284 
Modern  Medicine. 
Am.  Jour.  Pharm. 
June,  1915. 
ings  will  show  that  it  is  not  and  never  has  been  dominated  either  by 
a  single  individual  or  by  a  group  of  individuals  ;  that  it  does  not 
control  legislation  in  the  State  or  the  nation,  and  could  not  if  it 
would ;  that  it  has  never  had  any  definite  legislative  or  political 
policy,  either  selfish  or  otherwise,  and  that  it  has  none  to-day;  that 
it  has  no  definite  program,  and  that  whatever  legislative  activities 
the  medical  profession,  either  organized  or  unorganized,  may  have 
undertaken  have  been  largely  due  to  the  personal  energy  of  in- 
dividuals in  different  States,  each  of  whom  has  acted  on  his  own 
initiative,  without  any  common  plan  of  action  or  any  common  policy, 
and  certainly  without  any  amount  of  cooperation  worth  mentioning. 
The  charges  and  suspicions  of  some  of  those  who  differ  from  us  are 
entirely  unsupported  by  the  facts,  and  can  be  attributed  only  to 
ignorance  or  prejudice.  In  some  ways  it  would  be  a  most  fortunate 
thing  for  the  public  if  the  American  Medical  Association  were  the 
highly-organized,  efficient,  nation-wide  machine  which  its  critics 
claim  it  is,  and  if  we  had  a  definite  program  which  was  being  steadily 
and  persistently  followed.  It  is  highly  probable  that  the  very  respon- 
sibility of  such  a  position  would  force  upon  us  the  adoption  of  a 
program  which  should  be  broad,  charitable,  conservative,  practical 
and,  above  all,  permanent.  But  even  if  all  these  things  were  so,  the 
power  of  the  association  could  be  exercised  only  as  is  the  influence 
of  any  other  body  of  men ;  namely,  through  its  individual  members, 
so  that  the  influence  of  the  organized  medical  profession  on  legisla- 
tion cannot  in  the  end  be  anything  more  than  the  influence  of  its 
individual  members  as  citizens. 
What  now  should  be  the  attitude  of  physicians,  either  individually 
or  collectively,  toward  society  and  the  State?  It  should  be  that  of  a 
profession,  the  members  of  which  are  drawn  from  the  body  of  the 
people,  and  which  partakes  in  every  way  of  the  virtues  and  weak- 
nesses of  the  general  public,  but  which,  through  professional  training 
and  experience,  possesses  technical,  scientific  knowledge  in  a  certain 
field,  which  knowledge,  on  account  of  its  very  nature,  is  directly 
inaccessible  to  the  general  public,  and  must,  therefore,  be. translated 
and  presented  to  them  in  terms  which  they  can  understand.  Govern- 
ment by  classes  is  antagonistic  to  our  principles  of  government. 
Government  by  the  will  of  the  majority  is  the  only  recognized  force 
in  this  country.  Even  if  it  were  possible  for  the  entire  medical 
profession  to  unite  in  a  solid  body,  to  expect  or  desire  that  140,000 
men  should  dictate  to  and  control  100,000,000  people,  even  within  a 
