Border Towns Beg for Smallpox Quarantine — but the Health Board Can't Stop the Trains
Asiatic smallpox is spreading in Vancouver and New Westminster, and Whatcom's mayor warns that daily trains could carry infection into every Puget Sound city. The board of health says the law only lets it quarantine ships.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
PORT TOWNSEND, May 26. — [Special.] — The Puget Sound board of health and Collector Wasson have been petitioned by the citizens of Whatcom and other towns along the British frontier, asking for the establishment of quarantine stations to prevent the introduction of smallpox. They received the following telegram from Whatcom today:
"Asiatic smallpox exists in Vancouver and New Westminster, which cities have daily railway communication through Whatcom to all cities on the Sound, and as no quarantine regulations have been inaugurated for the protection of our citizens, the public safety demands that immediate steps be taken to have all trains examined by a competent health officer stationed at Blaine and Sumas. Authority should be given to detain in quarantine all persons who have come from the stricken district. Immediate action is necessary. Can you help us? Delay is dangerous. Answer. W. L. MILLER, Mayor."
Wasson replied that the health board would convene tomorrow to take action. After an informal investigation today the members of the board were about convinced that they were powerless to act, inasmuch as no provision had been made by state laws for detention of carriers other than vessels. They say they have no authority to stop trains and quarantine passengers. Collector Wasson is positive that he is unable to establish quarantine service on land. From the present outlook no relief can be offered by the collector or the health board to Whatcom county cities.
Dr. Conover, government health officer, will investigate the case and possibly the government may take some action.
“Asiatic smallpox exists in Vancouver and New Westminster... Immediate action is necessary. Can you help us? Delay is dangerous.”
More than a century before COVID-19 border debates, Washington towns were pleading for health checks on trains from British Columbia and discovering that public-health authority stopped at the shoreline. The episode is a reminder that emergency powers are only as strong as the statutes behind them.
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