File No. 468/79–80.
Minister Fox to the
Secretary of State.
American Legation,
Quito, November 16,
1908.
No. 390.]
Sir: I have the honor to inclose herewith, with
great pleasure, a translation of a law creating a public health service,
recently enacted by the Ecuadorian Congress, and to give the very
satisfactory information that Dr. B. J. Lloyd, of the United States
Public Health and Marine-Hospital Service, has been appointed by the
council of state, on nomination of President Alfaro, as director of this
service. Secretary Root will recall that his final personal instruction
to me before I left Washington for this post, nearly two years ago, was
that the Government of the United States, and especially that of the
Canal Zone, was deeply and practically interested in the proper
sanitation of the port of Guayaquil, and that I was exhorted to be alert
to do everything in my power to accomplish it.
On my arrival in Ecuador I found Dr. B. J. Lloyd, of the United States
Public Health and Marine-Hospital Service, already thoroughly imbued
with the same idea and was agitating the matter. It will be recalled
that several agreements had been reached between the department and
Ecuador, looking toward an arrangement whereby the United States should
superintend the sanitation of this port. This plan was balked by the
opposition of the superior board of health of Guayaquil, which had ample
authority and at that time some funds, and also by the municipality of
that city. This would have been the situation to-day had it not been for
the advent, in February last, of the bubonic plague.
Dr. J. C. Perry, of the health service of the Canal Zone, was sent here.
He came to Quito and I presented him to Gen. Alfaro, and together with
Dr. Lloyd we had a conference. The President was at first doubtful, and
made more so by a continuous stream of telegrapic protests from
Guayaquil. When, however, he became thoroughly convinced and made up his
mind to the correctness of our position, he acted not only promptly, but
energetically, and created by executive decree a special sanitary
commission, naming Dr. Lloyd as president, and providing him with a fund
of 20,000 sucres ($10,000) per month. Dr. Lloyd took charge on March 27
last, permission having been granted him by Surg. Gen. Wyman, in
response to my telegraphic suggestion to the department. At this time
the epidemic was at its height. The public was panic-stricken and
commerce practically at a standstill. Through Dr. Lloyd’s efforts
traffic was almost immediately reestablished, confidence restored, and
the epidemic rapidly reduced to a few sporadic cases.
By July 1 of this year Dr. Lloyd began to turn his attention to yellow
fever and smallpox, with the result that the latter disease has been
exterminated from Guayaquil, and the former greatly diminished and is
actually in the process of extermination. It is
significant that the total number of deaths since January 1, 1908, is
considerably less than in former years, in spite of the plague
epidemic.
As will be seen, the law practically abolishes all other sanitary
organizations (art. 11) in the Republic, placing everything pertaining
to health matters under the immediate supervision of the new service,
including maritime and land quarantines, and involving
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the transfer of all the property of the
superior board of health of Guayaquil, including an excellent steam tug.
The superior board of health will, as soon as the new law goes into
effect, cease to exist. The municipality is being reorganized and Dr.
Lloyd has been assured of its cooperation.
On examination of the records for several years past, the department will
find that that which the isthmian health authorities originally desired,
viz, the placing of the sanitation of Guayaquil in the hands of our
experts, has now, by consistent effort on the part of this legation,
supported by the United States Public Health and Marine-Hospital Service
in the person of its able and indefatigable representative in Ecuador,
been accomplished by indirection, and if not in the exact form
originally hoped for, in a really much more satisfactory manner. The
organization is entirely Ecuadorian. It is fortunate that Dr. Lloyd has
been long enough on this South American detail to have inspired the
confidence of the people, not only in Ecuador, but in Peru and Chile as
well. He should, therefore, be heartily sustained by his bureau in
Washington and every facility afforded him to continue his work.
The seed which has been planted here has already brought forth fruit. I
look forward to this as only the beginning. Long before the completion
of the Panama Canal, Guayaquil will have lost its reputation as a pest
hole and travelers will not be afraid to come here, where for half the
year the climate is one of the most salubrious to be found anywhere in
the world.
There are many reasons why the work of sanitation has been and will
continue to be difficult, but results are being obtained in the face of
adverse conditions, though Dr. Lloyd expects a recrudescence both of
plague and yellow fever during the coming wet season (Jan. 1 to May
15).
I need not point out to the department and to our Public Health Service
the importance of what we have thus far been able to do. It certainly
means much, and in the future we may be sure that Ecuador will go step
by step with us in sanitary measures.
I have, etc.,
[Inclosure.]
Public-health service.
The Congress of the Republic of Ecuador, considering that the public
health is the supreme law of the people, not only in its relation to
the well-being of the people, but also with regard to our
international relations, decrees:
- Article 1. That there shall be
established a public-health service whose personnel shall,
if possible, be composed of physicians and shall consist of—
- (1)
- One director and two assistants.
- (2)
- One subdirector and two assistants for each city
or town where their services may be
necessary.
- (3)
- Such employees as the director may deem
necessary.
- Art. 2. The director of public
health shall be named by Congress or by the council of state
when Congress is not in session and shall be under the
immediate direction of the minister of the interior. The
director shall reside in Guayaquil and his duties and
attributes are as follows:
- (1)
- To name his assistants and, with the approval of
the President, the sub-directors for the different
cities and towns in the Republic.
- (2)
- Remove from their places his assistants and the
subdirectors.
- (3)
- Formulate regulations relating to hygiene and
public health, and also regulations governing
maritime, interprovincial, and interurban
quarantine, and submit these regulations for the
approval of the President.
- (4)
- To see that these regulations are enforced.
- Art. 3. The assistants of the
subdirectors shall be named and remunerated by the
municipality of the canton where they are required to serve
during the first days of January of each year on the
approval of the subdirectors.
- Art. 4. The duties of the
subdirectors shall be as follows:
- (1)
- To see that the provisions of this act and the
regulations made in pursuance thereof are
enforced.
- (2)
- Formulate special regulations for the cities or
towns where their services are rendered, which
regulations, on being approved by the director of
public health, shall be transmitted to the
municipality for their approval and enforcement. The
political (Federal) and municipal authorities shall
aid in every way possible in the enforcement of
these regulations.
- Art. 5. The salary of the
director of public health shall be s/.800 (sueres) per month
and that of each of his assistants s/.500 (sueres) per
month.
- Art. 6. The several
municipalities shall furnish such funds as may be necessary
to protect the public health in their respective
jurisdictions unless there is a special fund provided for
such work.
- Art. 7. The subdirectors of
public health shall be, ex officio, presidents of the boards
of health in their respective cities and towns.
- Art. 8. The director of public
health is authorized to suspend, at his discretion, any
regulation made in pursuance of this act if in his opinion
it is to the interest of the public good to do so.
- Art. 9. Municipal health
regulations which may be in conflict with the regulations of
the public-health service shall be void.
- Art. 10. The director of the
public health shall give bond in the sum of s/.5,000
(sueres) for the faithful performance of his duties and the
management of the public funds intrusted to his care; and if
it can be proven that he knowingly misused these funds, or
if he receives or knowingly permits others to receive any
pay or emolument for the purpose of influencing for or
against any measures to be enforced, or if it can be proven
that he has unlawfully used his influence or faculties for
private gain, this bond shall be forfeited wholly or in
part, according to the gravity of the case, and on
conviction he shall be punished by a fine of from 500 to
2,000 sueres, or by imprisonment for a term of from six
months to two years, or both, in the discretion of the
court, funds so collected to belong to the funds of said
service. In order that the director of public health may be
punished for derelictions of his subordinates it shall be
necessary to prove that he had guilty knowledge of the acts
and that the guilty subordinate should be previously
convicted. If the director of public health knowingly
consents that his subordinates shall misuse their faculty or
influence for private gain, he shall be responsible in the
manner already stated, and his subordinates, on conviction
of such dereliction, shall be fined not less than 500 nor
more than 2,000 sueres or by imprisonment for a term of from
six months to two years, or both, in the discretion of the
court.
- Art. 11. With the naming of the
director of public health the other organizations in
Guayaquil having similar duties shall cease to exist and
shall deliver, by inventory, to the director of public
health all their funds, rents, offices, accessories, books,
accounts, lazarettos, etc. The Comisión Especial de
Saneamiento will transfer all of its offices, accessories,
books, accounts, lazarettos, etc., to said director for the
use of the public-health service; and in the act of
effecting this transfer the Comisión Especial de Saneamiento
shall be dissolved and its duties and attributions shall
devolve upon and pass to the public-health service herein
provided for, duties and attributions which are defined in
the executive decree of March 24, 1908.
- Art. 12. The public health
service shall be provided with a fund of 240,000 sueres per
annum, authorized by the law of general appropriations,
which fund shall be destined for the payment of salaries,
the acquisition of materials, sustaining of lazarettos, and
other expenses of the service, and shall be administered in
accordance with the laws governing the administration of
public funds. The public-health service shall deposit its
funds in the Bank of Ecuador, in the city of Guayaquil, and
shall check on such funds, the accounts to be approved by
the governor of the Province of Guayas. In case of urgent
necessity, as in times of epidemics, the President of the
Republic shall increase these funds at his discretion. The
funds mentioned in this article shall be
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dedicated to the work of
sanitation of the city of Guayaquil in conformity with the
decree of March 24, 1908.
- For the sanitation of other places in the Republic funds
shall be provided by the respective municipalities, and
those municipalities are authorized to impose the necessary
taxes; but in case of urgent necessity the funds herein
provided for may be drawn upon, but in this case the amounts
taken shall be refunded to the public-health service.
- Art. 13. The director of public
health on assuming charge of his duties and responsibilities
will formulate regulations which he shall submit to a
commission formed of the deans of the faculties of medicine
and law and one other member of each of these faculties for
the approval of said commission. The rector of the
University of Guayaquil shall be president of this
commission.
- Art. 14. Authority is hereby
granted to impose fines and imprisonment for violations of
this act or of regulations made in accordance
therewith.
- Art. 15. The Federal and
municipal police will enforce the provisions of this act and
of the regulations made in accordance therewith, imposing
fines and penalties for violations, failing in which they
shall be responsible in conformity with the penal
code.
- Art. 16. All laws and parts of
laws which may be in conflict with this act are hereby
repealed.
Given in
Quito, the capital of the Republic,
on the 29th day of
October, 1908.
Jenaro Larrea,
President of the Senate.
Abelardo Montalvo,
President of the Chamber of
Deputies.
Celiano
Monje,
Secretary of the
Senate.
L. E.
Bueno,
Secretary of the Chamber
of Deputies.
Approved.
Eloy Alfaro.
By the President:
A. Reyes
V.,
Minister of the Interior,
Hygiene, etc.
