Morning journal and courier., 1894-05-18
COMMUNICATION.
A Protest Against Vaccination.


 Tothe Editor of the JouRsAL AND COURIER:
 I herewith submit for publication A few facts and observations on the sub- jsct of vaccination, which Is claiming no little shsre of public attention at the present time. At the outset let me say that am we'll aware of the fact that in assuming the attitude of an anti ysccinator l am putting myself in position of semi hostility to majority of the doctors on this particular subject, snd em in danger of bringing upon myself the sneer that cobblers should not go beyond their lasts. At the rick of this criticism I shall still fee, justified in my position when reflect that the doctors were not always right in the past, ~and that they now without exception oheerfully and honestly admit the errors of theory and practice that .ime and experience have corrected.
 Is there person to-day with brains and skill enough to pare @ corn who would question the circulation of blood in the human bodyi And yet for forty years ''sreat majority" of the doctors laughed to scorn this discovery of the immortal Harvey.
 Is there a human relic of antiquity left among us who still. contends that blood letting Is the proper treatment for 8 weak ened and disesse-racked suffereri And yet for a century ''great msjority" of the doctors bled the people q use the word ''bled" strictly in the surgical senss), and l. f- practice, ssnk into "dreamless sleep" and thtir souls silently drifted into eternity on the crimson tide of their own life blood.
 Is there any one today 60 lacking in in- telligence and the common instinct of bu- msnity who could stand by the bedside of 6 fever-stricfen patient and be deaf to his delirious prayer for wste'I And yet within a very few years ''grest majority" of the doctors refused to answer such a prayer, and thousands of precious lives were ssc- rihcsd on the altar of this cruel fallscy.
 A "great majority" gave mercury until the teeth of the patient looseuei and fell from their sockets, the flesh parted from |
 No! Mir. Editor, msjorities gre not always right. Thirty or forty years sgo humsr slavery was upheld by the Christian churches, courts of justice and the news
 papers of the north; but there vss Gar
 ri.on, Phelps, Bescasr, 6 Sumner, who
 inspired by the divine and imperishabl --incIples of justice, kept up their con
 tepptuously stylsd "rub-a dub" agitation
 until finally the stons which was at frs
 rejected by the builders became the hss
 of the corner, and the sbsckles fell fror
 the limbs of four million of Gods crei
 lures, and the sum of all hr
 man infamy perished from our Ian
 leaving nothing but its dark shsdo,
 on the pages of American history. I aha
 content myeelf with few observations O
 the law now on our statute which author
 izss the school visitors to exclude from th
 public schools those children who are UT
 able to give satisfactory proof of vscclni
 ton. The inyidicus distinction that th 1t law makes sugsests the arst sTgumel n against 1t. It does not make vAccinstio |, compulsory upon all msmbsrs Of the con munity or citizsns of the State. Such o law would be reser ted-yes resisted b | st Invasion of their personal ard consultations h rights. Surely it will rot be contsnde
 that any man or set of men have the riRE ls to compel me with force and against u ,f will to submit to 6 surgical operation IT Such an assault would justify the u.e ( r. force In resisting it, to the extent of takir r- life. If necessary. And yet these ssssuli ,r upou defenssless children have to c oertki d extent legislative sanction, and the parent h stand passively by and witness an oPeri h ton on their child that they would nc n eubmit to themselves forgetting that the "a "yho would be free. themselves nut N strike the blow.n It is true that under th ,t law you cannot compel a child to suhEnl l. to the operation, but you can bully |. parent who Is econtc.entiously or a posed to 1t by oondsnning hi n child to illIterscy. If a law should If passed requiring thst hereafter D
 German should come into this state for ID In purpose of residing therein without sstii pe factory proof of vaccination, would thei as moi 70 ups righteous howl against . la - making euoh . dis.iuotioni Bat would rs be any more illogical than our present la "a on ths subjecti What right has fAthi .d vho believes in vaccination and who hl is sccording to his belief protected his chill ns ssyipg to me who abhors the prActi ss that must vaccinate my childi Certain ,sl he cannot, without destroyirg the vs s. theory he professes to believe in, contel
 tAat the presence of my unvaccinated ohl