Evening star., 1927-05-17
BACKGROUND OF EVENTS
BY PAUL Y. COLLINS,

II Washington is not healthy. this
week blame 1t on it's 10000 guests,
the American Medical Association.
Their very presence in hotels, public
halls and streets fills the atmosphere
with questions:
Have you that tired feeling at
night?
do your meals distress you when
the cook is late?
when you go out these frigid,
damp days. do you shiver?
Are you losing flesh or gaining
weight or at standstill:
"1n any event, you must need a
Spring tonic and a complete rest in
the mountains, for which prescription
our charge is S., according to
what the traffic will bearC
Yet none of these questions is of the
slightest importance, in comparison
with the paramount query as to
whether doctors may or may not dis
card alcohol. For, even before the doc
tors arrived, the Association Against
the Prohibition Amendment had for
warded an emetic to the association s
officers, charged with q tincture OF
fact, that the Anti-Saloon League was
biased, and it's prejudiced Judgment
as TO prescriptions for snake bite
should not unduly influence the calm
and ultra scientific knowledge OF the
medical men.
Mr.. Capehart, head OF the third
party to this situation-the Assocla-
ton Against Impure Liquor. which
cries Down with moonshine! and
yet claims that ii doesn't mean liter
ally just what one thinks that means
supports the opposition to the
CHASED" hackers of former Represent
atiye Volstead. and the evil which
lives after him. So 1t becomes a three
sided fight. Geometry teaches us that
three points fix circle. Hence dis
pute which ends in the disputants SIM
ply making rings and swinging around
the circle will get them nowhere.
There will be no end to the wrangle.
The American Medical Association has
previously gone on record denouncing
the use of alcohol-the greatest de
pressant known, except a club or
window-weight-bu that was before
the passage of the eighteenth amend
ment to the United States Constitu-
ton and therefore in advance of the
question of booze becoming 'politi-
cal"
Since it is now political" there are
doctors who insist that their right TO
administer alcohol shall not be in
fringed, whether the materia medica
plus Congress approves or not. Every
doctor has an inalienable right to dose
his own patients as he pleaseS. 9th
erwise, whose patients can he dose?
Doctors are as jealous as college pro-
fessors of their rights"
1t is with the object Of "squaring
the circle" and bringing clear vision
to the befuddled minds of the 10000
doctors (including the wives and
daughters presenU that I now quote
words of unbias sed science, spoken in
times past and on divers occasions py
distinguished non-political members of
the American Medical Association.
X = = X
The record Of the American Medical
Association is double. In 1917 the as
sociation resolved that "the use of
alcohol as a beverage is detrimental
to the human economy" and Its use
i'll therapeutics. as tonic or stimu-
liant or as a food, has no scientific
basis" therefore be it Resolved. That
the use of alcohol as a therapeutic
should be discouraged.
In 1926 the association adopted a
resolution favoring the extension with
out limit of the privilege to phySi-
clan to give more than 100 liquor pre-
scriptions III three months-regardless
of therapeutic considerations. The
original stand that alcohol as a medi-
cine had no value has not been re-
scinded.
That this analysis may not be one
sided. the first quotation is from the
alleged "wets" among the doctors.
DR. Matthias Nicoil. State commits
sioner of health OF New York, notes
that deaths from alcoholism in that
State uncluding moonshinel have in
creased at the same rate as fatal au-
tonohilo accidents. which grow in spite
of traffic regulations. He also notes
that the Metropolitan Life Insurance
Co. with it's 100000 policy holders
in tho United States and 1000 900 in
Canada, reports 2.270 deaths from al
cohci among tho United States policy
holders and only % in Canada. Can
ada has no bootleg incentives, so his
data seem to make a case against
bootiegging, but is not conclusive as
to the main question as to the medical
qualities of pure" liquor.
In 19Gl the American MeuicdI ASSo'
citation sent out a quesionnalre to
SO 900 physicians. asking opinions as
to whisky and wine in medical prac- /
tice; S1,l15 replied. OF these 40 per
cent were opposed to whisky and IS
per cent opposed wine-a sockdolager
to light Wines" Only per cent voted
for an increase in the present limit of
100 prescriptions of liquor in three
months.
Last February, DR.. Arthur Dean
Bevan, president of the American
Medical Association, said, Ninety !
nine out of 100 prescriptions for pint |
of whisky are hootlegging prescrip- |
tions, and are disgrace to the med |
icai professions"
DIR. Bevan, as chairman of the |
American Medical Association, which |
met In Chicago, February IA, 1891,
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