Medical Standoff at the Courthouse
Colfax physicians go on strike against the county commissioners over pay for mandatory insanity examinations.
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The doctors are in revolt. Ever since the commissioners refused to allow them more than $2.50 for their services in examinations of insanity cases—the same as ordinary witnesses—they have been grumbling and talking it over among themselves. Now they refuse to make examinations unless allowed $5 each for their services. This stand was taken Thursday by Drs. Benson, Stuht, Pocock and Mitchell, when called upon by the court to pass upon the sanity of one John Carton, brought in Wednesday from Winona. They appeared, but refused to work. Unless the matter of fees can be adjusted and the doctors put to work, no one can be committed to the asylum. Sheriff Canutt is therefore in a quandary, as Mrs. Myers, a German woman of 30 years, was also brought in Thursday from Uniontown, charged with insanity, and he has a white elephant on his hands.
“Unless the matter of fees can be adjusted and the doctors put to work, no one can be committed to the asylum.”
The tension between public mandate, medical expert compensation, and the treatment of mental illness in rural settings remains an unresolved civic debate. This 1900 standoff captures the friction between budgetary constraints and the professional labor costs required to sustain essential public services.
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