Albuquerque morning journal. [volume] (Albuquerque, N.M.) 1903-1926, 1909-11-27
WDEPARTMENT0F
PUBLIC HEALTH
PROBABLE
RECOMMENDATION LOOKED
FOR IN TAFT MESSAGE
Bureau May Be
Headed by Cabinet Officers;
Secretary Wilson viii Likely
Oppose Establishment.



Especial Correspondents to Morning seuraAil
Washington d. c., NOV. 22.--In his
annual message to congress 1t is ex-
| peeted hat President Taft will rec
ommend the establishment of a new
| bureau or department of public
health. If a sufficient showing is
made he will recommend the crea-
| ton of a department the head of
which will be a cabinet officer. other
wise he will probably content himself
with recommending a bureau" under
one of the departments now existing.
There are already nine departments
with cabinet officers and a prejudice
exists in congress against increasing
that number. Once a department is
created its field of usefulness, n in
c~identally the number of employees
and expenses of conducting 1t, seems
to increase by leaps n bounds. On
the other hand, those interested in the
questions a~ppertaining to public
health, insist that nothing short of an
independent department will serve to
protect the health of the nation in an
GNC1Adit Nio taNi
must be carried on Independently and
without subservienee to Interests of
wealth-production or wealth-accumu-
lation. What view President Taft will
take is as yet unsettled, but he is CIV
ing the matter his close and personal
attention. Surgeon-General Walter
Wyman, of the marine hospital SER
vice, has submitted a report on the
subject which he spent months in pre-
pairing. DIR. Charles A. Reed, of Gin
cinnati, chairman of a special com
mittee representing the American
Medical association, has prepared his
views at the request of the president
and will, it is understood, shortly pre-
sent them in person The American
Medical association is n of the nu-
merous organizations which would
prefer a department to a bureau.
A number of departments are con-
cerned in the matter. The depart
ment of commerce and labor has al
ways felt that questions affecting the
manufacture of foods should. come
within its jurisdiction. The treasury
department has already q skeleton
bureau known as the Bureau of Pub
lie Health and Marine Hospital Ser
vice. of which DR.. Wyman is the
head. The department Of agriculture,
now charged with the enforcement of
The pure food and meat inspection
acts, with the bureau of animal in
dustry, is vitality interested.
A new bureau or department would
take over all existing bureaus or d.
visions relating TO the public health
and would deprive the department of
agriculture of considerable of its bust
ness and prestige. Fol- this reason
Secretary Wilson is put down as OPP
posing any change in the situation. 1t
has been felt, however, that the en-
forcement of an act regulating drugs
and manufactured foods, should have
been left to some department better
equipped for the purpose and whose
existing work VAS more allied to the
subject. than to the department of ag-
riculture which is concerned with
matters relating to the farm and
whose scientists are trained in that d.
rection. Doubtless another depart
ment would have been charged with
the duty of enforcing the pure food
and drug act had it not been for the
prestige and influence of DR.. Harvey
w. Wiley, the chemist of the depart
ment of agriculture, who had fought
SO long and hard for pure food and
drugs, and who naturally sought to be
placed in supreme command of the
forces applying the act. DR.. Wiley
has been compelled, however, to sit
by and play second fiddle, and it is