132 Medical Brotherhood 



make the following Statement regarding the financial resources of 

 the Medical Brotherhood, which is as f ollows : Private contributions, 

 to the amount of $660, were made, in smaller and larger sums, by 

 some of the enrolled members. The main financial support comes, 

 however, from the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. 

 The Executive Committee of this body granted us a hberal fund for 

 the purpose of developing our Organization. The Executive Com- 

 mittee is made up of such men as President Butler, President Prit- 

 chett, ex-Senator Elihu Root, and others of similar high standing, 

 It is quite safe to say that no individual with normal judgment could 

 think for a moment that these foremost American Citizens v^ould 

 consent to support a pro-Teutonic Organization. But ought such 

 a question to have been raised at all by any fair-minded member of 

 the profession in the face of the standing of the members of the 

 committee which signed the Appeal? Would, for intance, the Sur- 

 geon-Generals of the Army, of the Navy, and of the Public-Health 

 Service consent to be honorary presidents, if the Medical Brother- 

 hood had some ulterior, pro-Teutonic or other un-American, 

 tendencies ? 



General discussion. As to the other criticisms, they can be 

 best met, we believe, by discussing the fundamental considerations 

 tinderlying this movement. The term "brotherhood," it is true, re- 

 nalis to mind a State in v\^hich all men shall treat one another like 

 brothers — like good brothers. This is an ideal which probably 

 will never be attained. The specter of the unattainable drives 

 practical men away from such Ideals. But it should be remembered 

 that even the ideal is of great educational value, if utilized merely 

 to indicate the dircction which our practical activities ought to 

 take. However, the Medical Brotherhood addresses the Appeal 

 only to the medical fraternit}^ and does not intend to deal with 

 unattainable objects. The medical profession has a training which 

 is scientific in character and method, and which has, in modern 

 times, among its precepts the following maxims: (i) That the 

 development of a new view must be started on the basis of an assured 

 fact, and not from mere desire or by the Impulse of an untamed 

 phantasy; (2) that one need not be afraid to assume, or to work 

 for, something which has not received the approval of that great 



