Lora C. Little was a prominent American anti-vaccinationist who, in 1906, stationed herself in central Pennsylvania during the debate over the compulsory vaccination law of 1895 and its enforcement by Dr. Samuel G. Dixon, the first Commissioner of the newly created Pennsylvania Department of Health.
Mrs. Little lectured at local meetings, including in Jackson Township, Dauphin County, where the school directors had voted on December 9, 1905, to require teachers to admit students to school whether or not they could produce a certificate of vaccination, thus setting up a standoff between those directors and Dr. Dixon who filed criminal conspiracy charges against them. The trial took place in Harrisburg in late March 1906, with the result being acquittal on the charge of conspiracy but with the judge firmly and decisively ruling that the directors had to follow the compulsory vaccination law. Mrs. Little was in the court room during the two days of the trial.
According to a 2017 blog post sponsored by The College of Physicians of Philadelphia, Lora C. Little had an interest in water-cure and phrenology and came to her anti-vaccination beliefs following the death of her seven year old son in April 1896, which she blamed on the smallpox vaccination that he had received months earlier, claiming that the vaccine had caused “the artificial pollution of the blood, [that] had fatally weakened his constitution and left him at the mercy of subsequent infections.” Her personal loss made here a sympathetic figure on the anti-vaccination circuit.
In 1898, Mrs. Little founded a monthly magazine, The Liberator, which she used as a vehicle to condemn modern medicine. It became the most prominent of the all the anti-vaccination literature in circulation at the time. She also promoted the view that doctors were putting children at risk in order to make money for themselves. It was her strong belief that all illnesses could be prevented by following a healthy diet and having an active lifestyle.
At the time of the trial of the Jackson Township directors, Mrs. Little taunted Dr. Dixon by challenging him to debate her on the merits of vaccination.
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From the Harrisburg Daily Independent, March 26, 1906:
ASKS DR. DIXON TO MEET HER IN DEBATE
Mrs. Little Issues Open Letter Challenging Commissioner
WILL MEET HIM ANYWHERE
Or If He Prefers He Can Debate In the Newspapers
Mrs. Lora C. Little, who is the editor of “The Liberator” and who is here for the purpose of lecturing in the interest of the propaganda for the repeal of the act requiring the compulsory vaccination of school children, to-day issues an open letter to State Health Commissioner Dixon. She challenges Dr. Dixon to open debate on the subject of vaccination at any place from now until May 10, of if he prefers, the Western Anti-Vaccination Society will furnish a series of articles debating the question with the understanding that Dr. Dixon furnish a similar series, all the articles to be printed in any Philadelphia or Pittsburgh paper and will open their columns for the purpose.
Mrs. Little’s letter to Dr. Dixon follows:
Dr. Samuel G. Dixon, Commissioner of Health
Sir: I note in the Star-Independent of the 24th that you intend to make a tour of the State with the purpose of “talking with the people face to face about the methods of preventing and fighting disease.” In the same interview you say you caused the vaccination of several hundred thousand school children, “and this in the face of a powerful opposition in which the anti-vaccinationists of the world have combined to defeat the Health Commissioner’s efforts.”
As an anti-vaccinationist, I desire to call to you attention to one or two facts and to make you an offer.
There lies concealed within your boast of having vaccinated the children of this State “in the face of a powerful opposition,” a confession of the weakness of your position,” a confession of the weakness of your position and proof of the strength of ours. For you were unable to meet anti-vaccination arguments except by resorting to force — except by use of “the mailed hand,” exultingly referred to by you in the Philadelphia “North American” of March 11. Now the power you thus boast of is yours by an accident — by the oversight of the citizens of this Commonwealth in failing to prevent the smuggling of a compulsory vaccination law into their statute book, and in allowing their servants in the Legislature to grant excessive and arbitrary powers to another servant of the people, the medical health officer.
Therefore it would have been eminently fitting that you should have demonstrated the usefulness of vaccination before, or instead of, resorting to compulsion. It is, however, matter of rejoicing that even thus tardily you concede that the people have a right to be “shown.” Further, it will be regarded as a mark of fairness and good faith on your part providing you can find it convenient, if you will accept one of the following offers:
1. I will meet you in open discussion of compulsory vaccination at any time or times you may designate between now and May 10. You are about to visit different places in the Sate to convince the people of the value of vaccination. I am visiting a number of places exposing its folly. Why not give the people the advantage of hearing both sides.
2. If the duties of your office, or other considerations, do not permit you to accept the foregoing, then the Western Pennsylvania Anti-Vaccination Society will furnish a series of articles debating the question with you in a series of equal length and number to appear alternately in any newspaper in Philadelphia or Pittsburgh that will open its columns for this purpose.
(Mrs.) Lora C. Little, Editor of “The Liberator.”
Harrisburg, March 26, 1906
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Mrs. Little’s celebrity appearance at the trial of the Jackson Township school directors was reported in the Harrisburg Telegraph of March 28 1906. Her attendance emphasized both the national and State attention that was given to the trial and the vaccination issue. And, when the trial was over, she remained in the area continuing to drum up support for the repeal of the compulsory vaccination law.
The Harrisburg Daily Independent, news of Steelton, March 29, 1906, promoted her free lecture at the Young Men’s Christian Association to be held on April 2, 1906, where she hoped to answer questions about vaccination, including whether compulsory vaccination was justifiable.
The Lykens Standard, news of Fisherville, April 6, 1908, noted her upcoming lecture appearance there “in the interest of the anti-vaccination people.”
The Pittston Gazette of April 24, 1906, gave the following report:
Mrs. Lora C. Little, editor of the Minneapolis Health Journal, has inaugurated a crusade in York against compulsory vaccination. She will endeavor to organize an anti-vaccination society. The woman has traveled over parts of York County where the compulsory law has been enforced. She says the question has become a political issue.
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Over the next ten years, Little was welcomed in the United Kingdom where for two years she continued her anti-vaccination campaign in addition to her increasing attacks on the medical profession. When she retuned to the United States, she took part in many local and state campaigns against doctors in general and vaccination in particular. But by 1918, in the midst of a war, the U. S. government decided she had gone too far. She was arrested in Bismarck, North Dakota and charged with sedition based on the Espionage Act of June, 1916.
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From The Bismarck Tribune, Bismarck, North Dakota, March 30 1918:
LORA LITTLE CHARGED WITH ANTI-WAR WORK
Agitator of Medical Freedom League Arrested Under Sedition Act
ATTACKED ARMY METHODS
Declared Compulsory Vaccination Unholy Traffic on Part of Doctors’ Trust
As distributor of the “The Truth Teller,” a newspaper published at Battle Creek, Michigan, and other literature attacking the army system of preventive prophylaxis as “Graft in Patriotic Guise; “A Lot of Dirty Graft;” “The American Medical Association, a medical trust, carrying on its unholy busines under the pretense of protecting the soldiers,” and referring to “soldiers who were killed of who may be killed hereafter” as men who have no choice under the present plan of compulsory vaccination for smallpox, typhoid and similar contagion, Lora C. Little, field agent for the North Dakota Freedom League, was arrested here today by a United States marshal and arraigned before Commissioner John Fort on a charge of violating section 3 of the Espionage Act of June 1916.
The specific charge against Mrs. Little, who has been operating in Bismarck and Mandan for several days, is that she has sought to “willfully cause or attempt to case insubordination, disloyalty and mutiny and refusal of duty in the military and naval forces of the United States. It is further alleged that her propaganda is calculated to interfere or discourage recruiting and enlistment in the United States army and navy. Mrs. Little was placed under $1,000 bond.
The North Dakota Freedom League lists H. C. Johnson of Osnabrook as its president; B. A. Olson, Minot, vice president; Martin E. Hegge, Fargo, secretary-treasurer; and Dr. A. O. Wold, Langdon; R. C. McAllen, Park River; and B. A. Stokks, Cooperstown, as its executive board. The national headquarters are at Battle Creek, Michigan, where W. S. Ensign is editor in chief of the organization’s official publication. W. T. Schwartz is associate editor.
Mrs. Little has been working in North Dakota for several weeks. She came to Bismarck two weeks ago and advertised a lecture. After the nature of her literature had been discovered, she was denied the use of a hall. She then resorted to a house-to-house canvass, distributing her tracts and procuring signers to petitions which request an order from the commander in chief of the army and navy “forbidding compulsory vaccination of these originally vigorous and healthy young men” and a “solemnly protesting these violations of our boys’ bodies for the satisfaction of any medical theory whatsoever.” Probably 100 Bismarck people and a dozen residents of Mandan have signed the petitions, which are now in the hands of the federal authorities.
“It is ridiculous to call this work sedition. It is nothing that concerns the war,” said Mrs. Little today. “No one is more in sympathy with this war than I am; I was sick that we stayed out so long.”
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Then on April 22, 1918, the Grand Forks Herald, Grand Forks, North Dakota, reported the following:
Lora C. Little Will Be Heard By U. S. Grand Jury
Bismarck, North Dakota, April 22 [1918] — Lora G. Little, field agent for the Medical Freedom League, charged with the violation of Section 3 of the Espionage Act in distributing literature attacking compulsory vaccination in the army, waived examination before U. S. Commissioner Fort on Saturday and will appear before the federal grand jury at its next session.
At the time of the writing of this blog post, no additional information could be located in the available on-line newspapers as to the final disposition of the espionage case against her. However, in the 1920s, she was back at it on the lecture circuit spewing her anti-vaccination propaganda.
Information found on Ancestry.com indicates that Lora C. Little died in Chicago, Illinois in 1931. She is buried in a cemetery there.
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Part 7 of a 7-part series of posts on the Jackson Township anti-vaccination case of 1906.
Portrait of Mrs. Little from The Historical Medical Library of The College of Physicians of Philadelphia via History of Vaccines Blog, post by Carley Roche, February 10, 2017. News articles from Newspapers.com.
Corrections and additional information should be added as comments to this post.