HEALTH ACTIVITIES OF THE GENERAL GOVERNMENT. INTERIOR DEPARTMENT. COMMITTEE ON INTERSTATE AND FOREIGN COMMERCE, HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, Washington, D. C., June 28, 1910. Hon. R. A. BALLINGER, DEAR SIR: In the bill H. R. 24549 and similar bills recently introduced in Congress it is provided that all departments and bureaus belonging to any department affecting the medical, surgical, biological, or sanitary service, or any questions relative thereto, shall be combined in one department, to be known as the department of public health, particularly including therein the medical referee, the assistant medical referee, the surgeons and examiners of the Pension Office, all physicians and medical officers in the service of the Indian Bureau or the Department of the Interior, and every other agency of the United States for the protection of the health of the people or of animal life. The entire subject-matter is now being investigated by the Committee on Interstate and Foreign Commerce of the House, and I desire to obtain the opinion of your department as related especially to the transfer of the officials above specifically referred to from the Department of the Interior to the proposed department of health, and I would be glad to have the opinion not only of the Secretary of the department, but also the opinion, transmitted through the Secretary, of the heads of the different bureaus affected by the proposed transfer. Secretary Department of the Interior, City. DEAR SIR: In the hearings before the Committee on Interstate and Foreign Commerce recently held concerning the bills to establish a department of health the statement has been frequently made by the proponents of the bills that there were many different bureaus or divisions of chemistry in the different departments, and also many different chemical laboratories, and that these might all be united in one chemical bureau or division in a new department of health, with economy to the Government and without to any extent inconveniencing the government service or the prompt dispatch of business. In behalf of the committee I beg to ask a statement from you as to whether your department has any, and, if so, how many, chemical laboratories or divisions, and whether, in the opinion of the heads of such laboratories or divisions, as well as in your opinion, they could be transferred to a different department without inconvenience to the public service, and whether, in your opinion, such transfer would result in economy to the Government. I would like also to know the work which such laboratory or division is performing in your de partment in a general way. Yours, very truly, JAMES R. MANN, Chairman. Hon. JAMES R. MANN, DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR, Chairman Committee on Interstate and Foreign Commerce, House of Representatives. SIR: Your letter of June 28, 1910, has been received requesting to be furnished with an expression of views as to the advisability of the passage of H. R. 24549, Sixty-first Congress, second session, contemplating the combining in one department, to be known as the department of health, of all departments and bureaus belonging to any department affecting the medical, surgical, biological, or sanitary service, or any subjects relative thereto, including therein the medica referee, the assistant medical referee, the surgeons and examiners of the Pension Office, all physicians and medical officers in the servic of the Indian Bureau or the Department of the Interior, and every other agency of the United States for the protection of the heal! of the people or of animal life. In response thereto I have the honor to transmit herewith copies of statements on the subject, submitted by the superintendent of th Government Hospital for the Insane, surgeon in chief of the Freedmen's Hospital, Commissioner of Pensions, Commissioner of India Affairs, Commissioner of Education, Director of the Reclamation Service, and the Director of the Geological Survey, which are tr only bureaus or offices under this department which would be affecte by such proposed legislation. It is apparent, from an administrati point of view, that the only offices which could properly be placed under the proposed department of health without detriment to t public service would be the Government Hospital for the Insane an the Freedmen's Hospital. I agree, on account of their close alliance with and intimate relationship to the administrative work of those bureaus, with the cor clusions reached by the Commissioners of Pensions, Indian Affair Education, and the Director of the Reclamation Service that it wou be impracticable to sever the medical branches connected with those bureaus and place them under the control of another department. I therefore beg to state that, in my opinion, the requirements of t Government in this direction can be subserved by a bureau of healt the work of which bureau should not trench on the special duties of other bureaus, such as the Indian and Reclamation services and Pension Office of this department. Very respectfully, R. A. BALLINGER, Secretary. DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR, GOVERNMENT HOSPITAL FOR THE INSANE, The SECRETARY OF THE INTERIOR, Washington, D. C. SIR: I have the honor to acknowledge by departmental reference a letter signed by the Hon. James R. Mann in re House bill 24549, providing for the establishment of a department of health, and requesting my opinion as to the advisability of the transfer of this office to said department should it be created. In reply I may say that the problem of the care of the insane is absolutely and wholly a medical problem, and as such would naturally be a matter for the department of health. Should such a department be created, I should say that this institution would by all means logically come within its administrative control. There appears to be every reason why this should be the case, and so far as I can see at this time there appears to be no reason why it should not be. Very respectfully, W. A. WHITE, DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR, The SECRETARY OF THE INTERIOR. FREEDMEN'S HOSPITAL, Washington, D. C., July 7, 1910. SIR: I have the honor to acknowledge receipt, by your reference, for report in duplicate, of a copy of a letter from Hon. James R. Mann, chairman of the House Committee on Interstate and Foreign Commerce, relative to the formation of a department of public health, including therein bureaus affecting the medical, surgical, biological, or sanitary service. So far as the benefits accruing to the Freedmen's Hospital from the proposed combination is concerned, it does not appear that the change would be very productive, nor does it seem that the public health would profit thereby in the least. From an administrative point of view, there is nothing to recommend the change. The dispatch of public business here would in no way be improved, and the confusion incident to the transfer, however inconsiderable, is within itself a reasonable objection to the change as tending to impair a satisfactory daily routine of public business. A greater objection may be observed in that the Freedmen's Hospital has reached its greatest development under the Department of the Interior, and, in its future administration, the best results can be had through those officers of the Interior Department who have personal knowledge of its development, and it is doubtful if the hospital would ever recover from the loss of their experience thus attained in whatever growth the future may bring forth. This hospital occupies a unique position, which is distinctly educational in character. In conjunction with the great work of the Howard University, clinical facilities of every description are made available by the hospital to the university in its educational efforts for the uplift of the colored race. The Howard University, in a sense, is under the Department of the Interior, and to remove the hospital therefrom would, in a measure, separate these institutions too widely for their common good, the same being closely related in their fundamental object. In its present status the hospital is filling its mission so satisfactorily and economically that it would appear unwise to disturb existing relations, and whatever reasons that exist for the consolidation. of other bureaus under the department of public health, the same do not apply to this hospital. Very respectfully, W. A. WARFIELD, DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR, The SECRETARY OF THE INTERIOR. SIR: I have the honor to return herewith the copy of a letter from Hon. James R. Mann, which was forwarded to this bureau under date of the 30th ultimo, in relation to a bill introduced in Congress to establish a department of public health, and the transfer thereto from this bureau of the medical referee, assistant medical referee, surgeons, and medical examiners appropriated for, and in reply would say that while I am in hearty accord with the proposition to establish a department of public health, it would not be practicable to transfer from this bureau to such a department the medical men engaged upon the adjudication of pension claims, unless, of course, Congress should make some provision for the employment of other persons competent to pass upon the medical questions involved in such claims. Very respectfully, J. L. DAVENPORT, DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR, The SECRETARY OF THE INTERIOR. SIR: I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of copy of letter of July 2 relative to H. R. 24549 and similar bills recently introduced providing: That all departments and bureaus belonging to any department affecting the medical, surgical, biological, or sanitary service, or any subjects relative thereto, shall be combined in one department, to be known as the department of health, including therein the medical referee, the assistant medical referee, the surgeons and examiners of the Pension Office, all physicians and medical officers in the service of the Indian Bureau or the Department of the Interior, and every other agency of the United States for the protection of the health of the people or of animal life. The creation of a department of health would without doubt be of much value in the way of improving the medical and sanitary service, but the placing of physicians in the Indian Field Service under this department for the purpose of administration would not be of benefit so far as this bureau is concerned. The administrative and medical work in the Indian Field Service at large are so intimately associated that they can not be administered separately. It is inimical to good administration to have two departments directing different branches of the same bureau where the work is so closely related. I do not believe that the plan would be practical for this bureau, for the divided responsibility could but result disastrously. Very respect fully, F. H. ABBOTT, Acting Commissioner. DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR, The SECRETARY OF THE INTERIOR. SIR: I beg to acknowledge the receipt, by reference from your office, of the letter of the Hon. James R. Mann, chairman of the Committee on Interstate and Foreign Commerce, House of Representatives, dated June 28, 1910, requesting an opinion regarding the combining in one department, to be known as the department of health, of the medical referee, the assistant medical referee, the surgeons and examiners of the Pension Office, all physicians and medical officers in the service of the Indian Bureau, or the Department of the Interior, and every other agency of the United States for the protection of the health of the people or of animal life. The inquiry of Mr. Mann, so far as it relates to the Bureau of Education, would affect only the health work among the natives of Alaska, which is a thoroughly organized, integral part of the Alaska school service. Throughout the Alaska school service, superintendents, physicians, nurses, and teachers are instructed to regard themselves as social workers and to lay hold of every possible opportunity to assist in the development of the native races. In this work the improvement of sanitary conditions in the native villages, the promotion of hygi. enic living, and the treatment of disease are most important duties. Each of the five district superintendents of schools for the natives of Alaska, two of whom are physicians, is charged with the direction of the medical and sanitary work in his district, as well as of the routine work in the schoolrooms. Each of the physicians employed in Alaska by the Bureau of Education, in addition to furnishing medical relief to diseased natives, is required during the course of his tours to give instruction in the schoolrooms upon sanitation and hygiene. The nurses do most effective work in the schoolrooms, as |