Article May 22, 1915 Issue

A communication to the Tribune from a gentleman in Iowa...

Avery Coonley

Chicago (Ill.) Tribune

A communication to the Tribune from a gentleman in Iowa severely arraigns Senator Works for sending out under his frank, in accordance with a custom of long standing, copies of a speech delivered by him in the Senate. This speech, which the contributor characterizes as "purely a harangue in favor of Christian Science," was, in fact, a speech upon the federal Public Health Service. I have read the document, and practically two thirds of it has nothing to do with Christian Science.

The speech was a protest against forcing upon all the people of the country through a branch of our national government the theories of one school of medicine to the exclusion of every other method of curative practice. In doing so the senator stated that other systems, now ignored, excluded, and restricted by the government, were healing the sick in direct contradiction of the favored theory, and pointed out that the one among these excluded systems for which he could personally vouch was effecting remarkable cures. In proof of the statement he submitted fifty-six carefully authenticated cases of healing through Christian Science, many of them having been pronounced beyond help, according to the governmental system.

The senator also showed that the theories of a single school of medicine, to the exclusion of all other systems, are being sent out through the mails at public expense by the Public Health Service, not once, but over and over again. If it is the principle to which your contributor objects, by far the most flagrant example, that of the Public Health Service, was overlooked in favor of a relatively negligible instance which happened to offend his prejudices. The franking privilege itself may some day be withdrawn, but if it is, it will be taken from all legislators alike, and not granted or withheld as a result of individual preference or prejudice.

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