Of these functions the mere statement is a most powerful argument for the bureau or department suggested. It only remains to remove a few misunderstandings. One objection, for example, is powerful in many minds—that such a centralized office must necessarily be the organ of a particular medical school, and must so give that school—the one denominated “regular,” for example—an unfair advantage, unsuited to a government of liberty and equality. To this it may be frankly replied, that the primary objects of the new office being the four just stated (administration, co-operation, investigation, education), it would aim to collect and diffuse the greatest attainable amount of accurate knowledge on the subject of health; and that if it found a larger quantity of better knowledge in one school than in another, it would be false to its trust if it did not spread that knowledge accordingly. Personally, the writer finds it hard to believe that it could treat a school that taught the unreality of disease, or the surpassing value for all kinds of disorders, of drugs, of a narrow range of characteristics, on an exact equality with schools that deal with facts as they find them; but he heartily agrees that the citizen ought to enjoy the liberty of choosing his own medical advisers, so far as he does not endanger life or health by so choosing.
There are other objections to organized national work for health, many of them from a so-called National League for Medical Freedom, the most active workers in which have been shown to be interested in one or another kind of proprietary medicine, backed by some “mental healers,” and by associations of druggists who object to the “pure food and drugs act” of 1906. Several homœpathical State societies have repudiated that “league for freedom,” and have emphatically attested their approval of the proposed bureau or department of health; this, notwithstanding their well-understood grievances against “regular” practitioners. Some of the best informed among the osteopaths and the Christian Scientists are pronouncing similarly; and so, if the disavowals keep on, the League of Medical Freedom may soon be left with only those who seek freedom to dope their victims with drugs that enslave; stupefy them—infant and adult—with opium and thinly disguised alcohol, and generally to reverse the progress of a century. But, since it is estimated that $75,000,000 a year are expended by our fellow-citizens for patent medicines, it is easy enough to see how they must regard a national department which is to improve the sanitary conditions of the country, show people how to care for health, stop the sale of poisonous nostrums and impure foods, and end the career of opium under the name of “soothing syrup.” Their profits would be gone, and of course they disapprove and protest.
Altogether, the cause of a national bureau or department of health is commended, both by those who favor and those who oppose it. It could not ask better advocates than the distinguished men who heartily favor it, on the congressional or the collegiate stage; nor more suitable adversaries than those constituting the League for Medical Freedom.
President White—This is a most valuable paper, and it will be printed, together with the other papers and addresses of this convention. Every one should avail themselves of the opportunity to subscribe for this book, which costs one dollar.
I will now introduce to you the gentleman who kindly gave his hour to Mr. Farquhar. He is Mr. Reginald Pelham Bolton, of New York City, who will speak to you on “The Prevention of Elevator Accidents.”
Address, “The Prevention of Elevator Accidents”
Mr. Bolton—The preservation of human life and the protection of our fellow-creatures from physical injury, claim prior consideration over conservation of mere materials.
Any form of danger which results in the destruction of life, and exhibits a tendency toward increased developments, invites our systematic investigation. Ameliorative measures, if undertaken in advance of the growth of an evil, are of double value. To one phase of the subject, of the conservation of life, I desire to direct your attention.
The increase of fatalities and injuries resulting from the extensive use of passenger elevators has become sufficiently marked to deserve careful attention by those who are concerned with the benefit of our fellow-citizens. Complete statistics as to the number of accidental occurrences in and about elevators of all classes throughout the country are not available, but an estimate based upon such official returns as relate to labor alone, indicate that the annual total is now probably in excess of seven thousand, of which probably three-fourths are of a preventable character.
From small beginnings, the roll of such accidents reported by the New York Department of Labor, which it is conceded do not cover all such occurrences, rose in 1909 to a total for five years of 1,600 injured persons, of whom 198 were killed and about 298 permanently disabled.