Not only, therefore, has general compulsory vaccination failed to
protect Japan from some of the worst smallpox epidemics known in modern
or olden times, as just shown, but, what is perhaps still more damning,
it is proved by U. S. Government Reports, quoted on pages 95 and 99,
that Japanese vaccination was the source of the deadly epidemics of
Cattle Plague, known as “Foot and Mouth Disease,” which afflicted
both animals and mankind in the United States in 1902 and 1908, this
dangerous infection being imported in vaccine virus from Japan and
used by two of the largest makers of virus in the United States. See
Year Book, U. S. Dept. of Agriculture, 1914, page 21. See also page
99 in Supplement. These epidemics raged in several of our States, as
previously shown, and caused the slaughter of hundreds of thousands of
animals, an unknown amount of human mortality, and a loss of millions
of dollars to the Government and people of this country. Surely such
awful results from Japanese vaccination are a shocking mockery and a
stinging rebuke to all vaccination as an alleged “health” remedy and
call loudly for the abolishment of all compulsory vaccination as a most
dangerous public evil and a flagrant violation of vital human rights to
Medical Freedom, Sanity and Safety.
MEDICAL FREEDOM NECESSARY FOR MEDICAL PROGRESS, MEDICAL TRUTH AND HUMAN
SAFETY
As we now enjoy the great Democratic Institution of a Free Church in a
Free State, with all church control of government and all compulsory or
forced religion prohibited, so, in the near future, we must bring about
an equally important reform for human welfare in preventing all medical
control of our departments of government, in securing true medical
freedom and prohibiting all compulsory medicine as effectually as all
compulsory religion and church control of government is now prohibited.
And as full freedom for all religious sects, in religious matters,
has surely brought about an undoubted advance in religious progress
and in true religion and morality throughout the world, so it is sure
that full medical freedom will bring about a similar increase in true
medical progress and efficiency throughout the world.
Now in this most important reform of Medical Freedom I want to say at
this point that I hold no brief for any school of medicine or religion,
but what I contend for, as an American citizen, is something broader,
more inclusive, more American, and more important for public right,
health and safety than any one religious or medical doctrine, and
that is a full Medical Freedom for all the people to adopt any honest
or sincere doctrine or system of medicine which they may prefer,
and a free public field for the exercise of this doctrine or system
without any harassment or oppression from any other system of medicine
which may falsely and foolishly think itself specially ordained to
control the whole field of medicine. And just as we now enjoy a full
constitutional guarantee for Religious Freedom, which prevents any one
sect from infringing on the conscientious liberty of another, so we
must have a full Medical Freedom with an equal guarantee which will
give all honest or reasonable medical doctrines free scope and prevent
any medical doctrine or practice whatever from being forced on any
person against free will and consent, and which will recognize the
full right of the individual to adopt any preferred system of medical
treatment, whether with or without prayer and faith, with or without
drugs and medicines, or with or without vaccines or serums.
This broad medical freedom for all systems of medicine is absolutely
necessary for true medical progress itself, for only by testing
these different medical theories and practices side by side freely
in every-day experience and on a wide scale can the real truth and
virtue of any particular doctrine or practice be determined. A great
modern doctor uttered a most important truth on this head when he said
that “He is the best doctor who knows the uselessness and dangers of
the greatest number of remedies.” And the best way of finding out the
uselessness, danger or virtue of any remedies is to try them carefully
and freely side by side. And this free use and disuse of alleged
remedies side by side in contrast or competition will ultimately sift
out and condemn whatever is really evil or useless more effectually
and justly than any drastic compulsion or dogmatic suppression could
possibly do, thus making the best and surest contribution to true
medical progress, safety and efficiency.
On the same principle, if all compulsory vaccination is abolished and
each person left free to adopt or refuse vaccination, as he sees
fit--which is his positive legal right--a true test of the virtue and
safety or uselessness and danger of general vaccination will soon be
arrived at. And if it can be shown in such a large and free test that
the unvaccinated part of the population or the unvaccinated part of
the Army and Navy is no more liable, on the average, to catch smallpox
or typhoid fever than the vaccinated part, and is entirely free from
the grave dangers of vaccination itself, surely a great lesson in
medical sanity and progress will be learned. As a matter of fact, this
test has already proved in the case of the U. S. Army in France that
typhoid vaccination is useless as a preventive where sanitation is
grossly neglected. See pages 207 and 210. It has also proved in the
case of poorly vaccinated but sanitary England and particularly in the
unvaccinated and very sanitary City of Leicester, as compared with much
vaccinated Japan, Germany and Berlin, that good sanitation, isolation
and hygiene without vaccination give the best result in reducing and
preventing smallpox in the population and also in greatly reducing the
general death-rate and infant death-rate as compared to the same rates
in the heavily vaccinated communities named. On this point see one of
the latest medical works on this subject by a pro-vaccinator, “The
Vaccination Question,” by Dr. Millard, London, 1914.
Now, as medical freedom is absolutely necessary for true medical
progress, as just shown, so it is equally necessary for medical truth
and human safety. At this point I am sure it will be readily admitted
that even if an alleged medical remedy were absolutely effective and
sure, and absolutely safe, harmless, and beneficial, it would not
be ethically or legally proper to force it upon any patient against
free will and consent. But when an alleged remedy is very uncertain,
doubtful or irregular in its action, or very dangerous and frequently
fatal in its effects, such as vaccination has been proved to be, surely
the forcing of such a doubtful and dangerous remedy on any person under
pretense of its necessity and harmlessness is not only unethical but it
is a question whether this is not also a gross act of sheer criminal
malpractice.
When, therefore, any doctor forces such a doubtful and dangerous remedy
as vaccination upon any patient under the pretense that it is necessary
for public health and is perfectly safe and harmless, the doctor is
obviously under a most vicious moral and professional bias and interest
to conceal, deny or falsify any unfavorable facts that may arise in
the case, such as the failure of the alleged remedy or its injurious
or possibly fatal effects on the patient, which bias and falsification
is of course the greatest enemy to medical truth, safety and progress.
And it is obvious that this concealment and denial of the injurious or
fatal effects of medical remedies forced on the people by doctors is
not only against true public policy but is a gross violation of true
medical ethics and a crime upon the people in the falsification of this
most important point of vital statistics, viz., the nature and effects
of alleged medical remedies on human health and life, which facts
should surely be fully disclosed to the public, not only for the sake
of medical truth and progress but for the greater reason of human right
and safety.
And it must be here remembered that our vaccinating doctors and our
dominant vaccinating medical sect have now such full control of our
death certificates, our departments of health and vital statistics
that they can deny or conceal the effect of their medical operations
with the greatest ease and safety, which is obviously a very sinister
fact, against the most vital interest of the people, in public health,
medical truth and safety and accurate vital statistics, and this evil
surely calls for an immediate reform.
On the other hand, where medical practice is perfectly free and
voluntary, the practitioner has no bias or interest whatever to make
false claims of alleged efficiency or to conceal facts as to failures,
dangers and fatalities, so that it is therefore obvious that for
both medical truth and progress and human right and safety, Medical
Freedom is an absolute public necessity, and that, per contra, Medical
Compulsion is a most dangerous public evil which must be abolished as
completely as the less dangerous evil of religious compulsion has been
abolished.
MEDICAL DOMINATION AND COMPULSION MOST DANGEROUS POWER IN BODY POLITIC
AND MUST BE SUPPRESSED
The most dangerous power in the body politic of the past age was formed
by the organized intolerant and oppressive Doctors of Divinity, who had
a great State Church and political organization behind them through
which they dominated and coerced the people and by which they were
enabled legally to force upon them the horrible, but now obsolete, evil
of compulsory religion, as well illustrated in some of our early New
England Colonies and in many other places throughout the Old and New
Worlds, during the past centuries. And so, in a similar way, it is the
Doctors of Medicine and the Medical Societies of one great dominating
school or sect, the vaccine sect, which form the most dangerous
power in the body politic to-day, and are almost wholly responsible
for originating and forcing upon the people the barbarous evil of
compulsory medicine and compulsory disease, in violation of the most
fundamental, inherent, natural, and constitutional rights of the people.
President Lincoln--who was one of our greatest Americans--has told
us that no man, however good, is fit to govern another man without
the latter’s consent, and I think it will be generally admitted, as a
sound Democratic and American doctrine, that no one class or profession
of men--not even the great clerical or medical profession--is quite
perfect enough to be trusted with exclusive, unlimited or dangerous
power over our fellow men. Nevertheless it is a fact that the medical
profession, as now organized and possessed of political and official
power, and in control of some of our most important departments of
government, such as Public Health, Vital Statistics and Medical
Legislation, has already a most dangerous power over the people,
perhaps more dangerous and unlimited than any other class of men, and
this dangerous power must be curbed as soon and as much as possible in
the interest of true Medical Freedom and Progress and public right and
safety.
My late esteemed friend and neighbor, the illustrious Judge Gaynor,
New York’s greatest mayor, uttered one of his best sayings, which we
may well note and apply here, when he said: “Beware of the men or the
class who are too anxious to exert power.” And this warning we can
now apply most pertinently to our dominating medical societies and
vaccine companies, which together form a most gigantic medical interest
which is the chief influence that has forced compulsory medicine and
inflicted disease upon the people and controls our Departments of
Health, and which should be fully investigated by the Executive and
Legislative Departments of our State and National governments, which
should adopt some radical reforms to curb this dangerous medical power
and safeguard the rights of the people, as suggested in the next
paragraph.
THE GIGANTIC MEDICAL AND VACCINE INTEREST SUPPORTING COMPULSORY
VACCINATION A MENACE TO PUBLIC RIGHT AND SAFETY WHICH SHOULD BE CURBED
The latest official reports show that there are now _ninety-nine_
concerns licensed by the U. S. Government to manufacture vaccines and
serums for both human and animal uses! These ninety-nine concerns have
a capitalization of about fifty millions or more. One of the largest of
these manufacturers, located in Detroit, has a capital of ten millions,
while another large concern located in Philadelphia has a capital of
two millions.
The two great epidemics of Foot and Mouth Disease, or virulent cowpox,
in this country in 1902 and 1908 were caused by the vaccine virus of
two of these ninety-nine vaccine manufacturers; and these epidemics
resulted in great mortality to animals and mankind, as already shown,
with a loss of millions of dollars to the Government and people of the
United States; but no recompense has ever yet been made, so far as I
know, to the Government or People by these vaccine companies for this
great damage, and I ask your particular attention, Mr. President, to
this important point.
Now, to give a list of all the medical societies in the United States
and their membership figures would take too much space here, as their
names and numbers are “legion”; but I can give some figures which will
include the chief National Society and the chief State societies in the
leading State of New York, as follows:
American Medical Association 43,000 members
Medical Society, State of N. Y. 8,000 ”
Associated Physicians of Long Island 503 ”
Brooklyn Medical Association 200 ”
Medical Society of Kings County 950 ”
Harlem Medical Association 400 ”
Medical Association, Greater City of N. Y. 750 ”
Medical Society of County of N. Y. 2,709 ”
N. Y. Academy of Medicine 1,400 ”
This table, while including only a partial list of medical
societies in the United States, comprises some of the largest and most
influential societies of the dominant or allopathic school, active in
the national field and in our own local field of New York State. Now
each State in the Union has a similar group of local or State societies
and these several State societies combined with the big National
societies and with the _ninety-nine vaccine companies_ form, obviously,
a most gigantic medical, political and commercial interest behind the
medical evil of compulsory vaccination. Of course, a great many doctors
of this dominant school are advanced and progressive enough to oppose
all compulsory vaccination; but doctors of this type unfortunately
seem to be a minority, at present, in the dominant vaccine school
of medicine. On the other hand, a large majority in almost all of
the other schools of medicine are strongly opposed to vaccination,
particularly to all forms of compulsion.
A glance at this list of medical societies already given, with its
startling membership figures, combined with the _ninety-nine vaccine
companies_, must convince any thoughtful man of the dangerous size and
organization of these medical and vaccine interests, which obviously
have more or less of a joint interest to force their vaccine operations
and products upon the people as much as possible by compulsory laws,
and otherwise, and whose joint profits are obviously in direct
proportion to this use.
Now, no other profession has anything like the large and well organized
membership and corresponding political power and influence of the
medical profession in the body politic. Indeed, few, if any, trade or
business organizations can compare with the medical profession in this
respect, and this medical power is further greatly increased beyond
that of any other profession, trade or business in being in practical
control of our most important Departments of Public Health and Vital
Statistics all over the country, so that in advocating and practising
the dangerous barbarism of compulsory medicine this medical power can
easily deny and conceal the actual effects of this dangerous medication
on human health and life in our vital statistics. This is surely too
much power and a power too dangerous to be left in the hands of one
class or profession of men, and it would surely be an act of public
wisdom to take this control of our Departments of Health and Vital
Statistics out of the hands of this one medical class and entrust it
to doctors of various schools or to some other professions, such as
sanitary engineers, expert lay statisticians, life insurance actuaries,
or even to able laymen, who would have no professional bias or interest
to deny or conceal any medical mistakes or disasters, but who would
honestly give to the public the true record, not only of deaths
from natural diseases, but--what is even more important for public
information, public health, and medical progress--the true record of
disease and death from all _artificial or inflicted diseases_ and
medical operations in general.