The evening herald. [volume] (Albuquerque, New Mexico) 1914-1922, 1921-07-29

n ANTICIPATES. IN convention IN Cleveland passed q resolution Mon.
day opposing ~ Of she nesssrss "es pendine before congress TO
idcnts cabinet The Owen bill, said the resolution, wonid create
state medicine and give 70 enc school Of medicine a monopoly of the
= sThe American rs people saa the resolution, demand as larpr a
vore IN ssyine what ssslem 81 healing they shnii choose in case Of
This Is quite true. There Is a general and growing protest
throughout this nation against HE tendency of a certain class Of mod
pesity. not BY winning the confidence Of patients, hun by process Of
II i. sinenlarly iacoasstent IN ,heHe same advocates Of leqaI med
icipe 10 launch out. as they have done quite recently. in violent at
tacks against The sheppard maternity bill, because that bin nho seeks
government authorities vi have before ms a more or less violent
communication from the Massachusetts civic aliasee. filed with the
quoted statements Of doctors IN which the Sheppard bill is referred ~
as pational peril. as a move toward sovirfiSn, IS a socialnfic et
rage and a product Of the system that wrecked Rnssia. An of this IL
appears. arises FROM the fact that the Sheppard bill would pat in
charge of administration Of the proposed welfare at, mot = physician
ola certain school, but a woman who is interested IN proyiding bet
aatosracy Of state medicine, these gentry appear 10 believe, would be
a fine thing for the American peeple; hut 10 attempt'to do anything
for expeetan, mothers and for their newborn babes. without the pro
fe~icnal supervision Of this modern school Of medical practitioners
would be o crime against the nation bordering on treason.
A. a matter Of fact there are objections and very serious ones, to
the Sheppard maternity bill. There are far more serious objections
to the proposal TO establish a national department of health, with the
power to a single school of provisions conferred in the Legislation now
pending before congress OF the two the Sheppard bill has the vast
and cyerwtrlmine and saving advantage of being IN unsel6sh effort
fr the public welfare.
There is a happy Medium between state medicine, as proposed in
the Owen bill. and the psternalism Of the Sheppard bill. Il Is found
IN the policy and practice Of the Ge me who make up the ranks Of
laws to enforce the public to have confidence in them and to employ
them. but who win that confidence by their unfaSing conscientious,
splendid efforts TO relieve suffering wherever they find IL or however
h is bronghs to their attention. These, praises be. are still in the ma
serity IN the medical profession Of our land. They haven't time to
proclaim against schools and cults in which they do not believe. or to
seek 10 regulate them OF stamp them ont by law. They are too busy
attending 10 their individual duties and doing good.
The doctors who are fighting the Sheppard bill oppose it chiefly,
they say, because II viii provide, not beds for mothers and milk bot
Ties for babies, but Jobs for willing workers in the federal machine.
IL might be answered with equal justice that the proposed department
Of sblic health, manned throughout by doctors of a single school, is
designed TO do precisely the same thing on a much more gigantic and
dangerous scale.