Remedy for Fishbein

In the last few years many U.S. doctors have become fed up with Dr. Morris Fishbein, leading mouthpiece for the American Medical Association. Particular gripes: 1) Fishbein's booming attacks on proposed Government medical programs were giving the whole A.M.A. a "reactionary" label; 2) more than hyperthyroid opposition was needed to head off the threat of "socialized" medicine.

At the 1944 A.M.A. convention the California delegation sought Dr. Fishbein's removal, were voted down 144-to-9. Last year they tried again, once more lost, 106-to-60. Last week, as the A.M.A. met in San Francisco (see above), the Californians put on their rubber gloves and prepared at last for a Fishbeinectomy.

But the knife was not necessary--a painless remedy had been found. The remedy: a new A.M.A. public-relations section which would take over Fishbein's job of damning Government medical care. It would also plug for private medical prepayment plans to forestall Federal health insurance. Dr. Fishbein would still edit the A.M.A. Journal, Hygeia.

The A.M.A.'s new president, Dr. Harrison H. Shoulders of Nashville, told doctors' wives that they must join the fight. Said he: "Infiltrate yourselves as individuals into other women's groups so that when the occasion arises you can influence others. . . ." A gregarious, balding surgeon, Dr. Shoulders raises Tennessee walking horses which, he says, "are like me--slow-gaited and dependable." In the classic A.M.A. tradition, he views socialized medicine as a scheme of "political crackpots . . . enemies of freedom . . . importers of alien philosophies." Dr. Fishbein might have been soft-pedaled, but the A.M.A. was stubbornly sticking to its tune.

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