Santa Fe daily New Mexican. [volume] (Santa Fe, N.M.) 1885-1897, 1893-02-22
HOUSE.
yesterdays AFTERNOON SESSION.

YEsTERDAY's AFTERNOON SESSION.
When the house met yesterday at p.
m, H. B. No. 1872, creating Rio Grande
county, was the special order. The pass
age of the bill and the vote thereon were
published in yesterdays reports.
The finance bill was then introduced by
Mr.. Hopewellnnd Immediately considered.
The substitute of tho house was read in
full and Immediately passed without
amendment. Mr.. Labadie offered one but
was voted down viva voce.
Mr.. Stovall moved to suspend the spe-
cial order, H. B. No. 100, to allow
Mr.. Hopewell to introduce a reso-
luton providing that the speaker
of the house and the president of
the council, the two chief clerks and one
other clerk from each house remain IN
Santa Fe for ten days after the session to
finish up the legislative business, and that
they should draw pay for said time out OF
the territorial treasury. The resolution
passed under suspension of the rules.
Mr.. Barela then called up Fl. B. No. 176,
making it felony to forge railroad
check, ticket or pass, and the house con-
Cured in the council amendments.
Fl. B. 81, in relation to the city of So
zorro land grant,was then called upby Mr..
Hopewell, and the council amendments
| concurred in.
A veto message from the governor to
| H. B. No. 1874, known as the medical bill,
was received and read as follows.
To the House of Representatives,
FEBRUARY 81, 1893. I respectfully re-
turn house bill No 1874, entitled "An Act
to amend an act to protect the public
health and regulate the practice of medi-
cine in the territory of New Mexico" ap-
proved March 2, 1882, TO your honorable
body as the house in which it was origin
ated, unapproved.
While by its title this appears to be an
amendment of an existing statute it is in
fact complete law, intended to SUPER
cede the old act entirely.
The legitimate object of statutes of this
kind is to protect the people against
quackery and malpractice and prevent
their being deceived by ignorant persons,
to the detriment of their health. These
objects are right and proper, and so far
as legislation is confined to them it is I'M
Objectionable and salutary. But when it
goes beyond that and infringes on the
liberty of the citizen it strikes directly at
the freedom and independence which are
our most precious heritage.
The existing law contains provisions
which prohibit general medical practice
to any one who has not passed salts
factory examination and thus protects
the people from deception or lack of skill
and it seems to have worked satisfactor-
lily for ten years. The amendments now
proposed are all in the direction of
abridgement of the rights of the people,
and as to matters which are essentia ly
for the protection of the people, in real
| ity they would benefit only very few in
dividuals. They might not be harmful in
cities and towns where there is choice
of physicians and full supply of drug
stores, but in the country districts which
are the homes of the majority of our peo-
pie, where doctors are few and the dis
lance from villages great, they would
certainly be oppressive. will only re-
fer to two or three of them.
Section 10, prohibits any travelling
merchant from supplying any family
| "with any drugs, ointment or appliance
of any kind intended for the treatment of
disease or injury" unless he pay fee of
300 per month to the medical board or be
sub ject to fine of $3.50 to $500 for each
offense.
In many sections, remote from towns,
the people depend largely on the travel
ing vendor for many articles of house,
hold use, but by this proposed law he
can not supply bottle of castor oil or
Jamaica ginger, a porous plaster, or a
box of ointment without mourning this
grave liability Such an exhorbitant
license fee Is of course prohibitory and
was evidently intended SO to be. Why a
free citizen in the possession of his senses
can not be allowed to purchase such
simple household remedies as readily as
he may buy shoes or buttons, or why their
sale should be branded as crime, is be-
yond comprehension. This is sample
of the kind of legislation which treats
| adult human beings as if they were chill
dren or idiots who have to be deprived
of all liberty for fear that they will use it
to their own injury. -
A more serious oppression is contem-
plated by section s. 1t is we'll known
that in many parts of the territory the
services of midwife are all that are
usually employed in cases of childbirth.
There is nothing strange in this, for in
many countries it is the universal custom.
The existing law provides for this by
saying nothing under this act shall be
construed to prohibit women from prac-
ticing midwifery" 50 those who do not
choose or can not afford to employ a
regular physician are under no compul
sion to do so. But the bill under consid-
erationlimits that by adding these words
"if there is no duly qualified physician
practicing his profession in the vicinity
By this it becomes illegal to employ q
midwife whenever doctor may be within
possible reach, In all such cases every
woman must employ the physician or be
left without assistance in her hour OF
trial. If she is too poor to pay the regu-
lar fee, she must be left alone to suffer,
although dozen competent and expert
enced women are ready to aid for the
very moderate compensation to which