TWO letters are presented which take opposing views of federal aid for medical education and for pediatric education in particular.
The first of these is from Alan Valentine, LL.D., President, University of Rochester, N.Y. Dr. Valentine read a paper on the financing of the privately endowed medical schools before the 1948 Annual Congress on Medical Education and Licensure. (J.A.M.A. 137:1, 1948.) He is eminently qualified to discuss this subject. His extraordinarily able and realistic presentation of the current and future financial needs of medical schools concludes with an answer to the contrary view of Dr. William C. Black. (Pediatrics 1:561, April, 1948.)
The second letter is from Dr. Thomas O. Gamble, Professor of Obstetrics, Albany Medical College, Albany, N.Y. Certain aspects of Dr. Gamble's letter require comment. In his third paragraph, Dr. Gamble quotes incompletely from the ICH Committee Report (Pediatrics 1:524, 1948) as follows: "It was finally agreed (Ed. note: i.e., by the ICH Committee) that neither the U. S. Children's Bureau nor the U. S. Public Health Service should be the administrative agency, but that the matter should be determined by the Federal Security Administrator, whose agency includes both the U. S. Children's Bureau and the U. S. Public Health Service. The correct quotation is: "It was finally agreed that neither the U. S. Children's Bureau nor the U. S. Public Health Service should be named the administrative agency . . . (etc.)." The position of the ICH Committee was and is that the Federal Security Agency, which already administers grants-in-aid for study and training in several fields of medicine, would be the logical administrative agency; it was not considered within the province of the ICH Committee to recommend which branch of this agency should be designated by the administrator. There was no attempt at "camouflage," as suggested by Dr. Gamble.
Dr. Gamble next attacks the recommended composition of the Council on Pediatric Education. He suggests that the Academy should say to the Federal Security Administrator:
Public health in undergraduate medical education