It is, however, I emphasize, the paternalism of a
highly individualized society.
I described in an earlier chapter a frontier community in that valley. See
what has come in its stead, in the city into which it has grown. The child
coming from the unknown, trailing clouds of glory, creeps into the
community as a vital statistic and becomes of immediate concern. From
obliging the nurse to take certain precautions at its birth, the State
follows the newcomer through life, sees that he is vaccinated, removes his
tonsils and adenoids, furnishes him with glasses if he has bad vision,
compels him to school, prepares him not only for citizenship but for a
trade or profession, prevents the adulteration of his food, inspects his
milk, filters his water, stands by grocer and butcher and weighs his bread
and meat for him, cleans the street for him, stations a policeman at his
door, transports his letters of business or affection, furnishes him with
seeds, gives augur of the weather, wind, and temperature, cares for him if
he is helpless, feeds him if he is starving, shelters him if he is
homeless, nurses him in sickness, says a word over him if he dies
friendless, buries him in its potter's field, and closes his account as a
vital statistic in the mortality column.
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