Baraboo weekly news. [volume] (Baraboo, Wis.) 1912-197?, 1918-02-07
Medical Control in Schools Scored

| The following has been sent to this
Office for publication:
At Santa Ana, Cal, speakers at
mass meeting, conducted by the Pub
lie Schools Protective League recently,
voiced the growing opposition to med
ical control measures put into effect
in the schools of America Among
them were Ben E. Tarner, attorney,
who presided; William E. Brown,
state Senator from the Los Angeles
district and DR.. l.. P. Crutcher, pres
ident of the Long Beach Board of Edu-
cation
! {" In Los Angeles, " said DR.. Crutcher
"since the physical examiner was put
in the schools, the absentees on account
of sickness have increased to O pro-
portion that menaces the revenue from
daily attendance, while in Long Beach,
since we dispensed with this physical
examination idea, the sickness has fall
len off remarkably"
Dr. Crutcher said, according to the
account of the meeting published by
the Santa Ana Blade, that no standard
could be set by which to judge child,
because the backward child of today
is the success of tomorrow in many
cases. He brought records to show
that Abraham Lincoln and Napoleon
Bonaparte were in the class, when
children that would now be called
subnormals. He said the survey in
Long Beach cost the city $500 before
they discharged the expert, and when
it was done, the report enumerated to
them 20 cases Of subnOrmality, in
which Il detectives needed treatment.
"They have no right to interfere,
unless the child is menace he de-
cIared. "And his having any particu-
lar trouble was not necessarily men
ace. and should be attended to in the
home.
cat Long Beach we have the
whole thing in the hands of the
who is not up to his usual mark, she
sends him home. When he gets there
the mother knows he needs attention.
The idea is working successfully, and
it requires no expense.
"The school is public, but I want to
say that the child is not. He is not
to be exploited by any individual who
happens to have an opinion
Senator Brown recounted a series
of alleged attempts by the American
Medical association to obtain legaliZed
medicine, one Of which was called the
"neighborhood clinic" This, he said,
had it not been stopped in congress,
would have made enforced medical
treatment necessary and would not
even leave the individual to a choice
of doctors. The idea, he said was that
each neighborhood should have one, in
Santa Ana perhaps five or ten, and
that a doctor should call every so
often, and the individual should be di-
rectly under his orders.
He accused the association of care
fully spreading a propaganda that
bred in the young American such a
fear of disease that the rest was easy,
as even the medical men agreed that
fear was the first aid to disease. He
said that at one time the trust had
over a thousand writers who were
sending out such dispatches.
The speaker read several articles to
show that the medical profession ad-
mitted that vaccine was in no case
absolutely pure. He showed that ad-
mission was made that there was a
risk in using it. "Now who shall say
that my child shall take that risk?'
he said. "You may take it if you
like. I haven't any objection. But you
cannot say my child must take it, and
you have no reason to so state. II
your child is vaccirated, he is i'm
mune, and it doesn't make any differ
ence to his health whether my child is
or not"
He said that all these steps taken
by the American Medical association
were first started by giving something
free, either an examination, or vac