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Real estate record and builders' guide: [v. 94, no. 2440: Articles]: December 19, 1914

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REAL ESTATE AND NEW YORK, DECEMBER 19, 1914 liiiiiiiiQiiiiOiia I CITY HEALTH DEPARTMENT UNDER FIRE I Two Views Expressed Before the Society of Medical Jurispru¬ dence—Held that Property Interests are Jeopardized by System lllilllH^^^^^^^ iiiiiMijiiM^^^^^^^ .....iiwrn THE activities of the Department of Health were disctissed at the animal meeting of the Society of Medical Juris¬ prudence, last Monday night, both sides of the question coming up for considera¬ tion. Laurence M. D. McGuire, presi¬ dent of the Real Estate Board, took the part of the householder, and said in part: "Few know and perhaps still fewer realize the tremendous power of the Board of Health, originally organized for the purpose of making and enforc¬ ing sanitary regulations. Although from the first it was contemplated that its extraordinary powers were only to be used in times of plague or pestilence, it has become, by legislative enactment and by judicial interpretation, the most pow¬ erful department of the city govern¬ ment. It has, in fact, become the per¬ sonification of the police power of the State, and as this vague and indefinite power has never been clearly established and defined by constitutional limitation, it may accurately be said that the de¬ partment may, at any time, by majority vote of its members, suspend all consti¬ tutional guarantees of individual and property rights. Legislation Proposed. "Two years ago two lives were lost by elevator accidents. It was seriously proposed, in consequence, to enact legis¬ lation to compel a safety automatic closing device on all elevator doors at a cost of many millions of dollars, al¬ though there was no possible way of connecting either accident with any failure on the part of elevator doors as equipped to properly close. In fact, the expenditure of millions has been forced from property owners and rent payers of the city. "The Board of Health may imprison or may" fine individuals and order the destruction of property and yet is sub¬ ject to no court review and its resolu¬ tions, when adopted, have always the force of law. One cannot enjoin the Board of Health, as other departments of city government, and no suit can be brought against it or against its officials. It has the power to remove and imprison any person suspected of having disease deemed by it to be contagious or in¬ fectious. It has the power to order buildings vacated, to close streets, ave¬ nues, even whole sections of the city. It can isolate New York from other sec¬ tions of the country and impede com¬ merce to the injury of business and do all by a resolution of its own board, either by the adoption of sanitary regu¬ lations or by a declaration of imminent peril. Power of the Board. "It is neither entirely a city or State body. One member is Health Officer of the Port of New York, appointed by the Governor; another the Police Commis¬ sioner, and the third and executive mem¬ ber the City Commissioner of Health. Therefore, the Board of Health has prac¬ tically behind it the power of the State, the city, and naturally the police force. "The constantly increasing budget ap¬ propriations will partly illustrate the Last Monday evening, at the an¬ nual meeting of the Society of Medical Jurisprudence, at Hosack Hall, 17 West 43d street, the activi¬ ties of the Department of Health were dwelt upon at length, Lau¬ rence M. D. McGuire, president of the Real Estate Board of New York, taking the viev^rpoint of the householder; Dr. E. Eliot Harris, president of the American Society of Medical Economics, that of the physician, and Dr. Haven Emer¬ son, Deputy Commissioner of Health of the City of New York, that of the Department of Health. growing activities. In 1905 the depart¬ ment expended $1,763,873.89; in 1906, $1.- 889,321.15; in 1907. $2,079,413.40; in 1908, $2,507,212.89; in 1909, $2,584,603.27; in 1910, $3,768,115.41; in 1911, $3,830,243.68; in 1912, $3,076,343.47; in 1913, $3,366.- 365.39; in 1914, $3,534,240.50. and in 1915 the department requested $3,621,738.58. "In a period of ten years the expendi¬ tures have increased approximately $2,- 000,000, which increase has added about three points to the tax rate throughout the whole city. Each year there has been a substantial increase in its ex¬ penditures and there is expended for administrative purposes alone, in the main ofiice, $144,000 yearly. Work of Department. "The department maintains a Bureau of Education, of Statistics, of Public Health, of Infants' Milk Stations, of In¬ fectious Diseases, of Sanitary Inspection and of Food Inspection, a Laboratory, a Bureau of Drugs and a Hospital Service. In addition to the hospitals supervised, it operates a tuberculosis sanitarium at Otisville, N. Y. It is the largest em¬ ployer of physicians, surgeons and nurses in the city, and I am informed employs more than 1,200 physicians. In the Bureau of Public Health there are 154 medical inspectors. In the Bureau of Infants' Milk Stations there are 23 medical inspectors; Bureau of Infectious Diseases, 74; Bureau of Sanitary Inspec¬ tion, 11; also 11 dentists, 15 veterinarians, 2 surgeons, 588 nurses, a large number of sanitary and food inspectors, chem¬ ists, bacteriologists, bacteriological diag¬ nosticians and a pathologist, many clerks and stenographers. "There are 3 captains of boats, 7 boat¬ men, and deckhands, a number of phar¬ macists, 6 laboratory assistants and a dietitian. All these are in addition to the forces required in the various hos¬ pitals. Justification of Expense. "The justification for this enormous expense is the claim and popular belief that the department has succeeded en¬ tirely by itself in reducing the death rate in the city. Credit unfortunately is not given the advance of modern science, or skill of outside physicians or to bet¬ ter housing facilities, or the greatly im¬ proved means of living, all of which in some measure must be responsible for the lengthening of life, though I am informed that there is no betterment as to human life above the age of 40. "The Bureau of Child Hygiene cost last year $501,000; Infants' Milk Sta¬ tions, $125,000; laboratory service, $166,- 914, and the cost for salaries in the drug and chemical departments, $30,876. I am unable to ascertain the cost of drugs supplied but the cost of supplies for la- iioratory service was $68,000. "There is no objection to the city's furnishing medical service to those who, physically or mentally, are unable to take care of themselves, or to those who through misfortune are unable financi¬ ally to pay for such service. The objec¬ tion to these activities is that they ought to be cither entirely charitable or at the disposal of every citizen. If in the latter case, then all surgeons, physicians, den¬ tists and druggists would be in the em¬ ploy of the city, and all citizens would receive equal benefit. This would savor of the socialist and would mean the con¬ fiscation of private property, but what the city is doing will ultimately lead to that and yet do the rankest injustice to those who have to pay, without re¬ ceiving the benefit." From the Physician's Standpoint. Dr. E. Eliot Harris, president of the American Society of Medical Economics, in speaking for the physician, said: "Public health is a branch of medicine and as a specialty it should have to do largely with that form of health, pro¬ tection and disease prevention that may be classified as sanitation, vital-statistics, food and drugs, contagious and infectious diseases, and the necessary laboratory service. "From the viewpoint of the medical profession, public health is a reasonable ideal of the heart and soul of every true physician. Public health service is a part of medical ethics, it is an aim of the County Medical Society, it is one of the objects of the State Medical Society, and it has a large place in the organiza¬ tion of the national body of medical men. Even to this day you are sure to find physicians laboring hard to born a national board of health, with a secre¬ tary of public health as its head. "All these creatures of the physician's altruistic endeavors are the most vital opponents of his economic interests; yet he supports faithfully the cause which produces the largest reduction in his income. The people have saved and the physicians have lost millions of dollars through the work of the boards of health, in lessening the contagious and communicable diseases, known as ty¬ phoid, malaria, smallpox, diphtheria, tuberculosis and diarrhoeal diseases. The Board's Activities. "The board's activities are not limited to public health. They are actually en¬ gaged in individual and personal prac¬ tice of medicine and surgery. This in¬ vasion in the field of medicine is a fore¬ runner, the socialization of the practice of medicine and should be plucked at its birth. The shadow of socialism in medi¬ cine is exhibited in the growing activities in the Department of Health in their