Omaha daily bee., 1919-06-14
MEDICAL FORCE
| N Civilization
U NIQUE STORY
DR.. Martin Tells Of Huge Task
Undertaken at Begin
ming Of War; 100000
Men Enrolled.

Chicago, June 13.-The story Of the
mobilization of the nations medical
forces for the army, navy and pub
lie health service will form a unique
chapter in the history of the world
war, according to DR.. Franklin Mar
tin, chairman of the committee on
medicine and sanitation of the ad-
visory commission, and chairman of
the general medical board, Council
of National Defense.
DR.. Martin, who recently returned
from Washington where the big task
was taken up on December 6, 1916,
announced today that final figures
show 10000 civilian medical men
were mobilized as officers of the
army, navy and the public health
service. In addition, 1900 medical
men and women in the volunteer
medical service corps were enrolled,
classified and coded, making grand
total of 10000 out of a total medical
population of Approximately 100000.
Task Half Finished.
Approximately 50 per cent Of the
doctors in military service now
have been demobilized. They are
returning to civilian life when the
units with which they are connected
are demobilized. Most of them are
returning to practices which were
left in the hands of coworkers when
they entered service.
practical proof of the permanent
value of the volunteer medical serv-
ice corps is the fact that the surgeon
general of the army, Maj. Gen. Mar
riette w. Ireland, has asked the
Council of National Defense to COM
plete its survey and make it part
of the library of the surgeon general.
where experts will keep the records
UP to date" said DR.. Martin.
After reviewing the numerous OBJ
stacles which he and his coworkers
had to overcome, DR.. Martin point
ed out that the three governmental
departments, the army, navy and
public health service, had less than |
1900 commissioned officers at the |
outbreak of war.
First Duty.
"Our first duty, then, was to OBJ /
tain medical officers for the army
and navy from the civilian medical
profession in the proportion of about
10 doctors for each 1000 enlisted |
men," he said. "This was accom-
plished through organizations al
ready in existence, and through the
general medical board of the Coun-
Gil of National Defense, which es-
tablished a large committee of med
ical men in each state. To sub
divide the work and make it ef-
fective, finally county organizations,
under the respective state organi-
cations, were effected in more than
1900 counties of the United States"
DR.. Martin said there was no diff
hculty in securing medical men, for |
the response of the profession was
spontaneous.
S"The only reluctance we observed
on the part of doctors was to blind
ly accept service without a definite |
assignment. In the first rush of or
ganizations we were unable to prop
erly classify physicians so that they |
would be chosen with reference to
their special fitness and desire.
New Plan Devised.
However, six months before the
end of the war plan was devised
which relieved this uncertainty. The |
volunteer medical service corps, un-
der the presidency of DR.. Edward |
P. Davis of Philadelphia, was or
ganized Briefly, it consisted of
asking the 10000 medical men not |
yet enrolled to agree to serve the
government in any capacity, with the
implied reservation, however, that |
they would be selected, so far as
practicable, with reference to their
preference for service.
"In- spite of the subtle propa-
ganda, based on the alleged op-
position to men blindly signing an
agreement for service, 1900 of these
were signed and made
the basis of a classification that
would have been of inestimable
value for further mobilization"
The applications were so coded
that it was possible to secure al
most instantly a group of men for
a special line of work, he said. In
stances where large numbers of
doctors were furnished within a day
or two after requests were received
from the public health service were
cited by DR.. Martin.