Norwich bulletin., 1916-02-04

to appear before our school board with some of my neighbors on a question other than medical inspection or vaccination. During the discussion, which waxed rather warm, a member of the board accused one of my neigh bors who was speaking of making threats, in answer to which my neigh bor replied that about year ago the board voted to have him sent to jail for refusing to have his child vacctn- ated. TGen I said that they voted to send me to jail too, but that we were still at large. to which the su- perintendent of schools replied. Yes, and it may be our duty to vote to send you there again"
 The position which seems frequently taken by many editors and newspa- per writers (especially in the larger and compulsory medical inspection of school children is a question which the ordinary citizen is not only not qualified to discuss but is actually ex- ceeding his rights and prerogatives when he attempts 1t, seems hardly tenable Such ideas however, seem to have been too freely imbibed by some very small intellects who have been intrusted by their fellow citizens with little brief authority.
 John Stuart Mills says in his "Es- say on Liberty" The sole end for which mankind are warranted, in- dividually or collectively, in interfer- ing with the liberty of action of any of their members is self protection The only purpose for which power can be rightfully exercised among members of a civilized community against their will is to prevent harm to others Blackstone's Commentaries say: Tn former times sumptuary laws were sometimes passed, and they were even T fl I@1 strain the luxuries so fatal to tha. species of government. But the ideas that suggested such laws are | now utterly exploded and no one | would seriously attempt to justify | them in the present age.
 When these political doctors ap- proach a legislature asking for laws respecting health matters the arsu- ment is always made that there will | be no attempt to invade the rights oi the citizen. Can we rely on this2 Art not our school children already strip | ped, examined, treated and inocu' 1 lated without our consent, and mainly | without even statuatory authority? I: | 1t possible that this system of exam | ming school children may some tim' | save the three lower incisor teeth sa, of some little neglected Polish girl | but at what cost to American free
 dom. American principles and tn
 right conduct of free government
 There can be no national prosperity
 no scientific progress, except anon people unhampered by unnecessary re
 strictions. The true function O government is to preserve individua freedom and not to restrict it. Tn
 parents are the legal and moral head
 of the family. The government is not
 and when it establishes compulsor
 vaccination, compulsory examinatio
 of school children, it is arrogating
 power that does not belong to it.
 While this fight for medical freedor
 is proving to be a long way to Tip
 perary 1t will soon dawn upon tn | political doctors and their allied edu
 cators that it is the wrong way
 tickle Mary. The magnitude whic
 this fight is assuming all over tn country proves that nothing Is set , tied until it is settled right.
 A. W. DAVIS. Norwich, February 3, 1916.