The Hattiesburg news. (Hattiesburg, Miss.) 1908-1917, 1913-01-22

retary need not be a member Of the
board, and we are informed this bill
passed through at the suggestion of
the governor-in our judgment, sim
ply to make a place for another ap-
pcrtee.
Brewers Promise Sufficient
"The board met for organization,
pending the action of the senate on the |
bill thus changing the law, and the or
ganization was delayed for few hours |
until the bill was passed and signed |
by the governor. During this time of
waiting the governor sent for and in
terviewed each one Of his own ap-
pointees on the board, and 1t is our
opinion and belief that he dictated
both the plan and policy Of the organ
ization and named the secretary. It Is
fact that neither the secretary elect
ed then, nor the one elected recently,
applied to the members of the board
from the state association for this po-
sition; nor did they solicit our support.
at is therefore presumed that they
considered tho governors promise to
be oil that was necessary.
"Thls action Of the governor, we be-
breach of proprietles, but distinct
Invasion Of the independent action by
the members owing their position to
his favor, and distinct reflection by
him upon the intelligence Of his own
appointees.
However, we had been members of
the state board of health for five years
with the sole and only view Of honestly
and faithfully discharging our duties,
and were firm in our belief that with
our new members, the state board
would continue to be an institution of
great and lasting good to the people
Of our state. We did not believe that
POLITICS would be allowed to either
color or control their action, but in
this we we're mistaken.
zone the most important of our du-
ties is the examination of applicants
for license to practice medicine in this
state, and to exercise every care that
none unfit or unqualified by lack Of
medical knowledge or morals shall re.
ceive license to practice medicine and
thus imperil the lives of our citizens
by their inefficiency
"The manner of conducting these ex-
aminations is as follows: Each appli-
cant is examined on eight branches,
and each branch is graded by diff.
ferent member of the board, and his
grade on each branch is placed on the
back of his examination paper. If these
eight grades give him an average of
75, he is considered to have passed
and upon vote of the board is grant
ed license. The examination papers
Of applicants are numbered and the
member grading the paper is not sup
posed to know whose paper he is grad
ing-and he does not know, unless he
goes to the secretary's book and COM
pares the number with the name. This
grading by number is done in an ef-
fort to secure absolute fairness and
to avoid any suspicion of favor or pref
udice.
Railroaded Applicant.
During our session in October, 1912,
when the board had finished grading
the papers and were ready to vote on
those who had made the required
grade, it was noticed that a certain
paper-No. 21-on chemistry, had two
grades, 80 and 70, one written over
the other The member grading chem
istry, DIR. T. Borroum, was asked
whether 80 or 70 was correct, when he
stated that he had originally given the
applicant 80, which, in his opinion, was
all the paper deserved, but calmly stat
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