shores. It is probable, however, that with the relaxation of our strict quarantine regnlations on the Pacific coast, which may be assumed would follow annexation, many lepers would, in their desire to escape Molokai,

emigrate to this country. The principal danger would come from the establishment of more intimate commercial relations, the opening up of new enterprises, inviting capital and labor and, consequent thereon, the influx of Americans into the islands and their exposure to contact with the tainted population. That such contact is not devoid of danger is evident from the number of foreigners who contract the disease. Dr. A. Mouritz, formerly resident physician of the leper settlement, writes January 1, 1897: "Year in and year out the lepers at the settlement average between 1,100 and 1,200, chiefly Hawaiians, but within the past year or two the disease is making among the foreigners here (white people) considerable inroads."

Leprosy is no respecter of persons or nationalities. In the first 20 years of the leper settlement, among the 3,076 admissions there were 22 Chinamen and 16 whites, about one per cent. Within the past 10 years the number of foreigners has averaged from 3 to 5 per cent. Thus in the last biennial report of the Board of Health, January 1, 1896, it appears that of the 1,087 lepers at the settlement there were 974 Hawaiians, 61 half-castes, 3 foreign parentage, 29 Chinese, 6 Americans, 5 British, 1 German, 4 Portuguese, 1 Spanish, 1 Russian, 1 Negro, 1 South Sea Islander. Exclusive of the half-whites, about five per cent. were foreigners. The statistics of the leper settlement by no means convey a fair indication of the actual number of foreigners who have contracted the disease. While the Board of Health assumes to act impartially in consigning to Molokai all lepers who come within its jurisdiction, irrespective of nationality, it is well known that foreigners are given the privilege of leaving the country, so that as a rule only the poorer and more destitute are committed. Besides, it has been the policy of the Board to return to their own country, when practicable, the Chinese and Japanese laborers who become lepers. Many foreigners learn the nature of their disease from their own physicians and voluntarily return to this country or Europe for treatment. A number of

such cases have come under my personal observation.

In the event of annexation, it would be idle to think of confining leprosy to the islands, or rather excluding it from this country by quarantine measures. In its earlier stage leprosy defies detection, and no system of quarantine has ever been devised which would exclude the importation of a disease so lit

tle manifest on ordinary inspection as leprosy; only the more advanced cases could be detected. There would seem to be no reasonable doubt that the annexation of Hawaii would create conditions favorable to the dissemination of the seeds of leprosy in this country. But for the propagation of a disease a suitable soil is an essential factor, and the question is whether the conditions of soil found here are favorable to the germination and growth of the seed. Upon this point the teachings of observation and experience throw a valuable light. Just as in the case of tuberculosis, with which leprosy presents many analogies, we find that climatic and other conditions exert a marked inhibitory influence upon its development. In the dry, cool climate of our Northwestern States, for example, leprosy does not appear to take root and flourish, but rather to die out from natural causes. Thus the 160 Norwegian lepers who years ago emigrated to this country and settled in the various Scandinavian colonies of the Northwest have not propagated the disease. It has practically died out with the death of its victims, and no new case has been traced to association with them. On the other hand the warm, moist, more tropical climate of our Southern seaboard seems favorable to the development of leprosy. There is a large number of lepers at Key West. In Louisiana there has been a notable and alarming increase of leprosy within the past few years. Blanc and Dr. Dyer, of New Orleans, have recently reported more than 150 cases as coming under their personal observation. Twenty-five years ago the disease was limited to a few cases in the Téche River district and was supposed to be practically, extinct. Its recent remarkable outbreak proves that here, at least, given the seed, the conditions are favorable to its development.

Dr.

Experience shows that in all countries where leprosy has become epidemic its advance is insidious; it spreads slowly, and before the health authorities awaken to the realization of the danger it has made such headway that its further progress cannot be arrested. All of these facts should be carefully considered and their importance from a sanitary point of view carefully weighed by our legislative authorities before deciding upon the annexation of Hawaii with its leprous population.

PRINCE A. MORROW.

THE PRESENT RAILWAY SITUATION.

BY H. T. NEWCOMB.

THE present railway situation may be briefly summarized. From the standpoint of the investor in railway enterprises the salient facts are: That rates and charges for transportation services are demoralized; that the law has imposed upon railway managers the unnatural burden of maintaining a costly, wasteful, and worse than useless competitive system; that the carrying corporations are allowed to combine neither for the establishment and maintenance of just rates, nor for the prevention of unjust discriminations; that nearly 40,000 miles of railways are in the hands of receivers; that railway securities having a par value of nearly four and one-half millions of dollars receive no return of interest or dividends, and that solvent lines are practically at the mercy of those of their competitors whose bankruptcy has relieved them from the necessity of attempting to earn a return upon at least their bonded indebtedness. The view presented to those who are forced to purchase railway services is not more satisfactory. The same unnatural competition that has been instrumental in reducing so many railway corporations to bankruptcy has produced an almost infinite series of unjust discriminations against individuals, communities, and classes of traffic. While average charges per passenger and per ton of freight per mile have considerably declined, the benefit of the reduction has accrued too largely to favored shippers and communities. Shippers who have been able, alone or in combination with others, to control traffic, the revenue from which was sufficient in the aggregate to be of great importance to particular railways, have been. able to demand and secure favors in the adjustment of transportation charges, while the burden of relatively unjust charges has fallen heavily upon those least able to support it. Commu

nities dependent upon a single line of railway have seen their business diverted to those served by two or more, yet have been constantly told that the multiplication of parallel and competing railways is economically unprofitable and socially detrimental. Those upon whom transportation charges fall most heavily are most frequently met, when they appeal for reductions, with statements showing that the railways serving them are unproductive to stockholders, if not bankrupt, conditions which are due to the enforced maintenance of a wasteful system of competition for traffic and to the lack of harmony among the several corporate entities that make up the railway system. The Interstate Commerce law has proved of little benefit. Though the amendments adopted by Congress since it was passed have been practically unimportant, the judicial interpretation it has received has left but little effective resemblance to what it was originally supposed to mean. The people will not rest supinely subject to these conditions. Congress will not by inaction confess itself impotent to successfully regulate interstate transportation, nor will investors in railway property prove ultimately incapable of convincing the general public that no righteous purpose is served by rendering unprofitable the industry of carrying persons and property by rail.

The legislative remedies tried during the last three decades have been generally based upon an assumed conflict between the respective interests of the roads and their patrons. Maximum rate laws, long and short haul restrictions, not always unproductive of mildly beneficial consequences; excessive and double taxing schemes, anti-association and anti-pooling legislation, the injustice and positively detrimental effects of which are now recognized by all wise publicists, have all had their origin in this supposed antagonism. They have also been universally based upon the theory that particular railway charges can be, and are likely to be, excessive and extortionate in themselves. As the only reasonable criterion of charges is the relation between the cost of supplying and operating railway facilities and the aggregate revenue received from disposing of the services they are created to perform, there can be no just approval or disapproval of a particular charge except in consideration of its relation to other charges. As injustice cannot be predicated of any rate except with regard to its relation to others, it is fortunate that the

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