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Show FREE GOVERNMENT ENDANGERED The campaign of tho regular medical organizations of Illi- 'nois to secure ante-election nledires from candidates, bind- I ing them to support tho doctors leigslative program is arousing strong opposition from numbers num-bers of citizens who, though probably not themselves interested inter-ested in the rival theories of cure, are deeply concerned in preserving the freedom and ' moral integrity of their legMat- t ivo representatives. f Few things are more uber-sive uber-sive of free government than the presence in legislative bodies bod-ies of lawmakers who are pledged pledg-ed before hand to further some special interest. This attempt of the organized physicians affords af-fords an impressive illustration. Here is a special class Keeking legislation which would greatly increase the financial revenues of its members while taking from many thousands of citizens citi-zens the legal right to employ the practitioners of their j choice. In every legislative district, dis-trict, there are, no doubt, many citizens who believe that they owe their health and lives to some one of the various new systems of cure that tho entrenched en-trenched medical societies are seeking to outlaw. It would seem thnt the legislator would be morally bound to keep hw mind free and unbiased u-til u-til he had henrd both sides of a question so grave and pei'i;'-al pei'i;'-al as that of one's right to resort re-sort to any curative metlvul which one might select; .vt this is precisely what the political poli-tical doctors are striving to prevent pre-vent by pre-election pli'dfi -which would practically make the legislator the doctor's nvw nnd establish a most dangermn and subversive precedent. It makes no difference thnt the medical interests claim the legislation desired is for the public good. Special privilege always, in seekinir legislation favorable to itsolf makes its plea on the ground of tne general good." But in the present pres-ent instance the fact that there aro in our country hundreds ot thousands of intelligent citizens citi-zens who put their trust in Ue schools and systems of ure which tho proposed legislation would prohibit, makes it espec- ially incumbent upon legislators to resent any attempt to place them in a position where they could not consider the issue on its merits, after hearing botn sides. |
