The herald-advance. (Milbank, S.D.) 1890-1922, 1911-12-22
A FEDERAL HEALTH BOARDl

board Will not be allowed to pass Wild
out Z protest. Reports Of organized
resistance ONE from all parts OF the
country, and it may be that the oppo-
sition will soon be sufficiently solid.
fed to defeat a project that promises
Infinite mischief for the community,
and suffering and injustice for the in-
dividal.
The proposal is based upon those
spec!ous claims that are notoriously
hard to controvert. If a federal health
board were to confine it's activities to
the PRONUNCIATION of salutary advico
ment Of %quackery, and to the purity OF
drugs, it might be possible to say
much in Its favor. although 1t 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 its adherents
have loudly proclaimed their inten-
tons. Indeed, there Is no secrecy
about them. 1t 10 confidently expecte6
that the board will consist of advo-
Gates Of one school OF medicine only
and that the methods Of that school
will be not only recommended. but
enforced upon the nation. Indeed q
board that was In any way represents
tive OF the medical profession a. q
whole would be stultifed by it, own
disagreements. Outside the domain
Of simple hygiene. for which We need
no federal board at all, there IL No
single point of medical practice upon
which allopaths, homeopaths. e~clectica
and ~osteopaths could be In unison.
Any board that could be devised b.
the wit Of man must be composed al
representatives of one school only
and this means that all other schoola
are branded as Of an inferior castav
even though nothing worse happened
to them. And something worse would
happen to them. II we are to establish
a school Of medicine, II We are to AZ
sert that the government of the Unit.
ed States favors n variety Of prao-
tice more than others, why not estab-
lish also a sect Of religion and be-
stow special authorities upon Bap-
lists, Methodists ans Episcopaliansr
An established school of religious
conjecture seems somewhat less OBJ
j~ectionable than an established sect
of pseudo-scientific conjecture.
Thosc who suppose that a federal
board of health would have no concern
with individual rights are likely to
find themselves u~ndeceived. 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 u%northodox
methods of healing have made sad in
roads into the orthodox. Homeopathy
claims a vast number of %adherents
who are just as well educated and just
as intelligent as those who adhere to
the older school. Osteopathy. eclecti-
clsni, and half a 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
1t difficult for them to follow their
particular fads and f~ancies, to lead
them, and II necessary to drive them.
from medical unorthodoxy to medical
Now the Argonaut holds no brief
for any Of the excuses and the SUPER
stitions connected with the care Of tho
body in which this 6 is SO rife. But
1t does feel concerned for the preser-
walton Of human liberty and for tho
OF the individual to doctor him.
Self in any way he pleases SO long as
he does not Individually threaten he
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 whim 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 underclothing. It is
not a 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
statute, to exalt allopathy to
the status of a privileged caste, and
TO create an established school Of
madeleine met DC Con,o o+h1u ,o.-4.-
have allowed themselves to create an
established school of religion. 1t is
or the common sense of the commu-
atty to rebuke that effort and to re-
Del an unwarranted invasion upon ele-
nentary human rights.-Sdn Fran
Argondut.