Martinsburg herald. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1881-1920, 1907-09-28


county. city. state and national pur.
poses combined, but the efforts to Sc
cure and enforce the requisite legis-
latlon has been constantly met by such
popular indifference and opposition
as to make them practically ineffective
1t Is my purpose to give the reasons
for this pubic sentiment and to sug.
gest the methods for It's removal.
have been brought into constant touch
with the people in very broad way
and have made close study Of this
question through a long life. / have
been the executive officer Of the State
Board of Health Of Kentucky for a
quarter of a century having licensed
every physician in that state, and
know most Of them personally, rave
represented my profession before
every session Of my legislature for q
years, and during the same length Of
time except in very recent years,
with co-workers from the other states
have cons tantly looked after the same
interests before the national eongTe
Within the past five years, have Wis
tied almost every state in the Union
and in many ates almost every coun-
ty in it, talking before lay audiences
and hearing lay responses and have
thus been able to make 4 study of
doctors, of what. they are doing and
Of what people think of them, in a
way which has never been possible
10 any man before. In the light of
this experience. / spent good part
of last year in Great Britain and on
the continent making a comparative
study of medical and health conditions
and methods and have only recently
resumed my work on this side
In my early experience with the leg
islative bodies and courts | found a
bias, prejudice, or passive resistance
to every effort of the profession for
the protection of the people, even in
the minds of the otherwise broad
fairminded men. and / soon found that
this was almos traceable to local but
almost universal dssentions between
physicians of every school and creed,
practically always to the fact that the
confidence of that particular official
in the profession had been destroyed
by the backbitiag of the other doctors
in the community by his family ply
stefan. For ~ long time believed
thai this evil was confined to Ken
lucky. but investigation soon convin-
ced me that, except for few favored
communities, it extended from Maine
to California and from the Lakes to
the Gulf, cursing and blightiag the
usefulness and good name of the pro-
fess'on everywhere, and, as | will pres
emily show you, bringing far worse
disasters upon the people A study of
med cal history shows that this evil
lras always existed Hypocrates com
planned of 1t in his day, and Fra AL
bertus, writing in the middle ages
said: "And the sons of EscuIapius,
every mothers son of them, took two
or three hammers in his kipsey, be-
sides the one he had constantly in
use on his brethren and the sons or
ganized themselves into one gigantic
choir, and he only sons they ever
sang was the anvil chorus" It has
just come down to us as vicious in
heritance from the centuries.
A few years ago the profession Of
this country was awakened to the en-
ormity OF this evil, to its baneful
effects upon it and the disaster It had
brought upon the people, and through
a great scheme of organization, mod
elled after our form of civil govern
ment. we banded ourselves together
in every county, in every state, to eX-
terminate IT, Finding that they had
suffered quite as much as we had
from the same cause, and realizing
that there is no more room or reason
OF medicine than of law, upon terms
equally honorable to them and to us,
we have invi ed physicians of other
systems to join us in the work, they
are doing it in many sections, and
the need for all of this was so evident
the efforts was so earnest, and ii has
gone on so rapidly. that, here in your
own city and state, as everywhere,
we have one of the most effectually
lorglnizad and harmonious vocations
now in existence. Unfortunately
however, the evil had existed so long
that the public sentiment growing out
of it had become a fixed habit with
the people and today almost as much
as a generation ago, there is a wide
spread, complex. passive, often intang
ible but none the less obstinate feel