U.S. Taxpayers Dollars Promote Socialized Medicine Overseas? (1947) - Publicity & Propaganda in the Government Agencies & Bureaus

8/6/2019 U.S. Taxpayers Dollars Promote Socialized Medicine Overseas? (1947) - Publicity & Propaganda in the Government Agencies & Bureaus

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ber "The ultimate test of all AAPS No, powerful as they all are indiactions shall always be the public vidually and collectively as paversinterest." And second, we must ac - .. of the Road to Serfdom, we havecurately and intelligently apprai se an even more powerful if less tanthe strength and importance of gible opponent.those tangible and intangible forces Ou r most powerful and ominouswhich oppose us. What is the iden- opponent fortunately is also ou rtity actually of our greatest oppon- strongest potential ally. Heent in our struggle to defeat the inertia of every American physiCianforces of regimentation, compul- who does not inform himself of thesion, coercion and despotism? siniste r significance of Socialized Our greatest opponent is not Medicine and who does not throw,Murray, Wagner, Dingell, and his weight against it in whole'()iliers of their ilk Ou r greatest hearted, voluntary, intelligent, perand most powerful opponent is not sistent opposition. He is your colrsadore Sidney Falk and his army league and mine. He is Doctor()f workers in the Bureau of Re- Inertia.search and Statistics in the Federal Until that day when a substanSecurity Administration. O ur tial majority of American Physigreatest opponent is n?t ~ i k e Davis cians have voluntarily chosen toand his almost unlimited funds affiliate themselves personally withfrom the Rosenwald Foundation. AAPS, we must keep our eye on'Our greatest opponent is not the the Bull's eye; we must keep ou rbosses o t e . . ., e . . o .,h C I 0 th A F f L eye on the grey blurred lethargicnot Governor Warren of California unthinking Bull's eye--the counor President Truman, not Com- tenance of our greatest, yes, ourmunism or the International Labour only really vital opponent, .ourOrganisation. I t is not even the greatest potential ally, our fnendrank growth of the weeds of Pater- and colleague who has not soberly,nalism planted so widely in our sincerely and enthusiastically affi:-:edd h f his signature to an AAPS apphca-ocial structure unng t e reign o'Franklin the Great. tion blank.

Publicity and Propaganda in theGovernment Agencies and Bureaus

Congressman Forest A. HarnessChairman, Subcommittee on Publicity and Propaganda

of the Committee on E:rpenditztres in Executive Departmentsin the House of RepresentativesPresented at the 1947 Annual Meeting of the

Association of American Physicians and Surgeons

I appreciate your cordial an d generous reception. Ou r committee hasuniformly received warm supportfrom the medical profession in allparts of the country, and your professional journals have been mostencouraging in their analysis andinterpretation of our investigation.Since you are all familiar withthe aims and general scope of thesub-committee's work in ferretingout gover nment, propaganda paidfor with the taxpayers' money, Ishall explore with you tonight onespecial segment of that inquirywhich has not yet been incorpor

ated in a formal report to the Houseof Representatives. I refer to theclosely- knit inter-bureau propaganda organization which exists inWashington for the obvious purpose of agitating for socialized medicine, or state medicine, in otherlands. The Bureau of Research andStatistics in our own Social Security Board in Washington is the5

world headquarters of socializedmedicine. The world movement isall paid for by the American taxpayers-and none of it ever hasbeen authorized or approved, assuch, by the Congress in its appropriations measures.

As if it were not enough for ourmedical bureaucrats to be trying toforce socialized medicine upon the140-million people of the UnitedStates, they are also forever busywith conferences, round tables, amlspecial missions to advance socialized medicine in Japan, China,India, Burma, Indo-China, or Ceylon. During the last three yearsthey have sent special survey missions to South America, Hawaii,England, and New Zealand.

That the American people knownothing of these enterprises is afact of fundamental significance toour committee. And a fact of almostequal significance is that ou r medical bureaucrats resent any inquiry


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from Congress as to what they areup to, or how much they are spending in these overseas promotionalcampaigns.A third fact of great significance,to my mind, is this: while many ofthese conferences relate primarilyto matters o f health service and hospital administration, the arrange

ments and programs are almostentirelv in the hands of lay bureauc r a t s - ~ s o c i a l welfare workers, statisticians, actuaries, specialists inplaygrounds, unemployment insurance, workmen's compensation orcollective bargaining. Rarely, ifever, does a qualified, recognized,and experienced member of themedical profession find a place onthese overseas missions. Yet everymission has some aspect of socialized medicine as a part of its agenda.

I submit that these are matters offundamental significance to theAmerican people. All these overseas missions and enterprises aresupported largely by U. S. funds.Many of the thinkers and plannerswho throw these conferences together all around the world are fulltime employees of the U. S. Government. Their salaries range from$4,000 to $10,000 a year. They aresupplied with office space, officeequipment, secretaries, telephones,stationery-all paid for by theAmerican taxpayers. They get freepostage for all their propagandamaterial, which is distributed literally by the ton from Washingtonevery year. Their reports and find-

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ings are printed free of charge bythe Government Printing Office.Yet all this work is carried onunder a cover of secrecy and intrigue in the Social Security Board

and the U. S. Public Health Service- to the point that every inquiryfor information must be first registered, approved and cleared by thetop level bureaucrats. In the sensethat the taxpayer pays all the bills,this is all the public's work. Yetevery project is shrouded in almostmilitary secrecy until it is ready intina! form for the propaganda literature from the Government Printing Office. Plans and projects stillin the formative stages are simplynone of the public's business, as ourmedical bureaucr ats. view theirwork.

The next important internationalmeeting to discuss extension of socialized medicine is scheduled to beheld in New Delhi, India, October27 through November 8. This conference is called the PreparatoryAsian Regional Conference. Theagenda includes "proposals lookingtoward the development of broadsocial security programs in thecountries of Asia." Nominally, thisconference is arranged and directedunder the auspices of the International Labour Office, a remnant ofthe old League of Nations. Thesignificant thing about the conference is that while the headquartersof the I. L. 0. are in Montreal, Canada, the announcement of the NewDelhi meeting comes to us from

Washington, D. C., where a branchof I. L. 0. is maintained at 734Jackson Place. Through that office,the work of the I. L. 0. is closelyintegrated with the studies and projects of the Social Security Board.A number of persons formerly onthe staff of the I. L. 0. are now fulltime Government workers in theSocial Security Board; and a fewformer employees of the Social Security Board are now on the staffof the I. L. 0. To put it anotherway, these two offices in Washington are but branches of the sameenterprise. I. L. 0. is the international or world arm of the SocialSecurity Board; and the Social Security Board, through the Bureauof Research and Statistics, is butthe American operating unit of theI. L. 0.I should make it clear that thereis no thought on the part of ourinvestigating committee to inquireinto the operations and programs ofthe International Labour Office.That is a matter far beyond thescope of our authority. Neither maywe challenge the funds which arebeing spent by the United StatesGovernment in support of I. L. 0 .

That program of international cooperation has been duly approvedby Congress.But what does interest our Committee is the extraordinary systemof working arrangements whichexists between the Social SecurityBoard and the I. L. 0. in this matter of socialized medicine. Ou rinvestigation has convinced me that

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the Social Security Board is in factthe supply base, so to speak, fromwhich flow most of the basic studiesand research reports which powerthe I. L. 0. campaign for socializedmedicine in other lands. And thisconclusion is confirmed by the factthat members of the Social Securitystaff usually are the U. S. delegatesto the I. L. 0. meetings overseas.

It will be a difficult and tediousmatter to establish, through carefulaudits, just how much of the fundsappropriated by Congress for thedomestic work of the Social Security Board are actually diverted tothe world programs of the I. L. 0.

But I may say that such an auditis now in process, and that a detailed work analysis and projectstudy within the Bureau of Research and Statistics of the SocialSecurity Board will be available forthe consideration of Congress before the next appropriation bills areconsidered for Social Secur ity operations in the fiscal year beginningJune 30, 1948.

You have all read in your newspapers recently the story of thespecial Health Mission to Tokyo.I shall discuss this mission brieflyhere, merely because it seems to meto illustrate the whole scheme of theSocial Security Board's operationsin the world-wide campaign forsocialized medicine. A little morethan a year ago a federal civilianemployee in Washington (oneStanchfield) was detached temporarily from his job to go to Tokyoto make a preliminary survey of


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social security and health needs.Upon his return to Washingtonearly this year, Mr. Stanchfield proposed a general health mission toTokyo. His proposal was presenteddirectly to Mr. Arthur J. Altmeyer,Commissioner of Social Security.

Next, on March 5, 1947, Mr.Altmeyer proposed the mission ina formal communication to the Wa rDepartment. In that letter, Mr.Altmeyer designated the particularindividuals who should make up themission, and then went further tosuggest that William H. Wandel,Chief of the Program Division,Bureau of Unemployment Security,be appointed chief of the SocialInsurance Division of the PublicHealth and Welfare Section of theSupreme Command for the AlliedPowers in Tokyo. I t is perfectlyapparent from the letters we havetaken from the Wa r Departmentfiles that the personnel of this mission and the planning of its program originated in and was dictatedfrom the Social Security Board inWashington.Up to this point there had beenno hint that the proposed HealthMission had been requested or

urged either by General MacArthuror any responsible Japanese source.The suggestion came first from Mr.Stanchfield, who had been sent toTokyo from Washington for thatparticular purpose.

Next, we found a letter, underelate of June 14, 1947, from Mr.Wandel in Tokyo reporting directlyto Mr. Isadore Falk in Washington

on the progress of the work inTokyo. In one revealing passage ofthis letter, Mr. Wandel said:

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"V\'e think that our need is fo rsomeone who is primarily not somuch an economic analyst as oneyerscd in health insurance. Healthinsurance is the major field of social security in Japan . . . Permanent revision requires amalgamatingNational Health Insurance withHealth Insurance on a compulsorybasis."When the Tokyo Health Missiontinally was named, it comprised twomen from the Public Health Service, one from Mr. Falk's Bureau,and one from the Federal HousingAuthority. This mission departedfor Japan on August 28, this year,with the understanding that Mr.Altmeyer and possibly Mr. Falk

would follow when the work hadbeen sufficiently organized in Tokyo.Because this instance offers ashocking demonstration of bureaucratic intrigue in violation of thepurposes and intent of Congress, Ihave brought the matter to the attention of the House AppropriationsCommittee, with the suggestion thatwhen the next budget comes upfrom the Social Security Board andthe Public Health Service, all those

engaged in spreading SocializedMedicine around the world be s t r i c ~ ken from the public payroll-unless,of course, Congress shall determineto support such world propagandawith funds specifically allocated forthat purpose.

In my letter to Chairman Taberof the Appropriations Committee,I made eight specific charges against

the Tokyo Health Mission. I wishto summarize them here, becausethey are the nub of our case againstthe Social Security Board and theU. S. Public Health Service in relation to all this propaganda supporting Socialized Medicine.

My charges against the TokyoHealth Mission are as follows:(I) That the health mission to Japanis romposed entirely and cxclnsi\ely of men long. identified in

the public record as advocatesand proponents of SocializedMedicine not only in the UnitedStates but. throughout the world.

(2) That the real purpose of thismission is to lay the groundworkfo r a system of Socialized Medicine in Japan.

(3 ) That the scheme for such a mission originated in the Divisionof Rese;_trch and Statistics i;1 theSocial Security Board in \il/ashington, and nowhere else.

(4 ) That the nominal request fo r themission was engineerPd throughthe General Headquarters of th rSupreme Commandn in Tokyoby federal employees sent fr;m\VashingJon for that particularpurpose.

(5) T ha t General lhug;bs :\lacArthur docs not fan1r__:_ancl docsnot apprme-any plan to establish compulsorv Socialized M edi('ine in Japan.(fi) That the dispatch of this missior.to Tokyo fo r the purpose indicated in Mr. \'Vandel's letter toMr. Falk under date of June 14,1947, is a gross misuse of publicfunds.

(7) That the real purpose of the mission is no t to assist Japan inworking out her basic problemsin health and welfare, but toforce upon that country a com-

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pulsory :;ystem of Socialized.\Ieclicine.\ 1l) That although the questions hereinvolnd are of a health andmedical nature, the Surgeon Gen

eral of the United States Armywas not consulted in reference tothe problems involved.I deem it inappropriate for federal employees, at the expense of

the American taxpayer, to travelthroughout the world preparing orassisting in the preparation of legislation to be adopted by foreigncountries when similar legislation,long pending, has not been approvedby the Congress of the UnitedStates.It is interesting also to note howclosely the Social Security Board'sprogram to assist the development

of socialized medicine in Japan follows the general outline publishedon October 1 by the InternationalLabour Office for the forthcomingAsia conference at New Delhi,India. Rega rding the general objectives of the New Delhi conference, the preliminary hand-book, orwork guide, summarizes general objectives in this language:

"The report suggests the gradualdevcloptrent oi a public medicalc a n ~ serYice in the Asian countries\\'hich would he freely ayailable totl"""' \lh> need it w h ~ t h e r thev Jiycin urban ur rural ~ r e a s , and whetherthey are workers or dependents."This, of course, is a bald pro-posal for the nationalization of allmedical services, to be paid for out

of the general revenues rather thanby special payroll taxes.So the socialized medicine planfor Asia, as now put forward


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through the I. L. 0. goes even further than the Wagner- MurrayDingell Bill for the United S t ~ t e s . The plan for Asia f o l l ~ w ~ precisel_ythe master plan for sociahzed m e ~ I cine as developed in CommumstRussia, where all medical servicesare the direct function of the government, with all costs paid directlyfrom the general funds of theTreasury.

I t will be interesting to watch thefinal report and recommendationsof the Tokyo Health Mission, to seewhether it follows the direct government-payment plan put f o r w a r ~ by the I. L. 0. in the New Delhiagenda, or the special payroll taxplan incorporated by Altmeyer, Falkand Cohn in the Wagner-MurrayDingell Bill. In other words, theHealth Mission to Tokyo must makea choice on the Japanese plan. Willthat choice fall to the Russian side,with direct medical payments fromthe general t ~ e a s u r y , o,r towa_rd theSocial Secunty Boards versiOn ofsocialized medicine under compulsory health insurance?

Another fact of fundamental significance, as I see it, is that the government propaganda which u ~ g e s >:ocialized medicine for the UmtedStates presents a shamefully ~ i s torted picture of what voluntary msurance, medical service plans, andhospital pre-payment plans have accomplished during the last 10 or 15years. To read the governmentliterature on our health needs, onewould !!ain the impression thatthere had been no change in the in-

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surance picture in this country during the last quarter-century.This flagrant distortion of . hepicture is a crime against the natr?n.

To have the government agenci:surging their programs on the basisof conditions which have not actually prevailed in this country s i ~ c e the 1920's is not only an alarmmgabuse of governmental powers, ?uta ~ n i o u s and challenging negationof the entire philosophy of American public service.

The federal a d v o c a t ~ of compulsory health insurance insist t h ~ t the problem of pre-payment ~ e ~ I cal care plans cannot be ad?:mistered effectively by the traditionalenterprise system of insurance.They ignore the fact,. as reportedby the Health and Accident Underwriters Conference, that more than42.000,000 persons already are covered by various forms of . health;md accident insurance. Dunng thedecade. 1934-44, the number of s ~ c h policies in the United States mcreased five-fold, from roundly 8-million to 40-million. In 1920, ther:ewere only 4-million policies of thistype.

There are more than 400 companies offering such policies today,and total premiums in this field ofinsurance now average about $50-million a month, or $600-milliona year.In addition, another group of 5-million persons are enrolled in various types of pre-payment medicalcare and hospital service plans.

Combining these two groups ofinsurance arrangements, we findthat approximately SO-million people already are protected by variousforms of health and accident insurance, as compared with only 4-million thus protected by their own individual arrangements in 1920.What, then, is the basis of the

contention by the advocates of socialized medicine that the insuranceproblem in the health field cannotbe handled by the exis ting insurancesystem? The fact is that, on thebasis of individual coverage, considerably more than one-third of theAmerican population already hassolved the problem of emergencymedical and hospital expensesthrough the medium of insurance,individually arranged and paid fordirectly from month to month as anestablished item in the familybudget.

In various forms, as determinedby the state insurance laws, this typeof protection is now available in allof the 48 states. As actuarial experience develops, these plans arebeing improved from year to year.Intense competition between morethan 400 different insurance companies tends constantly to offer theinsured more comprehensive protection and to eliminate abuseswhich impair the function of insurance principles in the field of health.

Concealing or ignoring suchfundamental developments in theinsurance field during the last quarter-century, our medical bureaucrats present an utterly distorted11

and unreal definition of the problemthey presume to alleviate.This systematic distortion is asomewhat universal characteristic ofcollectivist propaganda methods.

Every argument for state-ism mustbegin with the assumption that noother solution is available, fo r onlya spirit of hopeless defeatism evercan impel men to give up the rightsand privileges of freedom in favorof Government regimentation.

Another fact of basic significancerevealed in our committee explorations is that socialized medicine, historica!Iv, has always been linkedpretty closely with dictator formsin Government.

The brand of dictatorship makesno difference--Communism, Fascism Nazism, Socialism-all arealike: in that they enforce a systemof State Medicine.

\Vhatever the name of the dictatorship, or whatever the pattern ofthe particular brand of collectivismin a given country, the system ofsocialized medicine is always prettymuch the same. I t is based on compulsion, and is generally administered by a nationwide system of political manipulation. The physiciansand s urgeons themselves usually areforced to a subordinate position inthe determination of policies andprograms. Now, if the medical profession and all our hospitals can betaken over by the Federal Government and forged into a new and gigantic health bureaucracy, then itwould only be a question of timeuntil \i\Tashington likewise moved


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into the field of education, religion,the press, the radio.Freedom soon would be in totaleclipse.That must not come to pass inmighty America, the last great citadel of freedom and liberty on theface of the globe today.Ours is a great responsibility tohold aloft the bright torch of freedom and honest representative government. And it has been most encouraging to know that we have thegreat body of the American medicalprofession standing behind us inthis effort in Congress.Ou r figures from the BudgetBureau show that Government expenditures for publicity and propaganda increased from $28-million in

1941 to $74,829,467 in 1946.Now everybody in Washingtonrecognizes that certain informationservices are an essential part of anyinstitutional operation. But Cong-ress insists that there is a clear lineof distinction between legitimateinformation services and those additional operations which tend tobuild up public opinion in favor ofmore projects, broader programs, orfederal invasion of new spheres ofpublic service. It is primarily thelatter operations which our subcommittee seeks to itemize as to costand scope. It is my contention that,at least, the people are entitled toknow how much they are spendingto educate themselves to morespending.

It seems to our committee to bea proper function of the Congress12

to determine whether the diversionof public funds from legitimatepurposes to purely propaganda purposes for socialized medicine, doesnot, in fact, constitute a criminalviolation of the law.And on this point, I may say thatthe Federal Bureau of Investigationis giving that qtJ.estion some serious

study at the moment. As you know,vve advised the Attorney General,Mr. Clark, last June what we discovered about the Htalth WorkShops, and we have since been informed that some of the vouchersare in the hands of the FB I for investigation.All this federally-financed activity for Socialized Medicine headsup in the Bureau of Research andStatistics in the Social SecurityBoard.

Our Committee investigatorshave found in that bureau a veritable nerve center of socializedmedicine propaganda for the entireworld.Mr. Isadore S. Falk is the Director of Research and Statistics in theSocial Security Board. He has beenin the Government service for sometwelve years. He has always been

noted for his militant and aggressive advocacy of Socialized Medicme.Our committee, of course, doesnot challenge the right of any citizen to hold whatever views he maywish on any subject of political oreconomic policy.But we are interested that fundsappropriated by the Congress, for

public administration shall not be diverted to a world-wide system ofpropaganda calculated to advancesocialized medicine the worldaround.Such operations, until specificallyapproved by the Congress, are positively illegal. And our committeewill not rest until they are uprooted

and stamped out of the federalpicture.Americans must never fall intothe attitude that all sound opinionsare made in Was hington and handeddown full-fashioned to the people.That is the way of dictatorship.Public Opinion must be maintained in its free and virile statein full harmony with the greatAmerican tradition of liberty.I f we do that by stamping outGovernment propagan da at its roots,

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then we shall have rendered a greatservice, not only to medicine, but tothe whole cause of liberty and freedom the world around.We all know that freedom is notfree.We all know that bureaucraticpower feeds upon itself-and uponthe rights and privileges and liber

ties of the people.I f we are to support and defendliberty and constitutional government in America, we must begin bykeeping clean and undefiled the wellsprings of public information fromWashington.Government propaganda poisonsthese wells of public information.Government propaganda IS amethod of dictators.Ou r purpose will be to uproot anddestroy government propagandawherever we may find it.

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U.S. Taxpayers Dollars Promote Socialized Medicine Overseas? (1947) - Publicity & Propaganda in the Government Agencies & Bureaus