The Washburn times. [volume] (Washburn, Wis.) 1896-1976, 1922-11-09
n0CTOHING BY RADIO

DOCTONING BY RADIO
The u. S. Public Health Service
has gone into partnership with the
;Seamen's Church Institute OF New
York, an dthe Radio Corporation of
American, with the result that me-
dical advice for ships at sea is now
available by simply calling" by wire
less. For the first hundred years
in American "going for the doctor"
was one of the pet projects of writ
ers of fiction and fact. Even George
Washing ton died before his time
because it took seven or eight hours
to "get the DOCTOR" Most Of the
smaller ships and great many of
the freighters on the high seas do
not carry doctors, and medical at
tention in the past has been mostly
prescriptions from the Captain of
salts and calomel. But the. on
ward march Of radio communication
has changed all that, and as a re-
suit of the activities cited in the
opening paragraph each ship on the
ocean is now being equipped with a
standard medicine chest and few
instruments. When lives are to be
saved and stomachs Gained, and
there is no physician aaboard, the
wireless operator merely calls up one
o fthe medical stations on shore, des-
cribes the condition, and a doctor
sends back word just what to do.
Enthusiasts in the Public Health
Service in Washington declare that
the time will come when they can
supplement the method of looking
at the tongue and taking the tenn
perature of the patient no matter
how far away on the waters he may
be.
THE LIVING WAGE"
The Railroad Labor Board has been
in the public eye a great deal dur
/ ing late months. Recently it has
split very badly upon the determine
ten of the relative merits of the
diving wage The Board evil
IDENTIFY has an internal scrap on
hand that is worse than church
row, if its works is to be judged by
the comments in one Of the dissent
| ing opinions of member, who says
II was not permitted to see the ma
jority statement. Now that /
have read it find that it Is falla-
cious and contains untruths."
"The Living Wage" is a figure of
speech around which the Railroad
Labor Board has been constructing
arguments to support the wage-scale
which they create, and which again
times are respected, and which again
merely lead to strikes. But the
Board with its slips 'twixt "the
cup and the lip" is evidently doing
constructive work in arriving ait
what is more correctly speaking, a
proper wage, rather than "a decent
wage" and "the living wage Its
reports have an important bearing
upon the larger issues as to what an
industry can stand in the way of
wages land what workmen actually
earn and should be paid for their
services. Naturally the answers to
these questions are not apt to be
definitely furnished by any Board
or group of students, since they in
volve pretty nearly every issue in
The whole economic. puzzle. But it
does seem to have been found out
by belated observers that workmen
employed at machines that have a
given capacity are doing eight hours
work in an hour day, and not 10 Or
II hours-as the elaborate enthusiasts
have been telling us-since the speed
Of the machines with which they keep
up has not been changed. It also
seems to be sinking in on the public
that the question of wages and hours
Of work should be judged by Chris
ian standards rather than by arbi-
trary monetary necessities. The
Railroad Labor Board has emphasiz-
ed these principles land there are
many people who believe that it's
misfortunes in making itself rather
generally disliked are apt to re-
bound to the public good, since
thoughtful people are inclined after
reading it's opinions to turn to
Rockefeller, and Gompers, and
Hoover. to get genuine intellectual
nourishment.