THE MAIL

Henceforth all communications intended for publication in the Crimson must be signed but if the writer wishes, his name will be omitted, with the understanding that anyone who so desires may, on application, be informed of the author's identity. The Crimson assumes no responsibility for any letter and reserves the right to exclude those whose publication would be palpably inappropriate.

To the Crimson:

The decay of culture about the time of the death of Emerson, the growth of the influence of the Watch and Ward Society, the entire absence of a drama or literature worthy of the name, a court system distinguished by the Sacco-Vanzetti case--was anything new needed as an addition to the list of horrors in this state to give point to a recent suggestion that Harvard College be moved to Dayton, Tenn.? The new atrocity, at any rate is here--noted in your news columns of Friday May 13, with the announcement that vaccination is to be a requisite for entrance to Harvard next year. Will the people who howl so vigorously about personal rights in connection with prohibition please step forward? Oh, you are silent, are you? I should like to call your attention to the fact that the world's best minds, from Moliere and Le Sage to Bernard Shaw, have valiantly resisted the efforts of the medical fraternity to gain control of the lives (and the deaths) of men. The fact that there were only twenty-two cases of small pox in the entire state of Massachusetts during last year had nothing to do, I suppose, with the proponents of this latest measure. What is the excuse for it? Let those who want to undergo this peculiar form of treatment do so; I, for one, though I am not a Christian Scientist nor anything else which some medical gentlemen might like to accuse me of, do not care to submit to it--especially since I know of one person who received by being vaccinated one of the most loathsome of diseases--a disease to which both men and cattle are subject, and which I need not name; of another who suffered an attack of something very much like smallpox as a result of such treatment; and still a third who came very near losing permanently the loss of her arm, for the same reason.

I have little confidence that this letter, if the editors have the courage and fairness to publish it, will do anything except enrage the presumptuous medical gentleman who rather optimistically hopes that all other colleges are soon similarly to be devoted to the cause of vaccination. I should like to suggest to the editors, however, that when they are tired of publishing the callow judgments of undergraduates about courses given by instructors against whom they have a grudge--a practice which. I note, has already hardened into a "tradition"--they should give some space to really worth while causes. If one omits from one's consideration the Boston bean, a disgrace to civilized cookery but possibly a good substitute for bullets in case of another emergency like the Revolutionary War, I know of nothing more offensive than this latest measure.