•^'May^^?2o:}    Preseut  Status  of  Health  Insurance.  329 
for  both  the  Assembly  and  the  Senate  to  ascertain  their  views  with 
reference  to  compulsory  health  insurance  and  to  ask  for  a  pledge  of 
opposition  to  any  bill  providing  for  such  insurance.  A  fight  was 
promptly  waged  against  those  candidates  whose  views  were  held 
to  be  contrary  to  the  public  interest,  and  the  result  was  that  ten 
of  them  went  down  to  defeat.  This  furnishes  one  reason  why  the 
legislature  this  year  is  not  quite  so  keen  for  compulsory  health 
insurance  as  it  was  last. 
Passing  by  the  situation  in  New  York  State,  it  may  be  said, 
as  we  have  already  intimated,  that  the  issue  has  not  elsewhere  been 
a  very  active  one  during  the  past  winter.  New  Jersey  seems  at  the 
moment  to  be  in  favor  of  compulsory  health  insurance,  but  the 
"guild"  idea  is  being  developed  in  resistance  to  it,  and  the  history 
of  New  York  State  will  doubtless  be  repeated.  Pennsylvania  has 
agitated  the  subject,  but  has  done  nothing  acute.  The  sentiment 
for  such  insurance  in  Ohio,  under  a  little  stimulation  from  Governor 
Cox,  is  rather  favorable  to  the  scheme.  Indiana  has  a  commission 
at  work,  but  it  is  apparently  not  active.  Wisconsin  has  entertained 
some  discussion  of  the  subject,  but  has  apparently  not  gone  beyond 
the  debating  stage.  The  issue  has  been  a  fairly  live  one  in  Minne- 
sota, where  it  forms  a  part  of  the  propaganda  involved  in  the  so- 
called  Non-Partisan  movement,  but  nothing  is  threatened  for  the 
immediate  present. 
So  much  for  the  situation  at  the  moment.  Now  a  few  words 
about  the  character  of  the  movement  in  general.  These  questions 
are  frequently  asked:  Who  are  the  advocates  of  compulsory  health 
insurance?  What  sort  of  friends  has  the  scheme  got  anyway? 
How  active  are  they?    What  is  the  danger  of  success? 
WHO  ADVOCATE  COMPULSORY  HEAI^TH  INSURANCE? 
We  should  say,  after  a  pretty  careful  study  of  the  movement 
compassing  several  years,  that  the  advocates  of  compulsory  health 
insurance  divide  themselves  very  naturally  into  the  following  classes : 
1.  The  original  group  of  academic  doctrinaires  and  sociologists. 
These  men  for  the  most  part  are  university  teachers,  and  they 
sincerely  believe  themselves  to  be  right.  Unfortunately,  as  Samuel 
Gompers  says  of  them,  they  are  not  open  to  conviction.  They  are 
zealous  fanatics. 
2.  The  governors  and  legislatures  of  certain  States  tinctured 
with  socialism,  especially  the  western  group  of  States  now  carried 
away  by  the  misbranded  Non-Partisan  movement. 
