The potters herald. [volume] (East Liverpool, Ohio) 1899-1982, 1938-08-18
On Capitol Hill
By GEORGE L. KNAPP
BY GEORGE l.. KNAPP

Washington, ID. e.. uLNS).-Ihe
Department Of Justice, acting through
Assistant Attorney General Thurman
w. Arnold, has charged that the
American Medical Association and it's
affiliate, the District of Columbia
Medical Society, have violated the
antitrust laws in trying to destroy
the Group Health Association, Inc.
This is a Washington cooperative of
about $500 members which is trying
to spread medical costs and improve
medical care by having each member
pay fixed charge, sick or well, to
group Of duly certified and competent
physicians and surgeons. Hospitals
in Washington, Mr.. Arnold shows, are
closed to these physicians and sur
geons, though open to them before
they began working for the Group
Association.
A member Of the Group, Arnold
tells, earning $1,440 a year, was taken
to a Washington hospital one night
with an acute attack Of appendicitis.
But this surgeon was not allowed to
operate in that hospital. By it's mem
bership in the Group, this family had
paid for that operation, but now it
had to get another surgeon whom it
did not want, and pay him.
"Organized medicine" said Mr.. Ar
mold, should not be allowed to ex-
tend its necessary and proper control
over the standards having to do with
the science and art Of medicine to in
clude control over methods Of pay
ment."
The information gathered by the
D. J. will be laid before grand jury.
From Chicago and the A. NJ A.
comes an official challenge to the D.
J. for "a lawsuit From Boston comes
the bitter regret Of the head of the
State Medical Society that the A. NJ.
A. has allowed itself to get into this
false position. Meanwhile, there can
De little doubt that no other antitrust
case, in progress or in prospect, will
rouse such deep and widespread feel
ing on the governments side as this
one.
Washington, D. C. 1LNS) S).-Three
things, two Of them happening in
Washington and one in Chicago, tie
together in one Of the most important
and most interesting situations of the
present time-and of some consider
able time in the future. Of especial
| Importance and interest to labor.
Take the Chicago happening first.
The other day, in fatty refusing the
demand for cut in railroad wages, A.
! F. Whitney of the Brotherhood of
Railroad Trainmen, told the railroad
arrangements a number Of things
which were either let out or buried in
virtually all newspaper reports. He
put railroad difficulties straight up to
| big financiers. He said, in very small
part:
The railroads of this country have
suffered the loss of hundreds of mil
lions Of dollars due to the financial
! Juggling Of Wall Street money inter-
ests in the handling of the railroads;
and they are still demanding their
pound Of flesh, and urging you gen
tlemen to take it out of the hides of
railroad workers"
"A cut in wages to your bankers,
/ bondholders and stockholders may in
convenience them slightly, may give
them slightly less money to live on
4 scale unknown to the railroad work
er," Whitney went on. "You are ask
/ ing the railroad workers to take
cut, TO have less money to buy bread,
to buy clothing, to pay rent"
The second thing happened in
Washington, and attention was called
to it in this place at the time. Sena-
tor La Toilette showed in a speech
that in 1920, railroad wages were
S7.73 for each dollar paid in interest;
and that in 1886, the ratio had dropped
to 1884 to one. On the other hand,
the railroads in 1920 received S169 in
operating revenue to each dollar paid
out in wages; while in 1886, this had
risen to S2.l9 to one. Then he sum-
med up in this biting sentence:
1T is clear from the facts which
| have cited that the employees during
this period Of time have been receiv-
ing less and less for producing more
and more in the railroad industry;
while on the other hand, the invested
dollar has been receiving more and
more for producing less and less"
x
Third fact, not happened but just
nicely started at happening in Wash
ington, the monopoly investigation
launched by the President is paying
particular attention to the influence
Of big financiers on monopoly prices
charged by industrial and commercial
corporations.
This part Of the investigation is to
be conducted by the Securities and
Exchange Commission. 1t is bound to
show, as partial Investigations al
ready have shown, that high finance
has levied literally billions Of unearn-
ed toll from industry and commerce,
and that these tolls have come from
the consumer and the worker who,