The Birmingham age-herald., 1917-01-19
.DR. PARKE CHARGES
 CITY IS GUILTY OF
 ACT 0F SECESSION
States Acquiescing in Action of City Would Acknowl- edge Unified Systems
 to Be Illegal

Dr. Thomas D. Parke Is in duan-
 dary.
 He cannot understand how unified system of health can be devised that falls to unify. The abandonment of Dr. F. F. Harrington because the city has revived "the doctrine of secession" in refusing to accept him is imputed to be unthought of. ''To acquiesce in the act of secession of the city would mean acknowledgment that the unified sys- tems in Walker. Tuscaloosa and Talia- dega counties are illegel. he states. He is puzzled by the change of att titude in regard to the work of the board of health
 "To committee that receives no compensation from, any source, and never has received any. it comes as a surprise. to one of its members at
 least. to be charged with responsibil- ity for the whole present muddle in public health affairs" he said last night
 "It was given the task by the coun- ty board of health of formulating a plan for unified health system. It was given the further task of in- stal1ing the system as formulated and adopted. Throughout months of the
 most intense interest in health affairs ever known in this county the purpose of establishing a unified health sys- tenn was kept in the forefront. WANTED UNIFIED SYSTEM "Throughout all the agitation incl dent to the typhoid epidemic of last summer the one remedy against re- crrrence was the installation of uni fled system. When the Fox plan was adopted by the board of health in Au- gust, 1916, copies of it were left with the city commission and with the board of revenue. It has been made plain that the Fox plan has not the force of statute law. but Is subject to the changes that actual experience, in- cident to it's installation. may suggest and no other position has ever been assumed by the committee of health It has been made plain that neither the committee of health nor the doc tors of Jefferson county made the health laws of the state. That was the work of succeeding legislatures Throughout the months of agita- tion for a unified health system for the county and all municipalities the committee of health had the moral DQCklHS anu tn0 VdluGQ aSS1SLanc0 ana cooperation of many organizations, of editorial writers. of many individuals. IL ina gined 1t was carrying forward a work of construction in the public in- terest and in full view of all citi- zens. Now it is charged with ob- stinacy, with the spirit of obstruction and with greed of power, because it is endeavoring to comply with the
 mission entrusted to it by the board nf haa F, | and bolstered by so many Hundreds of our citizens in and out of organiza- !, tions
 ABANDON THE SYSTEM? "One member of the committee who has been impelled by his position on 1t to give much time and to create
 much antagonism. will welcome any suggestion as to how a unified sys- | tenn can be devised that fails to unify. If the city health officer of Birming- ham is not partAof the system, then we can have no unification. The whole | matter then seems to resolve itself into the question: Shall the attempt to provide unified system be aban- 1 doned?
 Another question likewise projects | itself before the board of health of Jefferson county. An officer of the United States public health service was sought obtained and elected by the county board of health to install the unified system so long and so orenly advocated and published This officer has come and has qualified Shall the board of health abandon it's long-held purpose and abandon this officer because the city commission of Birmingham has refused to accept a duly elected and qualified legal of- ficer and thus revive the doctrine of | secession in our midst?
 Still another question presents it. self: Shall the board of health, as n- tcgral part of the state public health system acqufesce in the act of seces- sion of the city and thus acknowledge that the unified systems in Walker, Tuscaloosa and Talladega counties are | illegal?"