Thirteen years ago smallpox visited Cleveland. Twelve hundred and forty-eight cases were reported. There were 30 cases of black smallpox. Many of the patients were blinded or disfigured for life; 224 died. We find in the annual report of the Board of Health for that year: "It was the smallpox we read about, that terrible scourge which struck terror into the former generations. Its contagious nature showed itself everywhere. One case, if not promptly reported to the health office and removed to the hospital, would invariably infect the whole neighborhood. Its severity manifested itself even in the milder cases, while confluent cases, almost without exception, developed hemorrhages during the pustular state.... At the Mayor's request, a meeting of physicians was held ... to consider the smallpox situation.... Vaccination was recommended on all sides, but the people were not prone to get vaccinated.... Wholesale vaccination was finally effected by the action of the School Council and the help of the Chamber of Commerce. The School Council amended the vaccination clause, making vaccination a conditio sine qua non for attending school and giving the health officer the whole control of the matter. Without this amendment the schools could not have opened last fall. The situation was too critical. With it, the opening of the schools helped greatly to exterminate smallpox. Every school, public and private, was put in the charge of a physician.... The doctors worked with a will, and if anything was done thoroughly and conscientiously in this city, it was the vaccination of all teachers and pupils last fall.... Through the influence of the Chamber of Commerce the employers prevailed on their employees to get vaccinated. Also to have everyone of their family vaccinated. The consequence was that the people got vaccinated by tens of thousands. Men who formerly spurned the vaccinator from their door came now to his office.... The city paid for 195,000 vaccinations."

In 1910 smallpox again broke out, this time in the southeastern part of the city, and threatened to spread over the entire community. With vivid memories of earlier horrors, the disease was met at the outset with vigorous measures. It was discovered that in spite of the experience of the Board of Education eight years before, and without regard to the rule which provided that "No teacher or pupil shall attend any school without furnishing satisfactory certificate that he or she has been successfully vaccinated or otherwise protected from smallpox," unvaccinated children had been admitted to the public schools literally by thousands. By the time that 63 cases of smallpox had been reported the Board of Health again took matters into its own hands, entered the schools, and vaccinated 55,000 school children. Equally vigorous measures were taken among adults and the epidemic was checked.

Every year since 1910 there have been cases of smallpox in Cleveland. The Board of Health no longer relies upon the Board of Education to protect the lives of the community against the scourge. Where 70,000 children are gathered together daily for hours at a stretch, the possibilities of spreading disease throughout the city at large constitute a grave menace. Therefore, immediately upon the report of a case of smallpox, the Board of Health officials exercise their right of entry into the schools of that district, and either vaccinate or exclude from attendance every child who could himself become a carrier of the disease. During the present year over 1,400 children were vaccinated in this way.

That vaccination prevents smallpox no intelligent person acquainted with the facts can doubt. An overwhelming mass of incontrovertible evidence can be found in every medical library. The mortality statistics of different countries tell the same story. A single example shows the general experience: In seven provinces of the Philippine Islands there were 6,000 deaths annually from smallpox alone. In his 1906 report, Dr. Victor G. Heiser, Director of Health in the Islands, describes how drastic measures were taken to stamp out the disease. Under his direction practically three million one hundred thousand persons were vaccinated. The following year, instead of 6,000 deaths from smallpox, there was not one.

For 13 years the Board of Education has had upon its books a rule requiring vaccination as a prerequisite to admission to the schools. That rule has never been adequately enforced. In July, 1914, City Ordinance 32846-B was passed, one section of which reads: "No superintendent, principal, or teacher of any public, parochial, private school, or other institution, nor any parent, guardian, or other person, shall permit any child not having been successfully vaccinated, nor having had smallpox, to attend school." Although passed a year ago, that ordinance has not yet been enforced. Exact figures cannot be secured, but it is probable that there are in the Cleveland schools today more than 50,000 unvaccinated children. For each of these the superintendent, principal, teacher, and parent may be held liable to a $200 fine, 60 days imprisonment, or both.