- The Carnegie Foundation commissioned Abraham Flexner to visit medical schools and write a report on the status of medical education in the United States and Canada. The report found that many of the schools were substandard.
- The Rockefeller Foundation helped bring about implementation of the report’s recommendations through the funding of additional grants, which gave rise to the strongest professional monopoly in the United States – Organized Medicine. Not only was Organized Medicine able to “clean up” and improve their own schools, they were also able to shut down their competition by closing schools of the other healing arts — which included the chiropractic schools.
- Consequently, chiropractic in most states came to be considered practicing medicine without a license — a crime punishable by fine or imprisonment.
In 1909 the Carnegie Foundation commissioned Abraham Flexner to visit medical schools and write a report on the status of medical education in the United States and Canada. The report found that many of the schools were substandard. The Rockefeller Foundation helped bring about implementation of the report’s recommendations through the funding of additional grants, giving rise to the strongest professional monopoly in the United States – Organized Medicine.
With the creation of a strong monopoly there was no effective opposition to the implementation of the reforms recommended in the Flexner Report. Consequently, not only was Organized Medicine able to “clean up” and improve their own schools, they were also able to shut down their competition by closing schools of the other healing arts — which included the chiropractic schools. They now held the cards for governing all health professions.
They strenuously fought every effort by chiropractors to obtain separate licensure. Consequently, chiropractic in most states came to be considered practicing medicine without a license — a crime punishable by fine or imprisonment.
Chiropractors were arrested and often jailed for practicing chiropractic. While most chiropractors simply paid their fines, many decided that simply paying their fines was in essence a plea of guilt and instead chose to stand up for their belief in their profession. Go to jail for chiropractic became a popular slogan amongst the chiropractic community.
