The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1897-02-15
THE MEDICAL BILL.
why IL Is Not Needed and should Not
Become Law.

To the Editor OF the Indianapolis Journal:
IL is understood that the medical bill now
pending in the Legislature will soon ne
acted upon. Why all this police supervision
of our medical colleges and practitioners?
To protect the dear people? The people do
not need ii. and have not asked for it,
They are as competent to select their med
ical advisers as their spiritual legal or po-
litical ones, and the State has no interest
in their selections. IL is only asked for by
few doctors, and the higher they are in
professional standing the more abject is the
confession that they need protection from
ignorant quacks.
The dominant school for the time being
succeeded in pulling the wool over the
eyes of a few convenient brethren o.
yclept or self-styled representatives Of ir-
regular schools-and induced them TO help
lobby for the passage OF the BILL These
innocent sheep may soon find that this is
only another case OF the lion and the lamb
lying down together-with the lamb inside
the lion.
When the cover is removed il will be
found that the main pushers OF this bill are
doctors seeking political pulls. directly or
INDIRECTLY. and TO bring about lessened
competition, and thus increase fees Thus
is created the medical trust. and by its
workings an admirable class, the newly
graduated. are deferred from settling in
Indiana. The $25 examination fee for new
corners is but legalized robbery. Genius
must not be hampered by machinery. And
the severe examinations in vogue In Eng
land and Germany are no proof 10 US that
these doctors are more successful healerS
here than are American physicians. In
other words, examinations are no index or
revealer OF bedside ability. The medical col
lege is amply competent to pass upon the
ntneSS or candidate for medical honors,
and the great State of Indiana has plenty
of large affairs to deal with instead of es-
tablishing an examination mill for the bene-
nf fnxxvr h.nlrc 70 hA -orf0
detriment of the medical business and best
interests of the State. If some are exam
ined, why not all. including the board?
The bill contemplates the wholesale rob
berry of the physicians of the State by taxi
ing from them the licenses issued since
1884 and compelling them TO pay for new
do well to hesitate about depriving 400 in
fiuential citizens of this State OF
ture was not in the bill TO
pass with II, as IL was shrewdly sur
missed that il a fund had to be created by
by creating its own fund by reversal or
an old-time medical acknowledging the
tic 90 tbaro a. IcenEir den,or anvhow,
Do lawyers and ministers pay for licenses?
If the point We're carried high enough at
law the era of no license would follow, as
the Constitution confers the right to pur-
avocation. AS Chief Justice Field
ruled, this is "a property right Which can
not be arbitrarily wrested from him.. The
moral OF this paragraph is that al, physi-
clans holding licenses should be provided
with new ones free of charge.
The registration board is an extrajudi-
cial body, and consequently not competene
TO decide the standing of a medical college,
This can only be done by the court upon
evidence. This is the decision recently
handed down by the Supreme Court OF
Missouri i'm the case of Charles +. Johnson.
a graduate of an Indianapolis college. The
Legislature cannot confer judicial powers
on the board. as contemplated above, ana
also in the revocation of n license.
The Legislature will hardly put a fence
around the State by excluding physicians
who travel and advertise. contemplated
by the bill. These make business lively.
and the railroads. hotels and newspapers
get nearly all their money before they drop
out of sight. on the principle that a rolling
stone gathers no moss. Is IL illegal to adj
vertise ones business in this progressive,
competitive age? IL may be contrary to
the code. but Is that antiquated affair a le-
gal document for the guidance of the board
in interpreting what constitutes an onensey
The midwife clause licenses that worthy
and then enumerates number of helps
in the supreme hour of danger which she
may not extend 10 her suffering charge.
virtually telling her, If she is fourteen
miles from a lemon TO let her patient die
for want of help-or else call a doctor, often
impracticabe in time.
1 have no financial interest in the de-
feat of this bill. nor space TO explain all its
Objectionable features. and IL IL passes I
will comply with its requirements But IL
is easy to predict a clash between the
boards-the health board and the registra-
ton board. Which will be superior? This
point should be settled now. And IL the
health board is first IL probably is. and
the other to work under IL, let the medical
bill await the fate of the board of health
bill 1t may be quite important TO decide
beforehand which board works under the
other. w. Il. CLARKE, M ID.
INDIANAPOLIS Feb. h.