Henry Baird Favill, AB, MD, LL.D., 1860-1916, a ... - University Library

400 HENRY BAIRD FAVILL
Medical Legislation reported that a preliminary draft of a bill
creating a National Department of Health had been drawn
up by Doctor Barshfeld, a member of the Lower House
from Pennsylvania; that the American Association for the
Advancement of Science had created a Committee of One
Hundred on National Health to consider methods for establishing
a National Department of Health; that the draft
of Doctor Barshfeld's bill had been turned over to Professor
Irving Fisher, President of the Committee of One
Hundred, in order that it might be redrafted by some legal
member of that Committee. The Reference Committee
recommended and the Association voted that the details
of the plan be left
to the Committee of One Hundred, to
which the Association pledged its support.
There was no further agitation on the subject until Feb.
lo, 1 910, when Robert L. Owen, Senator from Oklahoma,
introduced into the United States Senate, Senate Bill 6049.
This bill, the original Owen bill, provided for a Department
of Public Health, under the supervision of a Secretary
of Public Health, who should be a member of the cabinet.
In this department should be assembled all divisions and
bureaus belonging to any department, except the Department
of War and the Department of the Navy, affecting the
medical, surgical, biologic, and sanitary services, including
the Public Health and Marine Hospital Service, the Revenue
Cutter Service, the Medical Staff of the Pension Office,
Indian Bureau, Department of the Interior, Old Soldiers'
Homes, Government Hospitals for the Insane and the Freedmen's
Hospital, the Bureaus of Entomology, Chemistry, and
Animal Industry of the Department of Agriculture, the
hospitals of the Immigration Bureau of the Department of
Commerce and Labor, the Emergency Service of the Government
Printing Office, and all other agencies in the United
States Government for the protection of human or animal
life. This bill undertook the organization of a Department
of Health by assembling existing parts of the government