Читать книгу Woman's work in municipalities - Mary Ritter Beard - Страница 22

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In connection with this battle for pure food and drugs, it is interesting to see open credit given, in a conservative and anti-feminist paper in New York like The Times, to a woman for securing the new drug law in 1914. Mrs. William K. Vanderbilt led the fight for this new legislation which goes further than any other in stopping the sale of habit-forming drugs in that it provides a simple and effective way of discovering and punishing the sellers of such drugs as cocaine and opium. Chloral, morphine and opium and any compounds and preparations derived therefrom can no longer be sold except on the prescription of a regularly licensed medical practitioner or dentist or veterinarian. Prosecutions have already taken place under the new law. While the new drug law was due to Mrs. Vanderbilt, according to the newspaper headlines and the discussion of its passage in the above mentioned paper, influential men and women were her active aiders and abettors. Among these were judges of the New York courts, men and women probation officers, representatives of both sexes from reformatory institutions, the prison associations, and others. Dr. Katharine B. Davis, the city commissioner of corrections, worked for the success of the measure.