Denver labor bulletin., 1916-11-04

the Importance of the medical practice
act to be voted on next Tuesday can
not be discussed with fairness by its
opponents. Any measure which estab-
fishes an educational standard must of
necessity affect adversely those who do
not have sufficient education to meet
that standard Their opposition is a
natural consequence and is to be ex-
pected. Perhaps we should also expect
that their paid attorneys will resort to
all the tricks known to the profession
to cloud the issue and to misrepresent
the facts, however unjust this may be
to the voting public.
House bill No. IFS, upon which the
people are to vote is not new bill, it
is mainly few amendments to a law
long in existence, and the whole re-en-
acted. The objection made by its op-
ponents for the purpose of its defeat are
LARGELY those which might with equal
force be made to the law as it nov
exists. The provisions will continue
whether this bill passes or not and are
therefore at this time of no concern to
the voter. Were it not for the one
amendment which provides that every
individual who poses as a doctor or
physician shall show knowledge of dis
ease before he may be permitted to
hold himself out to treat it there never
would have been any organized oppo-
sition to the bill
The law as originally passed in lsS
included fundamentally everything in
tended in this bill. In 1905 the legis-
Iature exempted the osteopaths from its
provisions. since which time there have
been no requirements made by the state
for those who treat disease by Mechanical
ormanipulative means. 1t is illogical on
the part of the state to ask of one set
of individuals who treat disease to show
knowledge of disease and then to permit
another set to treat the same diseases
without showing such knowledge, when
no one may be asked any questions on
treatment, and yet this is exactly what
is being done at the present time. 1t
is to overcome this absurd condition
that this amendment was introduced be-
fore the Legislature. The bill passed the
house and senate by almost unanimous
consent. 1t has the Endorsement of all
organized schools of healing and none
more warmly than the osteopathic which
is specifically exempted under the pres
ent law. AS matter of fact a large
proportion of the osteopaths who have
come to the state in recent years tool;
and passed the examination as matter
of choice.
There can be but one legitimate rea-
son for licensure of any class by the
state namely, the good of the public,
the people Of the state. In medica
licensure conservation of the public
health is the only worthy object. This
should be done in such manner and by
such means as to give the largest lib
erty to the individual in the selection
of his medical advisor and to interfere
as little as possible with the choice of
method of treatment by the licensed
individual.
The underlying or fundamental prin-
cipe in the bill now under consideration
is that every one who calls himself doc
tor opens an office for the treatment
of the sick and pretends to diagnose
disease, basing his treatment upon such
diagnosis, shall show knowledge of dis
ease and diagnosis. The bill specifically
provides that mo questions shall be
asked any applicant concerning materla
medica, therapeutics, or any manner.
means or system of treating or healing"
This is in order that the state may
neither build up nor tear down any
school or system of healing but that each
and every one may stand upon its own
merits, with the utmost freedom of the
individual to choose between them, while
the state simply requires of every one
who holds himself out as a physician
that he show that knowledge of disease
common to all schools of healing. This