To W. O. from Dr. Flick.
Philadelphia,
March 21, 1904
My dear Dr. Osler:
Your letter and telegram to hand. I thank you very much for your kind and prompt answer. I will follow your suggestion and have a brief abstract of the paper read at the afternoon meeting and the printed copies distributed. I also will follow your advice about letting the luncheon standards it is. The Phipps staff may perhaps shift its dinner to the evening of the 28th, but of this I am not certain as the staff does not meet until tonight.
I do wish we could be of one mind in the matter of the Lewis Congress as I dislike to be at variance with men like yourself and Welch, but I really cannot bring myself to flock with that crowd. My experience in the past in trying to work with men of that kind has been so unpleasant that I have long since made up my mind rather to keep in retirement absolutely than to associate with them. If the majority wish to go in with Lewis you may rest assured that I will do nothing to embarrass their work or in any way interfere with it. Under those circumstances I will wish to act absolutely for myself alone and to retire. I am convinced that no good can come from joining those men and only humiliation will come to them who joined them and with these convictions firmly in my mind I see no action open for me but that which I have outlined.
Since writing you I have thought of the scheme which I suggested as an alternative in my letter of last Saturday, and I think I might perhaps enlarge a little upon it and go into more detail. Why not let us get a United States Society for the Prevention of Tuberculosis, with Trudeau is president, Jacobs of your city as Secretary, and with an executive committee made up of one representative each from Baltimore, New York, Phila., Boston, Washington, Chicago, St. Louis, Colorado, the Pacific Slope, and the South. Let us empower this executive committee to appoint representation on the International Committee on Tuberculosis, to enlarge the society by bringing in all the workers in tuberculosis and to make arrangements for an International Congress on Tuberculosis to be held in the United States in 1906 or 1907. There are in this country at least one hundred good men who have done splendid work and who would be glad to be associated with an organization of this kind. The best work that has been done in this country has been done by the quiet workers and it is wonderful what some of these have accomplished. I enclose you on a separate sheet the names of some of these men who ought to be invited if they have not been.
Cordially yours,
Lawrence F. Flick.