Medicine: A Bargaining Position

The slogan on the American Medical Association's blown-up posters of Fildes' famed doctor-and-child painting, spotted around the lobby of Detroit's Gotham Hotel last week, read: "Keep Politics Out of This Picture." But politics was in the picture and all over the place, and doctors were playing it. The Negro doctors who crowded the hotel were delegates to the annual convention of their own National Medical Association; the A.M.A. "observers" and their displays were there to persuade the N.M.A. to hitch itself as a tail to the A.M.A. kite. They failed to tie the knot.

Professional equality is a primary aim of Negro doctors. In the South, most state and county medical societies bar Negro members. Whenever the N.M.A. (4,000 members) has tried to get itself taken into the A.M.A. (140,000 members) in a bloc, as a back-door entry for Southern Negroes, it has been rebuffed.

Hearts & Flowers. Last week the A.M.A. avoided the basic issue of equality, but wooed the N.M.A. with posies and honeyed words. The A.M.A. wanted support in its fight against President Truman's national health program (TIME, Jan. 3).

Dr. George F. Lull, the A.M.A.'s general manager, arrived to offer a posy: for the first time in its 102 years, the A.M.A. was going to seat a Negro, Harlem's Dr. Peter M. Murray, in its House of Delegates. But Dr. Lull soon revealed the political wiring in his bouquet.

"This action," he declared, "will serve notice to the socializers who are attempting to besmirch American medicine for purposes of political gain that medicine recognizes no boundaries." Dr. Murray, it developed, is a firm opponent of Harry Truman's health program.

Behind the scenes, Dr. Lull and his aides lobbied to swing the N.M.A. into line with the A.M.A. in opposition to socialized medicine. But they could not budge a rock-ribbed Southern bloc in the N.M.A., which saw a chance to strike a blow for equality. Outgoing President C. Austin Whittier of San Antonio threw out the challenge: "I recommend that we take a firm stand in support of President Truman's health program . . . and make available necessary funds for effective support." That was a bargaining position.

Pats & Brickbats. When a motion opposing the President's plan was offered, incoming President C. Herbert Marshall of Washington led the Southern bloc's assault: "If you support a stand against the Truman proposals, you will get a pat on the back from the A.M.A. But you will gain the condemnation of ten million Negroes . . . for denying to many of our people medical opportunities ... It would be wise to create an issue to make the A.M.A. come to you, man to man, rather than to ignore you because you pulled the me-too act."

Said Chicago's Dr. Alonzo M. Mercer: "The Negro doctor doesn't get a break in hospitals, to get his patient in there or to practice there . . . Let's take another year and think about it." That was what the convention promptly decided to do. It was smart politics, and gave Negro doctors a year to see what concessions they could get at hospitals and medical schools controlled by A.M.A. members.