The people's voice. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1939-1969, 1951-10-19

personal future as member of the
medical profession, as we'll as the
future security and well-being of
your family, children and friends"
The letter closed with an urgent
plea for minimum" of $40, and an
envelope was enclosed for use in send
ing contributions. Also attached to
the letter was statement by Senator
Taft denouncing health insurance.
Thus, while Senator Taft was
changing front on a bill before the
Senate, bill which he had apparent
ly earnestly supported for a long
time; at that very moment, the enc
mics of any form of health insurance
were passing the hat to raise cam
paign fund to put him in the White
House.
In the opinion ofe LABOR, this is
as brazen a payoff as has been re-
corded in the history of the Senate.
Of course, it is not the first time
Taft has performed services for spec
ial interests while those interests
were collecting funds to pay for his
campaign. For years Taft advocated
a home building program, but when
there was a chance to do something
about it the senator ran out. The
Real Estate Lobby cheered, and pas
sed the hat for Taft.
Only weeks ago Taft put off speak
ing tour to run back to the Senate
to help put over rich mans tax
bill. At the very moment, the rich
men were passing the hat for Taft.
In the Senate debate, Taft's only
explanation for his turnabout was
that he felt the government was
spending so much for defense that
it couldn't afford some $500 million
to expand the medical schools. He
just brushed off the argument that
one of the worst of the shortages
in the armed forces is the lack of
doctors.
MUST HAVE KNOWN IN MARCH
Senator Robert S. Kerr (Dem.-
Okla.), said he could not understand
Taft's change, since he had been a
sponsor of the bill only last March.
Surely it was no secret to Taft then
that the nation was going to spend |
billions on rearning. He had had
three months to study the budget.
Senator Humphrey quoted from a
speech in the Senate on March IL in !
which Taft said, ~ advocated the
passage of this bill in nearly every
speech | made in Ohio in the last |
election" In other words, he had |
used it to get votes for himself, which |
makes his present flip-flop even
worse.
BY COLLEGES
Although the medical colleges of
the country have been in favor of
such Federal aid for years, the Amer
lean Medical Association came out
against it nearly two years ago, de-
it as ''foot in the door" in
the campaign for "socialized medi-
cine" which is their name for health
insurance.
Recently the ANA contributed a
nalf-million dollars of it's own funds
and announced it was calling on all
is members to donate also to priv
ate fund for the relief of the medical
colleges, most of which have been
running in the red" for some time.
That gesture won headlines in the
newspapers, although it was pointed
,ut that the million dollars is
ust drop in the bucket compared
With what is needed.
FEW DOLLARS BACK FUND
In this weeks Senate debate Sena-
or James E. Murray (Dem., Mont. J,
tut in the Congressional Record" a
eport on how this drive for voluntary
contributions is going.
Up to August, Murray said,
three one-hundredths of / per
cent of the doctors of America"
have made contributions to show
that they "agree with the ANA
leadership as to how that which
the ANA itself calls "a challenge
to the medical profession should
be met"