Life — December 23, 1915 — page 12: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

1232 Go the Whole Hog, Brother Argonaut N the matter of the deformed and imbecile Chicago baby that was allowed to die without an operation, the San Francisco Argonaut is satisfied with the fact, but not quite easy in mind about the procedure. It thinks if such babies are to be allowed to die, there ought to be a tribunal to pass judgment on them, It thinks such cases “ might easily be subjected to a conference of physicians so authorized as to leave no doubt of its competence or its discretion.” Otherwise, it thinks, “chances of injustice are too great, especially when the conditions are favorable to secrecy.” Surely the Argonaut deserves applause as the champion of the unfavorably born, but are the peepul to have no say? It speaks of “a conference of physicians so authorized as to have no doubt of its competence or discretion,” but when did a mere conferring of authority allay doubts of com- petence and discretion? There have been cases of doubt of the competence even of bishops! Give the baby a fair show! Provide that in such cases the report of the authorized physicians, together with the minority reports, shall be printed three times at intervals of a week, at the cost of the county, in at least two newspapers of largest circulation. Allow them an interval of.a fortnight in which protest by petition may be made to the county judge against the doctors’ findings, with reasonable privileges of appeal to the higher courts and the governor. Allow no opera- tion until a final decision is reached. In this way the news- papers, the politicians and the lawyers, as well as the doc- tors, will be led to take an interest in the baby. Of course, the way these matters are dealt with now is very faulty, When a very doubtful baby is born, the doctor and the parents have to settle what is to be done. They are all prejudiced in behalf of the baby, but loath, possibly, to perpetuate a lifelong pain. If they are uncertain about their duty, they get in another doctor, the wisest they know, and get his ideas about it. And with that poor, unauthorized, unconstituted, unadvertised tribunal the poor baby has to take its chances. The peepul have not had any say about it; the law has not had a go at it; no doc- tor’s name has gone into the headlines of a thousand Papers; no nurse has been snap-shotted ; no editorials have been written nor sermons preached. Not so much as a committee has been appointed. Of course, it is a horrid shame to waste any event in life in such a fashion as that. There should be no event without a committee on it; no committee without an ad- vertisement of it; no advertisement without something paid in at the counting-room. Too little happens, anyhow. We are bound to make the most of what events are en- trusted to us. The Argonaut has done its duty as it seen it, but it has not been thorough. Go the whole hog, Argonaut; go the whole hog! If you must have authoritative supervision by constituted author- ity, provide proper checks for it. “Helpless infancy, you so justly observe, is entitled, even more than maturity, to the conventional and legal safeguards which protect the right to live. ELS. M. “DRE Dep" ve oy “pty Ya ot x % “MY SON, IF YOU TELL LIES, YOU'LL CO TO THE TAXIDERMIST WHEN You DIE” The Christmas Story iPNZ this too bad?” says the wife of the author. “ Here is a letter from the Abyss Magazine wanting a Christ- mas story at once, if you have one ready—and you haven't one, and there isn’t time to write one!” “That is easily enough done,” comments the versatile author. He looks through his stock of rejected manuscript, finds a story which can be treated quickly, writes an open- ing paragraph to the effect that the stars were twinkling brightly in the clear and frosty sky and that the holly ber- ries glinted in the windows, and a closing paragraph to the effect that as the heroine was clasped in the hero's arms the joyous Christmas chimes rang out as in benediction upon them. Henry Not a Clown UDGE PARKER speaks of Henry Ford as “a clown strutting on the stage for a little time.” The Judge should be more charitable. As an exhibitor who himself once strutted on the stage for four months, he should have a fellow-feeling for Henry. Henry isn't a clown. He is a sincere man of generous spirit, limited knowledge and limited experience. Clegg, cee lleet