Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1902-02-27
M,KlNLEY,S DOCTORS.
Discussing the Legal and Moral Aspect
Of Their Claims.

The claim that the government ought to
pay large sum of money to the doctors
who were in attendance upon President
Mckinley at the tine of his death has
been made with considerable earnestnoss.
One or more of these physicians, as re-
ported by the press, have talked some
what volubly about the justice of the
claim as II the government were under
strong moral, If net legal, obligation 10
pay the demand. 1t Is of course obvious
that there Is not the slightest shadow OF
reason for asserting any legal obligation,
and there Is little more to support moral
obligation
The chief reason advanced in favor of
an alleged moral obligation is that tho
physicians are entitled to so great a sum
OF money that the estate Of the deceased
president ought not to be subjected to its
payment and therefore the government
ought to pay II. 1t is contended that in
taking charge of the case under crcun-
stances which focused the attention of the
whole people upon them they ran the risk
of great injury to their reputation In case
they were unsuccessful and therefore
ought to have compensation in proportion
to the risk. But, on the other hand, the
opportunity to gain great prominence and
reputation in case of success would induce
any skllful physician to accept the re-
sponsibiity, and be glad to do 1t. 1t does
not appear that any of these physicians
were reluctant to take the case. 1t may
well he doubted If there Is one Of them
that would not have been glad to take the
case without any compensation whatever
! nor merely from patriotic motives, but for
the advancement OF his own professional
interests.
There can be only one respectable rea-
son for the payment of these physicians
by the government. That is to relieve
Mrs. Mckinley from any burden or anx-
iety with respect to their claim. That
i9 to say, the obligation. If any, is solely
toward her. and not at all toward the ply
sicians.
The amount to which the physicians in
this case are entitled is question on
which opinions will differ very widely.
There is nothing in the result of their
work to entitle them to any extraordinary
sum- The Presidents death may not have
been due to their fault, but II cannot be
denied that they We're 1amentably ignor-
ant of his condition until a short time
before he died. Their bulletins had given
the country reason to believe, and incon-
testably showed their own belief, that the
President was on the high road TO recov-
cry. On theih assurances the Vice Presi-
dent and members of the Cabinet had dis
persed in the confident belief that the
President was nearly. II not quite out of
danger. If 1t were possible that the fatal
work was going on so secretly in the
Presidents wounded body that physicians
Of proper skill could not detect 1t, they
ought at least to have known of that pos
sibility. That they erred in supposinc
that tho President was well enough to
take solid food also seems to be clear.
The best that can be said of them on this
point seems to be that this error did not
contribute to the fatal result But in any
view of the case ther is no escape from
the conclusion that for n considerable
period they were completely deceived by
the Presidents apparent improvement,
and entirely ignorant of the fatal pro-
cesses that were at work and rapidly
bringing him nearer to death. Under
these circumstances, while II may be
proper for the government to appropri
ate moderate sum of money to com
pensate these physicians, in order to re-
lieve Mrs Mckinley from any liability to
them, 1T would seem most becoming to
them to be very modest in their claims.