The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1913-05-10
Responsibility For
 White Plague Rests
 0n Many Shoulders
Not Purely A Medical or S0cio- logical PrObIem-What Is
 Being Done

Washington, May 1o.-A physician And a socioIogist discussed the tuber- euIosis problem today before the ninth annual meeting of the National Asso- citation for the Study and Prevention of Tuberculosis, each from the stand point Of his profession Each acknowl- edged the value of the others work. but insisted that fundamentally his own profession was best equipped to deal with the problem Ina uapere were presented by Dr. William Chas
 White, medical director of the Tuber- culos1S League of Pittsburgh and John R. Commons. of the Wisconsin Industrial Commission, professor of Political Economy in the. University of Wisconsin.
 One of the burning questions of the day. said pr. White s'is whether tu- berculoaks is sociological or 8 medi- cal problem That such discussion goes on. probably proves that 1t is both We are seeking to discover if khe 1ocio1ogfst should employ the doc tor, or the doctor employ the social worker: or, will the time come when all doctors and nurses will be social workers. and all social workers, doc fors or nurses.
 ~On the long path by which our present knowledge has come, all the milestones are doctors-Hippocrate Bayles Laennec, Morton, Villemin, Koch, Trudeau, and many others. No social worker. so far as I know, has contributed any great advance.
 ssrhe social worker may be called the drum beater before the door of the booth He shuots to the pro gramme ready prepared. He shifts his work from tuberculosis to child hygiene. social diseases, and associat- ed charities, readily as the stock company actor changes his play; and
 
 ROO fastidious to beat the drum at the Moor of his booth The reason for the HEocial worker in tuberculosis will be Hound fin the exclusion of tuberculosis from the general hospitals and other places of medical teaching, and the consequent ignorance of doctors and nurses on the whole question of this Enalady 8 public health problem. The doctors that do know find more ready response to their teaching emong the intelligent laity than among &he profession. There is now, how ever. a healthy movement to return zhis seventh of the worlds sickness &o it's proper place in the hospital and medical school.
 .sThe ma 5ority of the problems in connection with the tuberculosis Ques- kion, such as immunity, heredity, ,chemistry of lung and tubercle baci1- aus, cure food values, etc, are nnedi- nal in their nature, and must be solved by those of medical training. The so- rlal side of the question comes down 10 more and better food and better Ewing conditions
 sThe physician" said Prof. Com | mons. s.starts with the individual The | Eociologist starts with his institutions | The physician looks on other individ- | EaIS as sources of contagion or infec- | tion. The sociologiet looks on them as | them as physiological units; the other as poesessors of power, or of intangf- | bIe property which we call 'oppor- | 1unity.'
 tuberculosis and occupational dis ease, safety and~ sanitation, infant 1 and children-these are some of the | fields of scientific research and gov ernmental administration where the l physician and the sociologist meet. Here the physician must get beyond | physiology, contag1on and infection. | and deal with the institutions of prop serty, the family and the state, that | make environment what it is. Here | the sociologist must get into physiolo- | gy and pathology, if he would not go | wrong in dealing with institutions.
 '~The difference shows itself in ad- | ministration- Compare a Board of ! Health with a Bureau of Labor. When a board of health determines that | smallpox or diphtheria is ahoat 1t | rides over each property right and | personal right of the individual It | marks off 8 dead line of quarantine. | It becomes policemen, calls out the | militia, declares martial law, sets l aside the Fourteenth Amendment But | when a Bureau of Labor finds tuber- l rulosis in a factory tenement, it | romes dead against the vested rights | Df the owner, the poverty of the oc- | Eupant, and the federal constitution | 1t cannot shut down the factory in | order to stop the clouds of dust, steam | pr fumes It must go into court. It | must follow due process of law. It l Eannot offer empty advice for the oc- | Eupants to go to a sanitarium. It | Eannot content itself with an order | to use splitting cups It must actually | Ehange the conditions under which the 1 occupants work and live But the | conditions spring from property rights | and personal rights. and these are Rounded on social institutions which | rest in turn on the constitution.
 T can conceive of such an organiza- | Nion of the executive or administra- Hive branches of government will | ntilize promptly the work of experts | and yet not be dominated by them. ] Suppose we had in every city and state | and in the federal government de- | partmert commissioned by the people | 10 wipe out tuberculosis. There could i hardly be another department of gov ernment more far-reaching. It would | have to go into every home, factory, | hospital and public building. It would | nave lO tO0CH every ana per Eonal interest of the people. It would | jar the traditions and prejudices of i khe courts. of vested rights and of per- EonaI liberty. Those in charge of such department would require, first of | Rll, wisdom, tact, energy and force, rather than expert knowledge. Such qualifications belong to no scientific profession as such-they are the quaI- Aties of the business man, the organ ezer. promoter, executive, the judge, khe politician.
 But this should not blind us to the Function of true sociology as a science