The citizen-Republican. (Scotland, Bon Homme County, S.D.) 1???-19??, 1911-12-21
A FEDERAL HEALTH BOARD,

u u t'|NNSb'
resistance come from all parts OF tn
country. and 1t may be that the oppo
sition Will Don be sufficiently solidi
fed TO defeat a project that promise:
Infinite mischief for the community
and suffering and injustice for the in
diyiduaI.
The proposal Is based upon those
specious claims that are VIGOROUSLY
hard to controvert. If a federal health
board were 10 confine it's 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 IT Will attempt to do far more
than this. seeing that its adherents
have 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
N that the methods of that school
Will 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 stultifed by its 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 aiiopaths, homeopathic, 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
a school of medicine, If we are to as
seTt that the government of the Unit
ed states favors one variety Of prac-
uce more than others, why not estab-
iish also a sect OF religion and be-
stow special authorities upon Bap-
lists, Methodists and Episcopalians?
An established school Of religious
conjecture seems somewhat less OBJ
iectionable than an established sect
Of Notwithstanding conjecture.
Ihose who suppose that a federal
board OF health would have no concern
with Individual rights are likely to
IND themselves undeceived. It is for
the purpose Of interfering with indl-
viduai rights that the proposal has
been made. We need no special
knowledge OF conditions to be aware
what may be called unorthodox
OF healing have made sad In.
roads into the orthodox. Homeopathy
GAINS a vast number of adherents
u are just as well educated and Just
Intelligent as those who dhere to
ne older school. O%steopathy, e~clecti-
elsm, and half a dozen other methods
practice are certainly not losing
ground. Beyond them is the vast and
Increasing army of those who may be
'iassed under the general and vague
lame of mental healers. Those who
ire addicted to any Of these forms of
heed have no doubt as
o the purposes of the federal health
'oard. Those purposes are to make
t difficult for them to follow their
fads and fancies, to lead
hem. and if necessary to drive them.
rom medical unorthodoxy to medica,
NOW the Argonaut holds no brief
or any OF the excuses and the super.
titions connected with the care of the
'ody In which this age is SO rife. Bu.
t does feel concerned for the preser.
alton Of human liberty and for the
lights of the individual to doctor him.
ell In any way he pleases so long as
% does not Individually threaten the
'ealth of the community. He NAV
axe large doses or small ones or no
at all: he may be massaged.
nointed with oil. or prayed over. Just
8 the whim of the moment nav die,
ate, and probably 1t makes no par.
lcle OF difference which he does. But
e a the right to choose, Just as he
hooses the color of his necktie or the
haracter OF his Undertaking 1t Is
OF a matter in which any wise gov,
rnment will seek to interfere. This
> precisely the liberty that the health
intends to take from him,
orthodox medicine, conscious of its
osses, Is trying to buttress itself By
ederal statute, to exalt allopathy ia
ne status of a privileged caste, and
0 create an established school Of
Just as some other countries
ave allowed themselves to create an
school of religion. it is
Or the common OF the commu.
ity to rebuke that effort and to re.
ell an un~warranted invasion upon ele,
'entary human rights.-San From.
isco Argonaut.