Evening star., 1941-04-02
GovernmentHits
Doctors Ethics
In Medical Trial
Society Is Accused
Of Fight to Shut
Out Competitors
By HAROLD ROGERS.

out llS dllCSOu boySOGN dSoA1too >pAodE
Health Association had concealed
under the guise of its own ''ethics"
what in realty was the operation OF
a business protective association ac-
lively engaged in combating eco
nomic competition.
Mr.. Levin began final argument
for the prosecution as court opened
today in an attempt to bring about
conviction of two medical groups
and 18 doctors on charges of viola
ting the Sherman Antitrust Act.
In their campaign against G.. H. A,
the Government prosecutor declared,
the defendants had reSorted to two
principal methods:
First, to enforce rules and regu-
iations designed to prevent doctors,
including the memberes of their own
organization, from joining G. H. A,
or consulting with G.. H. A. doctors.
Second, to induce private Wash
ington hospitals to join with them
to keep G. H. A. from having a
chance to provide medical service
on cooperative prepayment
basis"
Trial Enters Final Phases.
Mr.. Levin was to be followed by
his associate, Grant w. Kelleher,
for the prosecution, and later by
Defense Counsel William E. Leahy.
The courtroom was crowded as the
trial of the American Medical As
sociation, the District Medical So
ciety and Is doctors went into its
final phases. Each side has been ac-
corded about four and one-half
hours for final argument by Justice
James M Proctor The Government
has divided its time, opening this
morning and planning to close with
rebuttal after the defense has con-
cluded, some time tomorrow.
Justice Proctor, according to pres
ent plans, will instruct the jury
Friday morning and then give the
case into it's hands for a verdict
about noon.
Mr.. Levin declared that the
~ethics" of organized medicine had
been employed with the purpose of
carrying the general idea to the
public that they represented the
Ten Commandments and the Gold
en- Rule" Instead, the prosecutor
declared, organized medicine en-
ployed these ethics to fight" to
combat" the group health move
nent.
Pressure on Hospitals Charged.
The defendants, in applying pres
sure against IL local hospitals, Mr..
Levin charged, had attempted to
allocate to themselves the right to
Interpret and enforce public policy
without ever taking the trouble to
define It,"
Charging DR.. William D. Cutter OF
the headquarters staff of the A. M.
A., a defendant, with intending to
exert far more pressure on Wash
ington hospitals than he would ad-
NIT during his appearance as a wit
ness on the stand, the prosecutor
asked the jury:
Can you believe for one moment
that he didn't intend to hold over
the heads of these hospitals the
threat of ruination unless they in
tended to make themselves fol-
lowers, slaves to the behest OF these
medical organizations"
Mr.. Levin outlined at length to
the jury the procedure which he
claimed was fully described by the
evidence in the case, whereby the
A. M. A., the District Medical So
ciety and officials of both groups
conspired. in violation of the law, to
restrict the hospitals themselves
One of these methods, he pointed
out, was through the use of the So
called 'Mundt" resolution of the A
M. A. requiring, that all hospital staff
doctors be members of their loca.
medical societies.
A Word to the Wise.
In their campaign to implement
this policy, the prosecutor charged
all the District Medical Society haC
to do was to "see that no G. H. A
doctors got into the society and that
those who were in got out"
Carrying out this policy, the pros
ecutor said. the medical society
through its Hospital Committee, had
called attention of all the hospitals
to the "Mundt" resolution. This, ir
effect, he charged, was simply pass
ing along to the hospitals the idea
that "a word to the wise was suff1'
Client"
Furthermore, through a so-callec
- {~+v 4f rnrinfp pnr1f q
the names Of only approved institu-
tions, omitting G. H. A, the prose
cutor charged that the medical so.
ciety held the power to "unstaf1" {
hospital.
Out of the II hospitals named ir
the indictment as co-conspirator'
but not defendants, Mr.. Levin sale
only two of them had regulation!
providing that staff doctors should
be members of their medical society
Through the pressure of the alleged
boycott, he charged, organized medl'
eins succeeded in getting co-opera'
Non from all II.
Boycott Evidence Cited.
The expulsion of DR.. Mario
Bcsndiffio and the trial of DR.. Aller
4. Lee, the only medical society
members having staff privileges a
hospitals while belonging to thu
staff Of G.. H. A., were cited by th'
prosecutor as further evidence o
ts,e operation of the boycott. DR.
lee resigned from G. H. A. In th'
middle Of his trial by the societ!
Tor having violated the constitution
pd the society and its ethics.
&C. H. A. is not on trial here,
declared Mr.. Levin, "whatevel
faults it may have of its own max
ing or because of restraints imposed
upon 1t. .
This Is not q private suit will
q. H. A. on the one hand and th'
private practice of medicine OF
the other. The comparative merit
of the two are not at issue. Thi
Is q suit with the United States OF
the one hand and the defendant
on the other, not because of thei
offense against G. Fl. A., but becaus
of their offense against Federal law
that everybody high or low mus
i've I'D to-"