If Presi-dent Truman's proposed plan for socialization of medicine is put into effect America's medical care will become inadequate and will be on the road to corruption, according to doctors at the sectional meeting of the American College of Surgeons today at Edge-water Gulf hotel.
The speakers at the meeting, which has drawn 600 members of the medical profession, voiced loud disapproval of the plan, declaring that if it is activated doctors will deand that other professions also be put under government control.
Other conclusions drawn from the meeting which closed this afternoon, were: Smoking may be a cause of lung cancers; general practitioners want hospital privileges; small hosp it a 1 s should be affiliated with larger medical centers, and more cancer detection centers are needed.
Not only do American doctors oppose the socialization of medicine but the consensus of the Edgewater gathering is that it is almost a sure bet to be put into effect.
Dr. J. D. Rives, New Orleans, professor of surgery, Louisiana State university, warned that if medicine is put under federal control the nation's mortality rate will increase. He said that doctors' offices would be filled with trivial cases, which would prevent doctors from devoting the necessary time to really sick patients. Dr. Rives thinks the president's plan will be passed because "the American public does not realize the dangers in it."
