Jasper County Democrat, Volume 14, Number 11, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 13 May 1911 — KILL THIS ORDINANCE. [ARTICLE]

KILL THIS ORDINANCE.

An iron wall will-be placed about Rensselaer and all other doctors kept out, if the ordinance which comes up for passage at the next meeting of the city council passes. And it will pass, too, unless a remonstrance is filed against it. It provides that transient doctors visiting Rensselaer shall pay a license fee of $5 for the first day and $3 for each additional day, and a penalty for violation of not less than $1 nor more than $25. It simply means, if it passed by the council, that aay traveling doctor who visits Rensselaer in the future must add the license fees to his fee to his patrons.

The theory advanced—by those interested—is that the traveling doctor, like Dr. Finch—at whom it is principally aimed—doesn’t give full value for the fees charged. Now if this ordinance were amended to catch the Chicago specialists who come here and "do” the people right, it might not be so bad. The ordinance should be killed, but unless the 1 eople put up a protest against its passage it is sure to go through. Then, Jasper county people desiring to consult any of these traveling specialists will have to meet them at some town that is more broad-minded than Rensselaer.

It seems to us that regulations regarding the practice of medicine in Indiana are already strict enough to cover the ground pretty thoroughly, and that if a doctor from Indianapolis or Monticello, say, wants to come to Rensselaer to treat special cases, and the patients themselves want him, that the expense should not be made harder on the sick by adding on this license fee or compelling them to go to Monticello or elsewhere to see him. A similar ordinance was killed, by the old council, and this one; and all others like it, should meet a like fate. There is no general demand among the doctors* for the passage of this ordinance, we understand.