Evening capital and Maryland gazette. (Annapolis, Md.) 1910-1922, 1910-09-07
QUESTIONING CANDIDATES
What Is Their Attitude Toward The
Owen Bill For A National
Health Bureau? Ii Is Important
This Great Question AT
0ura
Communicated.

! 10 the EullOf - mere VIII De nOln
ing before Cong cess next winter thai
will so directly affect every man
woman and child in the country a!
the Owen bill for the creation of ;
| National Health Bureau. The great
est fight that was ever heard of il
Congress will be witnessed over it anC
every Representative will have to be
posted on its pros and cons and be
able to acquit himself as becomes 8
patriot in opposing it, or as a tyrant
in advocating it.
Representative Mann, of Chicago.
introduced the first bill of the kind
last winter, but such has been the
pc pular antagonism to it that he has,
strange to say, thrown up his de-
fense of the measure and abandoned
il. This is to his credit. Senator
Owen has likewise been stung by
the opposition, but his position as a
paid or the paid attorney for the
American Medical Association, which
backs the bill, has prevented him
from initiating Representative Mann.
AS / say, unless the millions of
people opposed to the measure sue
ceed in fighting off Senator Owen
and all other would-be fathers of
such bill. there will be the great
est fight ever heard of next winter(
The people now want to know where
their Senators and Representatives
will stand on this Owen bill and it's
five substitutes. Every citizen that
knows the half of what the Owen
bill entails will voice and vote for
no man that favors it-political pref
erences will have little weight in the
matter.
Our Maryland candidates for Con-
gress are now before the people, and
it is now time to ask each and every
one of them how they stand on this
Owen bill. Every one of them
should know all about it. If they do
not they are not alive enough to the
questions of the day to be entrusted
with the peoples votes. Like enough
it is all folly to ask them, as / have
asked several through the Baltimore
American, with no reply. But as it
is so often flung back at the people
that they never express themselves,
| want it not to be said in this i'm
portant matter.
/ stand ready to voice through the
press for the election of any Mary
and man who says he will vote and
fight against the Owen bill, let him
be either Democrat or Republican and
| herewith ask the Congressional
candidates to let me know their
mind for publication. If none reply
every citizen that knows the tyranny
of the Owen bill can feel that he will
be q traitor to himself and his fam
lily il he votes at all.
If it so be that any candidate
wants to read upon the matter be-
fore expressing himself, let him
get the past four or five issues of
the Twentieth Century Magazine,
published in Boston by b. o. Flow
er. Mr. Flower, by the by, is the
president of the now immense Ma
tional League for Medical Freedom,
with headquarters in the Metropol-
itan Building, New York city. The
League enrolled 10000 members
within the first two weeks of its
announcement 1t fights the Owen
bill.
There are some people who claim
that there ought to be compulsory
voting. 1t is known that there are
tens of thousands of the very best
citizens in every State who never
vote. The chief reason is that these
citizens see that their vote counts
for nothing whatever in the way of
civic betterment. They are not seek
ing office or graft for themselves or
any of their friends and they, conse-
quently, feel no incentive to vote
when the question of principle is
ignored. Every citizen has right
to know upon what kind of platform
stands every man that he votes for
the general principles of the Demo
cratic and Republican platforms are
not enough. Hundreds of other ques-
tion there are nowadays affecting for
veal or for woe every citizen.
Therefore, | ask all our Maryland
candidates, Democratic and Repub-
liean, to circulate this letter and to
answer it in the Evening Capital, in
any Maryland paper, or personally to
me by letter or postal card. Any so
answering will be published widely
beyonds the bounds of Maryland. 81
lence from any or all give consent to
the Owen bill. What do you say.
gentlemen?
FRANCIS B. LIVESEY,
M