Turns out the great vaccination debate has been going on for quite some time. This article from a newspaper published in 1918 is about the safety of the small pox vaccine.
Vaccination Case Soon To Be In Court
Interesting Charges
Petitioners Say Vaccine Lymphs Causes Disease; Also Has Scruples
The supreme court will be asked within the next few days whether the legislative assembly of 1913 had any legal authority to enact a statute making vaccination of school children compulsory; whether the North Dakota board of health had any legal right in November, 1913, to pass a resolution excluding children from the public schools of the state “until satisfactory evidence of vaccination has been given the proper authority;” and finally, whether in fact vaccination “is highly dangerous and deleterious to health and not a preventative against small pox,” and whether it is true that “vaccine lymph contains blood cells or otherwise, by vaccination persons otherwise and previously in good health are frequently inoculated with and become sick and unhealthy from syphilis, lockjaw, cancer, blood poison, leprosy and other incurable and loathsome diseases.”
The action which will be before the supreme court within a week originated in the district court at Devils Lake in 1917 when Lawrence F. Rhea, by his guardian, William F. Rhea, asked for a writ of mandamus compelling the city board of education of Devils Lake to admit him as a student in the public schools, whence he had been excluded because he could not give evidence that he had been satisfactorily vaccinated. Judge C. W. Buttz in the Ransom county district court declined to issue the writ on the grounds that the petitioner had not presented sufficient cause for action.
The act of 1913 objected to requires that “every parent or guardian having the care, custody or control of any minor or other person shall cause said minor or other person to be vaccinated.”
This provision, the petitioners and appellants holds, is “illegal, unreasonable and void.” It is alleged that vaccination is inoperative after seven years and that the law does not require revaccination nor does it compel pupils over 21 years old in the public schools to be vaccinated.
The affiant sets forth as further reason for his refusal to comply with this statute and with the resolution of the state board of health issued under its provisions that he has conscientious scruples against vaccination.
The defense, which consists of the board of education of Devils Lake and the state board of health, represented by Cuthbert & Smythe of Devils Lake, Attorney General William Langer and Rollo F. Hunt of Devils Lake, upholds the constitutionality of the legislative act of 1913 and the legality of the resolution adopted in conformity therewith by the state board of health. The defense “believes that Lawrence F. Rhea has non conscientious scruples against vaccination and that he would be vaccinated and present a certificate of vaccination if his father permitted.”
The defense denies that vaccine lymph causes disease, although it admits that in rare and exceptional cases death has been traced to its use. It holds, however, that such cases are overshadowed and outweighed by the permanent good accomplished by the control and practical eradication of smallpox. Assistant Attorney General Foster now is completing the state’s brief. The brief of the petitioner and appellant has already been filed by G. W. Young of Park River, Anderson of Devils Lake and Fred H. Hartnell of La Crosse, Wis., counsel for the petitioners.
Source: The Bismarck Tribune. Newspaper. October 04, 1918.
