River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1911-12-21
A FEDERAL HEALTH BOARD.

IL is gratifying TO note that the bill
for the creation of a federal health
board will not be allowed to pass with
out a protest. Reports of organized
resistance come from all parts of the
country, and it may be that the oppo-
sition will soon be sufficiently solidi-
fed to defeat project that promises
Infinite mischief for the community,
and suffering and injustice for the in
dividual.
The proposal is based upon those
speclous claims that are VIGOROUSLY
hard to controvert. If a federal health
board were to confine its activities to
the PRONUNCIATION of salutary advice
upon hygienic matters, to the abate-
ment of quackery, and to the purity OF
drugs, 1t might be possible to say
much in its favor, although it would
still be difficult to say that such an
organization is needed. But we know
that 1t will attempt to do far more
than this, seeing that it's adherents
nave loudly proclaimed their inten-
tons. Indeed, there is no secrecy
about them. 1t is confidently expected
that the board will consist of advo-
Gates of one school of medicine only
and that the methods of that school
VIII be not only recommended, but
enforced upon the nation. Indeed a
board that was in any way representa-
tive of the medical profession as a
whole would be stultified by it's own
dlsagreements. Outside the domain
or simple hygiene, for which we need
no federal board at all, there is no
single point of medical practice upon
which allopaths, homeopaths. eclectics
and osteopaths could be in unison.
Any board that could be devised by
the wit of man must be composed OF
representatives of one school only.
and this means that all other schools
are branded as of an inferior caste,
even though nothing worse happened
TO them. And something worse would
happen to them. If we are to establish
school of medicine, If we are to as
sert that the government of the Unit
ed States favors one variety of prac-
tlce more than others, why not estab-
fish also sect OF religion and be-
stow special authorities upon Bap-
lists, Methodists and EpiScopalians?
An established school of religious
conjecture seems somewhat less OBJ
1ectionable than an established sect
OF pseudo-scientiflc conjecture.
Those who suppose that federal
board of health would have no concern
with individual rights are likely to
find themselves undeceiVed 1t is for
the purpose of interfering with indi-
vidual rights that the proposal has
been made. We need no special
knowledge of conditions to be aware
that what may be called unorthodox
methods of healing have made sad in
roads into the orthodox. Homeopathy
claims vast number of adherents
who are just as well educated and just
as intelligent as those who adhere to
the older school. Osteopathy, eclecti-
clsm, and half dozen other methods
of practice are certainly not losing
ground. Beyond them is the vast and
increasing army of those who may be
classed under the general and vague
name of mental healers. Those who
are addicted to any of these forms of
unorthodoxy need have no doubt as
to the purposes of the federal health
board Those purposes are to make
it difficult for them to follow their
particular fads and fancies, to dead
them, and If necessary to drive them.
from medical unorthodoxy to medical
orthodoxy.
Now the Argonaut holds no brief
for any of the excuses and the super
stitions connected with the care of the
body in which this age is so rife. But
it does feel concerned for the preser-
walton of human liberty and for the
rights of the individual to doctor HIM
self in any way he pleases SO long as
he does not Individually threaten the
health OF the community. He may
take large doses or small ones, or no
doses at all: he may be massaged,
anointed with oil, or prayed over, just
as the within of the moment may die
tate, and probably it makes no par
ticle of difference which he does. But
he has the right to choose, just as he
chooses the color of his necktie or the
character of his undertaking 1t is
not matter in which any wise gov
eminent will seek to interfere. This
is precisely the liberty that the health
board intends to take from him.
Orthodox medicine, conscious of it's
losses, is trying to buttress itself by
federal statute, to exalt allopathy to-
the status of a privileged caste. and
to create an established school OF
medicine just as some other countries
have allowed themselves to create an
established school Of religion 1t is
for the common sense Of the commu-
nifty to rebuke that effort and to re-
pei an unwarranted invasion upon ele-
mentary human rights.-SGn Fran
cisco ATgOnGNt.