Atlanta tri-weekly journal. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1920-19??, 1920-05-11
THE COMMON GOOD
BY H. Addington Bruce
THERE still are people strange

THERE still are people strangely op-
posed to that great forward movement
for individual and national health
| represented by compulsory medical examina-
ton of children and their compulsory treat
ment if found suffering from physical mala-
| dies and defects. And too often this be-
nighted opposition thwarts remedial action
in communities where such action is sorely
needed.
The cry of personal liberty" is raised
The state, it is urged, has no right to in
| wade 1.-The sanctity of the home" Parents
! should be free to judge what is best for
! their children"
| Which might be plausible enough if all
parents knew what is best for their chill
| dren and if all parents were willing to do
! what is best for their children.
But, VIGOROUSLY, all parents do not know
| how to protect their chiIdrens health. No
| toriously, many parents are perfectly willing
to let their children grow to manhood ana
womanhood burdened with handeaps from
which medical care in early life would have
relieved them.
In fact, there are not few parents who
| from ignorance or criminal negligence
would willingly permit their children at
! flicted with contagious diseases to mingle
| with other children.
| Only recently, with the summoning of our
young men to bear arms for the national de-
tense, we had concrete and appalling evil
dence of what parental ignorance and neglect
IN matters Of health can accomplish Two
out of every five prospective soldiers had to
be rejected as physical interiors, and at least
80 per cent of those rejected were the vic
TINS OF preventable defects.
nation thus crippled in it's young man
hood cannot look with any confidence to the
future unless regenerative action is taken.
Such action is imperative for the common
good no less than for the good OF every
individual whose health is menaced.
And since adult vigor depends largely on
vlgor in childhood, compulsory medical ex-
animation and care of children must event.
ually become the rule everywhere
That is, it must become the universal
rule unless parental intelligence and par
entail conscience are stimulated by educa-
ton SO effectively that the state is really
under no necessity of invading the home to
compel parents to keep a Watchful eve on
| their children's health
Assuredly this would be a desirable al
tentative. And those now opposing state
invasion of the home might we'll devote their
energy to help make that invasion unneces-
sary.
Otherwise the sooner they surrender to
the inevitable the better. For to continue
to allow parents to rear their little ones to
ill health, whether through ignorance or neg
Iect, is to invite national self-destruction
And no nation will rush to destruction if it
can save itself.
So, gentlemen of the opposition, retire to
beneficient silence.
Or, better still, use your eloquence, now
so heatedly employed in defense of parents
rights" to arouse parents to an understand
ing of their duties and responsibilities
That is the only way you can permanently
succeed in checking state invasion Of the
home for the preservation of the state.
Copyright, 1920, by The Associated News
papers.)