Evening star., 1941-02-18
Medical
Continued From First Page)

to one doctor as having said, accord
ing to the minutes. that the medical
society had two weapons at hand
with which to combat G. H. A
Weapons" Discussed.
One weapon. he said, was discipline
of its members by the medical
society. itself. and the other was to
exclude G.. H. A. doctors from
hospitals by pressure on the staff
Defense Counsel Leahy insisted
only the corporate acts of a cor
poratjon, under the law, could be
admitted in evidence
He charged there is a notion Of
the prosecution that any one who
said or thought anything against
G. H. A. was a conspirator" He
charged such a point of view would
leave no freedom Of speech, no free
dom Of press"
Why they even charge If we pub
lished in the A. M A journal,
which has been established more
than hundred years, what some
one said against Group Health As
sociatlon that any one who had
anything to do with It is crook"
Constitutional Rights Cited.
ANY such Interpretation of the
law" Mr. Leahy insisted, rs so un-
justified that it carnot be support
ed in law Freedom of speech and
press are guaranteed by a higher
law than any which prosecution
counse! rely upon-they are guar
anted by the Constitution of the
United States. ANY Interpretation
by the prosecution which would at
tempt to cut down the free and
honest exercise of these rights would
be unheld by no court
Before the luncheon recess, JUS
tlce Proctor asked the prosecution
whether the verify of the proceed
ings Of the District Medical Society
could be established better by call
ing the Stenographer who made the
minutes to testify as to what was
said, or whether it would be better
to rely on the minutes written short
ly after the meeting.
The prosecution insisted the min
utes were authentic and admissible.
explaining that they had been
brought TO court by the present sec
retary of the medical society. Theo-
dore Wiprud. who testified he had
received them from his predecessor,
and had identified in court the sig
nature of his predecessor, Dr.. Cour-
The prosecution insisted they had
been officially adopted by the med
ical society.
Defense counsel attacked the au-
thenticity of the minutes. declaring
they had been written bv the ste
nographer who had testified pre-
viously and signed by DR.. Conklin.
A. NJ. A. Journal Article Admitted.
One of the important pieces of
evidence admitted Yesterday was an
article appearing in the Journal of
the American Medical Association,
October 2, 1887, outlining the argu-
ments of organized medicine against
G. H A. and group medical practice.
The prosecution plans to use this to
show the motive and threat of the
A. M. A. to restrain the trade of
G.. H. A. through several means. On
the other hand, it was learned the
defense counsel will make a stout
defense of the article as permissible
through the constitutional right Of
freedom of the press. Defense argu-
ment tended in this direction yes
terday, when Seth Richardson in
sisted that the Court of Appeals
decision remanding the case back to
District Court for trial, left open to
the defendants the rights of "legltl-
mate persuasion and reasoned argu-
ment" against G. H. A.
The court yesterday spent the
entire day in consideration Of 135
documents which had been sub
mitted by the prosecution as evi-
dence of either the background of
the alleged conspiracy, or the con-
spiracy itself. On objection Of de-
fense council, six were rejected by
Justice Proctor, seven were reserved
by the jurist and one was with
drawn by the prosecution. Alto
gether the Government has intro
duced 294 documents, many OF
which have been admitted to evl-
dence and some of which have been
rejected.