Special Message

To the Senate and House of Representatives:

Your attention is respectfully called to the necessity of passing some legislation at this session which will supplement existing law intended to prevent the spread of contagious diseases of animals from one State to another or to foreign countries. Two bills, each designed to cure defects in existing law, are now pending before the Congress. The measures are practically identical. One is H. B. 17589, the other S. 7167. These bills have been favorably reported by the Committee on Agriculture of both branches of Congress.

Recent decisions of the Federal courts have held that the statutory powers of the Secretary of Agriculture are inadequate to enforce regulations that prohibit the interstate movement of animals which have been exposed to contagion, but which at the time of shipment have not yet developed visible signs of disease.

The right of the Secretary of Agriculture to regulate interstate movement of animals exposed but not actually diseased must be recognized if the spread of such diseases from State to State and to other countries is to be prevented; and yet this right has recently been attacked in two cases filed in the Supreme Court of the United States, and the Secretary of Agriculture is advised that the trend of recent decisions makes it probable that the Supreme Court may hold that the existing law is not sufficiently clear as to the steps which may be taken to accomplish this object. Each of the bills referred to in this message is accompanied by an able report, which points out the necessity, from a legal standpoint, for the enactment of this legislation.

I fear, if no remedial legislation be granted at this session, that it may not be possible to continue to enforce the necessary measures for controlling this class of diseases, and that serious, widespread, and irreparable injury will be caused to the live-stock interests of the United States. If the Federal quarantine is rendered ineffective, State will quarantine against State, each requiring compliance with differing statutes; the way to market may be blocked or rendered very difficult for shippers of live stock; contagious diseases of live stock may be so disseminated through the stock yards and channels of commerce that foreign countries will restrict the export of animals and possibly meats from the United States, all of which would be disastrous to the livestock industry.

I therefore put in an earnest plea for early action in this matter, and commend to your favorable consideration the two bills proposed by the Committees on Agriculture and referred to in this message.

THEODORE ROOSEVELT.