The Washington herald., 1921-12-16
Scents Collision.


regret to see that efforts are be-
ing made favoring medical censor
ship privileged to suppress adverse
comment or discussion in the daily
press regarding health and health
INTERPRETATIONS which are of
vital interest to the people. Re
ligious despotism is a thing of the
past in America-and medical
despotism would be still less ac-
ceptable.
DR.. Dwight II. Murray. speaker Of
the house of delegates of the Amer
lean Medical. Association, has sug-
gested the use of the Sunday papers
as a connecting link" between the
general public and the allopathic
doctors. He says that the medical
profession should take the public
into its confidence to a larger de-
gree than heretofore.
Medicine should be advertised"
said DR.. Murray. TT should be
popularized. Much work should be
done along these lines"
State societies should have paid
secretaries who can give their full
time to the work. and the Amer
lean Medical Association should
have a staff of paid secretaries to
do such things"
DR.. Murray suggested first the
establishment of lay health
journal in which the medical pro-
fession would give medical news for
the layman, dealing particularly
with preventive medicine. social
hygiene. medical survey. OF indus
tries, medical legislation. corn
,i..s, 10
Another plan which might be
followed in case this was not feast
ble," DR.. Murray said. would be to
appoint editors and create a de-
mand for a medical feature section
of the saQ great Sunday papers in
this county and take different
subject or different phases of a
popular subject for each issue"
Quite confirming this point of
view. DR.. Burnside Foster, of Min
neapolis, in a paper entitled The
Relation Of the Medical Profession
to the Newspaper Press" says:
This relation is extremely unsatis-
factory"
The people not only do not get
from their newspaper any intelli-
gent information on medical sub
jects, but they do get vast
amount of misinformation both
harmful and dangerous" with this
statement the i-vaccinationists
and ti-viviscetionists are in full
accord).
That there is one way and one
way only" he continues. by means
of which the newspapers may give
to their readers the plain truth
that is. all medical copy, both news
and editorial, must be prepared by
physician who is competent to
do So"
III the newspapers will approach
the medical profession in the right
spirit the medical men will cheer
fully and willingly give them right
information"
Carefully criticising such ar
rangement which certainly seems a
dehnite collision between. the press
and medical writer's, Dr. v. NJ. Tay-
Tor. of Springfield, Ill, writes: The
newspaper press would make I'M
conditional surrender by which the
medical trust had the exclusive
right to prepare every item of med
ical news and theory concerning
theories and systems of practice
published in the paper"
Under this contract not word
of exposure or denial of men
dacious assertions and brazen error,
not even from the editor himself
would be allowed in the paper"
true enough! The reading public
not suspecting the exclusive ar
rangement between the medical
trust and the daily press on whose
statements the public relies for in
formation and never seeing any
thing therein that is true may con-
tradlct or question such statements
ana assertions (many medical
theories still being under. heated
discussion as regards the possible
good or the great evil involved)
have come to accept such vaunted
henef'ts - a true spd nroved a.