The people's voice., 1940-02-14
An Open Letter To
Country Gentleman

The Curtis public health plan SET
out to perform the one service no
worst needed, and | wish to examin
it as now offered in hope to fin
promise of enduring helpfulness wit
power of expansion. While about thi
search I would go to a book, Twiligh
of Man, by Harvard anthropologist
not that / should use its content d
rectly. While it's lessons, in thei
Vivid robes of phraseology, are sinkin
in, would call attention to the fac
that physicians are vigorously selecte,
and severely trained, representing al
exceptional level of refined intelli
gence.
l would call up the image of grea
industrialist who was once on the wit
ness stand, and opposing counsel die
properly subject him to familiar in
ltelligence test, which he stood rather
poorly Then | would assay the cul
tural impact of this man upon hi!
time: he could see straight through
to the truth that he would need some
people around under foot in circum
stances to buy his product when Il
was ready, and he was roundly de
nounced for his insight = but those
crying out came in time to see as
well. His services to the fine arts are
exemplary, though he is not an artist
as we understand it. He has brought
fine music to more people than the
world has known before; the music
was not quite too fine, and his rare
! instinct found ways that Americans
| in throngs are delighted to help him
put on the show. And it ought to be
mentioned that in technical fidelity of
distribution to the air his concerts
rank very high, where the highest of
highbrow concerts come over in the
worst order known to the industry.
And if any of the current ideas in
popular education go down through
history the ideas of this man will
stand a chance.
We cite another activity which en-
ploys formal intelligence in various
ways, and l select it because your
publications have given it study and
DCSduoC II 10 thC way ltfC. w nav e
opened up great western areas to ir-
rigation, a task calling for skills of a
high order; and we must all soon rec
ognize the need of these acres in our
economy, because the Great Plains
have been exploited to the point of
sharply diminishing returns. But the
preparation of these great acreage
bodies for prompt and economical
spreading of water has hardly begun;
crops under ditch are now produced
at slight profit or none whatever.
With modern equipment the work can
nual sacrifice now endured, and the
improvement will last as long as a
city | have merely mentioned in
stances lying closest to my way of
life, where discrepancy stands be-
tween intelligence and the employ
ment of it.
1t is integral to the announced pur-
pose of the Curtis plan that it start
from the bottom with local health
councils. I hope it may start as
promised but the Prologue has a great
deal to say about vindication for or
ganized medicine in the cooperative
health unit actions, and I should ques-
tion that a such 'vindication" would
leave us any where near the bottom
Organized medicine has enjoyed high
level of vindication for a long time.
it has run the show without hind
;c AZ
ANA and Paul DeKruiff and the
Curtis in unison admit that the costs
cannot be met. The co-operators en-
living clientage interest in
public health, an interest pecuniary as
well as academic; such interest has
proved itself the keystone in the arch.
the long drawn legal bat
tie at Elk City, leading up to the in
dictment in Group Health, the ANA
heads insisted that cooperative health
unit efforts are socialistic in trend,
which is contrary to the facts. Any
sound advance in public health mat
.ers awaits a correction at this point
precisely.
No amount of noise can harm the
Elk City enterprise at this point, but
he local health councils you hope,
md | hope, to see in operation, will
give service in direct proportion to
he responsible interest in public |
health they develop in the member
ship; and if the job is run FOR the
this same will fall away;
We are at this time rolling out of the |
mall end of job that was done TO |
is. Living under a system of uni |
1ersal education as we do, the failure |
# any super-imposed welfare system
S predictable; if we recognize a vi
ionary and impractical character in |
ur system of public education, it's |
must wait on the people |
irectly concerned; if the anthropo- !
ogical approach to race improvement
nvisioned in Twilight of Man is to
JUNCTION, certain confessions of failure
integral to the text will need correc-
ion-it is top-down approach.
Let us be explicit in the matter of |
hysicians' incomes. They have been +.
insufficient for a long time, a condi-
ion which has been reached with the
hysicians in full charge and no kibit-
ers to mention. They have then not
vercharged for the work, but there
as been too much work. The piece
-ork basis has been unsound, as all
gree. l should insist that this one
actor of health care has been the
hief cause of distortion in our econ I
my at this time; you would agree <
you viewed the same evidence
here is too much work; and you