The Montgomery advertiser., 1901-06-06
MEDICINE NEWS MEET
ROAST FOR GOVERNMENT BY
 THEIR PRESIDENT.
He Resents the Policy Toward Army Surgeons-Proclairns the Exist enee of . New School
 of Medicine.

St. Paul, June 1.-The general meet ing of the American Medical Assecia- tion was called to order by President Charles L. Reed of Cincinnati, in the Metropolitan Opera House today. President Reed read his annual report, saying in part:
 The army reorganization law of the last Congress was inexplicable and in 1 excusable. It grades the medical de- I partment for rank, promotion and in | consequence, for pay, below every other department and special corps of | the army and with the exception of sec | ond lieutenants 1t Is graded below the | line. In accordance with its provisions | a medical officer to obtain a colonency | must pass through three tinse as | many trials as an officer of either the qaarterfnasters. the subsistence or the | pay departments; more than twice as many as an officer of engineers and | ordnance and nearly twice as many as an officer of the signal corps. The ef- fects of this discrimination is not only to lower the rank and pay of medical officers, but must result in lessening the efficiency of the corps by repelling men of spirit and worth.
 When Congress, by the enactment Of a law, degrades relatively the tstatus of an important body of med ical men, engaged in public service, it strikes at the status of every physi- clan in the country. It becomes, there fore, the duty of every member of the medical profession, jealous of his rights, his prerogatives, and the fair name he may leave his children to re- sent as personal between himself and every member of Congress who voted | for this law the action which cast a stigma upon our profession.
 l Tt had been the opinion of many en- l frightened members of the medical pro- l fession that means employed by the general government for the protection and promotion of the public health are capable of improvement. The condi- tions today are precisely the same that they were ten years ago.
 l "I proclaim the existence of new 1 school of medicine. It Is as distinct | from the schools of fifty years ago as l is the Christian dispensation from its pagan entecedents. It is the product of cenvergent influences, of dives an- tecedent origin. It acknowledges no distinctive title; 1t heralds no shibbo- leth. It is a school of human toler- ance, of personal independence, of sci entific honesty. It makes no procla- nation of completeness no pretensions to sufficiency. It recognizes that truth
 
 not ending today. but continuing through the ages"
 During the morning session pr. J R. Pennington of Chicago, presented to the Association. a picture of the father of the Association. Dr. N. s, Davis. of Chicago, who is over Ct years of age and unable to attend this convention. The picture will propa' bly be held In the custody Of the Chi cago society.
 The only contest of the session came mn over the report of the Committee on ReorRanization The Committee pre- sAnted an entirely new constitution anc bylaws.
 The question was fully discussed and Inc nroposition 60 submit the repor' to A joint committee finally prevalleu'
 Dr simmons. Secretary of the As eociatioh reported that the Association !. now had a membership of lO6.ooU ar increase of over 1,500 in the past year
 Dr. T. J. Happell of Tennessee. gave the report of the Board Of trustees showing the financial conditlon ol tne
 Assoeiation. The total receipts, m cudlng the amount taken in at The Medical Journal office, membership fans cash on hand, etc, for the year was s131. .TS7. The total expenditures
 we're $110T35.
 The division in the ranks of Amer, icen Medical Colleges has been healeo after lasting for ten years. harlIioils
 was secured by the admission U twelve Southern medical colleges ln- nrea sine the membership to v col ,sges Victor c. Vaughn of Michigan Civ was elected President of the As, soriation. The American Academy oi WeIie,ne elected Dr. V. c. Vaughn oi Ann Arbor. Mich, President. The : state Medical Examiners Association elected N. R. Columbus of ohio' Pres