FEDERAL QUARANTINE AT NEW YORK
THOMAS W. SALMON, M. D.
Attention has again been directed to the unsatisfactory conditions which prevail in the administration of quarantine inspection at the port of New York by the report of a special committee of the New York Academy of Medicine.
This report, which was recently made public, strongly advocated the national control of quarantine from “the point of view of convenience, efficiency and uniformity of administration, economy and law.” The subject aroused discussion in the newspapers a few weeks ago because the chairman of Governor Sulzer’s commission for the investigation of state departments urged the transfer of this function to the federal government.
In the discussion of this recommendation, several important points have been overlooked. For example, there is some significance in the discrepancy between the large sums spent by New York on the quarantine station, which protects the country at large, and the small amount expended for the State Health Department, upon which rests the protection of the citizens of the state. Doubtless, as has been pointed out, the fees charged steamship companies can be increased so that the state will not be required to make any annual appropriations for the maintenance of the quarantine station but the health officer of the port has asked for an appropriation of about $1,800,000 for needed repairs and improvements. About $180,000 is appropriated for the State Department of Health each year. This constitutes practically all the money spent by the state for the protection of the health of its 9,000,000 citizens. Out of it must be paid all salaries and expenses of administration, the cost of collecting vital statistics, maintaining laboratories for research and for the production of diphtheria antitoxin, the control of epidemics, the inspection of water supplies and, in short, all the work in the prevention of disease in which the state is engaged. If the Legislature grants the $1,800,000 which the health officer of the port requests, it will give him an amount equal to that expended during ten years for safeguarding the health of those residing in the state.
Closely related to this aspect of the question is the fact, which has received little attention, that some of the largest immigrant-carrying lines do not enter New York at all but dock at Hoboken and Jersey City. Last year more than 36 per cent. of all the passengers who arrived at this port from Europe landed in New Jersey. The following table shows the passengers brought during 1912 by steamship lines having docks at Hoboken and Jersey City:
| Steamship Lines | Cabin | Steerage | Total |
|---|---|---|---|
| North German Lloyd | 51,920 | 118,803 | 170,723 |
| Hamburg American | 38,033 | 98,043 | 136,076 |
| Holland American | 18,611 | 33,877 | 52,488 |
| Scandinavian American | 5,265 | 13,064 | 18,329 |
| Lloyd Sabaudo | 652 | 7,119 | 7,771 |
| 114,481 | 270,906 | 385,387 |
Less than 30 per cent. of the immigrants who arrived at this port during the year remained in this state, a large proportion landing in New Jersey, being examined at Ellis Island and going west by one of the railroad lines terminating at Jersey City. They were distributed over a wide area and it cannot be denied that it is chiefly for the protection of distant states that New York’s expensive quarantine is maintained.
Much has been said about the advantages to commerce of the state control of quarantine at the port of New York. If $300,000 are collected during 1913 in fees from steamship companies, the amount will equal the earnings on $7,500,000 of invested capital. In other words, an amount of capital which would purchase ten large freighters must be set aside to meet the quarantine dues at this port for one year. If ten such vessels were tied up at one of the piers in this city for a year, as an object lesson, we would not hear very much about the advantages to commerce which local control of quarantine insures.
The tax rate in the Borough of Manhattan for 1911 was 1.72248. At such a rate it would be necessary to tax $17,000,000 of capital to raise $300,000 a year. This means that a tax equal to that rate on real estate in the Borough of Manhattan has to be levied on $17,000,000 of the capital of steamship companies to pay for a quarantine station, the cost of which should be borne by the country which it protects.
Another phase of the question which has not been touched upon is the relation between quarantine and the medical control of immigration. At ports where the United States Public Health Service administers the quarantine law and conducts the medical inspection of immigrants, the two functions are performed under conditions making each more efficient and also reducing interference with commerce to a minimum. The medical inspection of immigrants at Ellis Island, which is performed by medical officers of the United States Public Health Service, constitutes the second line of quarantine defense and not a few cases of small-pox and typhus fever which have escaped observation at the state quarantine station have been detected in the medical examination at Ellis Island.
If both functions were performed by the Public Health Service at this port the work could be carried on much more effectively and with benefit to the immigrant—a factor which no one seems to have considered. When cases of scarlet fever, measles, diphtheria and the other contagious diseases of childhood were taken off vessels at the state quarantine station, children died without their mothers, who were detained at Ellis Island, even being able to visit them once during their illness. At the same time a magnificent new group of hospitals for contagious diseases remained idle at Ellis Island. No better example of the danger and inutility of divided control could be found than this.