Article April 18, 1914 Issue

Health Legislation

JUDGE CLIFFORD P. SMITH

Wherever the people have gained the right of self-government, they have been obliged continually to defend this right against encroachments. The time was when this vigilance was required only or mainly toward enemies from abroad. Today the people who would be free, are awakening to the fact that the greater dangers are within their own borders. They are beginning to perceive that the just liberties of the people are threatened chiefly by too much government and by the perversion of government. Hence, today as never before, the tendency and effect of laws are being scrutinized with a view to reducing the detriments and increasing the benefits of human government.

Health is a subject in regard to which legislators may do certain things wisely and thus promote health and the general welfare, or they may attempt too much and thereby do more harm than good, not only to the injury of health, but with harmful effect on other subjects of equal importance. It should be noticed, moreover, that the general desire for the government to do only what is wise and right concerning health is peculiarly liable to be frustrated, for there is a numerous class which has built up a complex and far-reaching organization for the very purpose of procuring and controlling governmental action on this subject. Therefore the rights of the people in relation to health, more than with respect to most subjects, need to be vigilantly guarded against subtle encroachments.

Among the reasons which lately moved the American people to put their government in the hands of President Wilson and his party, none was so prominent as the conviction that certain revenue laws were having a pernicious effect on social and industrial prosperity. One of the first official acts of the President was the calling of a special session of Congress to consider the conditions to be remedied and the constructive policy that should guide remedial action. The message which he delivered at the opening of that special session was largely devoted to this subject. The pith of it was in these sentences:—

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