374 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



Admiral Charles F. Stokes, surgeon-general of the navy, by General 

 Walter Wyman, of the Public Health and Marine Hospital Service, by 

 Dr. Harvey W. Wiley, of the bureau of chemistry, by governors of states, 

 by the Conference of State and Territorial Boards of Health, by the 

 United Mine Workers of America, by the National Grange, by the 

 republican and democratic platforms, and by numerous other organ- 

 izations. 



What is the principle of this bill which is advocated by thousands 

 of men trained in medicine or sanitary science and interested in the 

 public welfare? 



Section 7, which embodies the main purpose of the Owen bill, reads 

 as follows : " That it shall be the duty and province of such a depart- 

 ment of public health to supervise all matters within the control of 

 the federal government relating to public health and to diseases of 

 animal life." 



Section 2 of this bill deals with the unification under a secretary 

 of public health of the various agencies now existing which affect the 

 medical, surgical, biological or sanitary service. 



There has recently been formed an organization which calls itself 

 " The National League for Medical Freedom." It has for its purpose 

 to combat the Owen bill ; it is opposed to the establishment of a federal 

 department or bureau of health. The name of this organization is 

 certainly, if not intentionally, misleading. It can not claim to battle 

 for medical freedom, for there is not a word in the entire bill which 

 could be interpreted as limiting the practise of medicine to any par- 

 ticular school. Their claim that the establishment of such a bureau 

 of health would have any resemblance to a medical trust is entirely 

 unfounded. 



The life insurance and industrial insurance companies which advo- 

 cate this bill certainly have no desire to limit medical freedom or to 

 repress any system which offers the chance of lengthening human life. 

 These companies do not favor medical partisanship and their sole in- 

 terest is to prolong the lives of their policy-holders by whatever means 

 possible. Their actuaries state specifically that they believe human 

 life could and would be lengthened by the establishment of a federal 

 department of health. 



Lee K. Frankel, Ph.D., representing the Metropolitan Life In- 

 surance Company, is a member of the Committee of One Hundred, 

 appointed by the American Association for the Advancement of Science 

 to further the propaganda for the establishment of such a department. 

 Neither the above-mentioned great newspaper nor any of the leading 

 spirits of the " National League for Medical Freedom," all of whom, 

 I regret to say, have allowed themselves to ascribe the worst motives to 

 the members of the committee, will deny that the names of the officers 



