At the call of the Council on Health and Public Instruction of the
American Medical Association, forty-seven representatives of volunteer
and philanthropic bodies interested in some special phase of the health
situation in this country met on April 12 at the headquarters of the
American Association for Labor Legislation in New York city.
Feeling that, with the multiplication of independent organizations,
there is danger of overlapping of function, interference in work,
duplication of effort and expense and lack of effective co-operation for
want of a common program of procedure, the American Medical Association
early in January addressed a letter to the executive officers of about
thirty of the more important national organizations suggesting a
conference to discuss a plan for co-operation. This proposal met with a
ready response. Among the bodies that were represented at the meeting
held in New York were the United States Public Health Service, the
National Committee on Mental Hygiene, the National Association for the
Study and Prevention of Tuberculosis, the National Committee of One
Hundred on Health, the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company, the Russell
Sage Foundation, the National Child Labor Committee, the Rockefeller
Sanitary Commission and the National Commission on Milk Standards. John
M. Glenn, director of the Russell Sage Foundation was chosen chairman of
the meeting and John B. Andrews, secretary of the American Association
for Labor Legislation, who with Dr. Frederick H. Green of the American
Medical Association had made many of the preliminary arrangements, acted
as secretary.
Among the suggestions discussed by the representatives of the various
agencies were the following:
1. A central national health organization, composed of one
representative (perhaps the executive officer) from each of the fifty
odd national health organizations in the United States.
2. An annual conference of this central organization in January at
which might be discussed one topic of paramount importance in the
health field, to the end that the work of the central organization
during the year be centered instead of scattered.
3. Establishment of a central bureau or clearing house with an
executive secretary and facilities for collecting and distributing
information relating to the work of the various health organizations
represented.
4. Provision of $10,000 to $20,000 for the expense of the central
bureau.
5. Appointment of a committee (of seven perhaps) to study and carry
forward the plans of the bureau of health organizations.
As a result of the discussion on these questions the following
resolutions were adopted:
RESOLVED, that it is the sense of this meeting that we should organize
as a conference, either independently of the American Public Health
Association or as a section thereof or of any other organization which
should later be decided, after investigation by a committee to be
appointed to work out details.
RESOLVED, that a committee consisting of fifteen members, of which
five shall constitute a quorum, shall be appointed by the chairman at
his convenience, to report at a subsequent meeting.