The potters herald. [volume] (East Liverpool, Ohio) 1899-1982, 1938-12-22
On Capitol Hill
BY GEORGE L. KNAPP

washington, ID. G. QLNS).-8he
first attempt to begin to try to meet
the charge of restraint of trade which
the Department of Justice has brought
against the District Medical Society
and the American Medical Society, to
which the d. M. S. belongs, has just
been launched. A plan has been sent
by the D. NJ S. officers to the men,
bers of the society for prepayment
medical care"
1t will remain plan unless ma
jority of the members Of the society
vote for it; and unless, after that vote,
at least 5000 individuals subscribe to
it. 1t is full of limitations, and of
things which look suspiciously like
jokers. 1t requires a 81 entrance fee,
SIS cash payment for the first service
required. The monthly payment is
$1.5O for single man, $2.70 for man
and wife, not more than $3.50 for a
family. But there is no hospital SER
vice; and in surgical cases, the limits
of total service to be rendered on this
plan in year would be reached very
quickly.
Nevertheless, the new Assistant At
torney General, Thurman Arnold, is
beginning to get results, though the
grand jury is still sitting. But the
refusal Of hospital service in the ma
tion's capital to qualified physicians
and surgeons who work for a cooper
ative still persists.
There are few things, indeed, in
which labor and it's families is show
ing much keener interest than in get
ting competent medical care within
it's means.
President Roosevelt and his wife are
certainly pair. He has announced
that he will leave large section of
his Hyde Park estate to the Federal
government, together with about 49,
600 documents of public interest; and
will subscribe to an archives building
all the royalties paid to him this year.
Mrs. Roosevelt has announced that
all the income from her many activi-
ties, after paying income taxes, will
be distributed to causes which she
holds worthy.
Only a few of our Presidents have
been tightwads. But the Roosevelt
gifts recall two other gifts that most
people forget or have not learned.
One was that of the late Justice Oliver
Wendell Holmes, who, after providing
for relatives and some others, left the
larger share of his fortune of about
S5O0,000 to the United States Treas
ury, with no strings on it whatever.
One was the entire fortune of
James Smithson, illegitimate son of
the Duke of Northumberland, with
which has been built the Smithsonian
Institution.
X X X
y Nothing so roaringly funny has
come out of a Congressional investi-
cation for 25 years as the dialogue
the other day between Congressman
Starnes of Alabama and Mrs. Ellen
Woodward, assistant administrator of
WPA white collar projects. Starnes
asked Mrs. Woodward to tell who was
"this Communist, Marlowe," whom
she referred to in magazine article
she had written.
81 am sorry" she said, "but | was
quoting from Christopher Marlowe
Put it in the record that he was a
great dramatist in the period of
Shakespeare"
Starnes knew, Of course, about
Christopher Marlowe, but ruefully ad-
mitted he thought Mrs. Woodward
was referring to some Communist.
The only joke that still tops this
one came in the Senate investigation
of the Titanic. A western Senator
asked why the passengers were not
saved by shutting them into the water
tight compartments!
The next issue of the London Punch
contained this information:
"No, Senator Smith, the Banks of
Newfoundland (where the Titanic was
wrecked) do not close at noon on Sat
urdays."