The San Francisco call., 1907-02-12
DOCTORS IN THEIR
USUAL RUMPUs
Biennial Fight Over Per
sonnel of Medical Board
Is On at State Capital
OSTEOPATHS BOB UP
CALL HEADQUARTERS,
1907 EIGHTH STREET.

SACRAMENTO, Feb. 11.-Practition-
ers Of the rival healing arts exposed
each others secrets, impeached the
integrity of the State Board of Med
ical Examiners and engaged in the
liveliest kind Of personal yivisection
before the joint Senate and Assembly
committee on public health and quar-
antine at the hearing this afternoon
OF, the bills which propose to effect
new reforms in the profession or med
icine in California
The chief discussion centered about
the bill introduced by Senator Mckee
which provides that the Board of Med
ical Examiners shall consist of five
members elected by the Medical So
ciety of California-two members by
the California State Homeopathic Med
ical Society, two members by the Eclec-
tic Medical Society and one member OF
the Osteopathic Association
DR.. George w. Greenwell of San
Francisco, who said he was speaking
for the eclectics, declared the scheme
of representation on the board all
wrong. Hesknew from his own expert
ence, he said, that the board was alto
gether partisan and had denied him p
certificate because the controlling ma
jority was antagonistic to the spirit
of the eclectic school
rs it not true that you failed TO
pass the examination of the board and
were arrested in San Francisco two
years ago for practicing without a Ii
cense?" asked Attorney TAFT of the
board.
This will never do" declared Sen
indulge in personal abuse, and / must
insist emphatically, Mr.. TAFT, that you
will not pursue this line of argument.
DR.. Dudley TAFT of San Francisco,
DR.. F. M. Pottenger of Los Angeles
and DR.. o. d. Hamlin of Oakland up
held the Board of Examiners and ar
gued that the physicians of the State,
irrespective of schools wanted to
maintain a high mark of efficiency.
DR.. III. F. Miles of Sacramento, ap-
pearing for the osteopaths, opposed
many features of the Mckee bill in
the structures it placed on osteopaths.
He was in favor of having the Gov
ernor appoint the Board of Examiners.
There was a long discussion on this
matter before the meeting adjourned.
~>>>
been thrashed out in the Governors
office nearly a month before Pardee
quilted office. No real friend of direct
primary reform objects to Pardee or
any other man offering himself to the
people as a candidate for United States
of direct primary reform do, however
object to the political ambitions of any
one man being magnified into an i'm
portance of proportions greater than
the reform which involves the political
freedom of all the people.
The advocates of the Stetson bill
the Leeds bill, the Savage bill and the
several other direct and alleged direct
primary measures had been told and
q. 49, ~ 10, daf~c h n
beyond the submissioD of a constitu-
tional amendment that would permit
of the subsequent enactment of ade-
quate and comprehensive direct prim-
ary legislation, the question would not
be considered at this session. This
definite information was coupled with
a full knowledge that it was only by
the barest margin and after Iona
contest that an amended form of the
Held Wright proposition had been per
mitted to get through the Senate, and
that only because of the impetuous
Governor and the coercion exercised by
a party caucus.
PROvIsO TO ALLAY FEAR
The proviso added by the Senate is
in these terms: Provided, however
that until the legislature shall enact
a direct primary election law under
the provisions of this section, the pres
ent primary election law shall remain
in force and effect
Stetson, in opposition to concurrence
said the proviso was added to allay an
unnecessary fear in the breasts of lay
men. The lawyers knew, he said, that
the adoption of the constitutional
amendment voted for would not repeal
the existing primary law. Then he
came to the meat of the situation
when he said that If the next Legisla-
ture failed to pass a direct primary law
the present intermediary law would be
a part of the constitution and could be
changed. amended or amplified only by
the enactment of direct primary law
or another constitutional amendment
Cutten, Mcconnell, Eshleman and
Hewitt also advocated nonconcurrence
Held, Coghlan and Grove Johnson ad-
concurrence, pointing out that
failure to concur in a proviso that
added notning but subtracted nothing
from the existing law, and which put
a plain alternative up to the next
Legislature, would result in preventing
any direct primary progress at the
present session.
THIS LAW, OR NOTHING
Stetson asked whether Johnson meant
that If the Held Wright amendment
were not passed the people or Callfor-
MIA would get nothing, and receiving
affirmative answer, based on the known
attitude of the Senate, declared:
Then I'm for going to bat on it,
The expressed fear of all the speakers
in opposition to concurrence was that
in the event the next Legislature failed
to act, they could not make the present
primary law mandatory in their several
communities, though at the same time
all but Cutten admitted directly or in
directly that they did not expect to ask
for any such mandatory provisions.
Cutten is asking for just such pro-
vision for Humboldt County now, and
If he should pass his bill 1T would be
part of the law protected by the Senate
proviso. That he has an honest doubt
of this is willingly enough conceded
also, that he, with other men, magnified
that doubt and, not appreciating the
situation, fell into an awkward hole
from which it may be extremely diff
cult to extricate themselves.
The situation in nutshell is simply
this: The Senate will not recede. The
Assembly has refused to adopt the
joint rules of the last session, and
there is no regular way for the ap-
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