NORTH CAROLINA
STATE BOARD OF HEALTH
OFFICE OF THE SECRETARY
RALEIGH

May 22, 1918.

Col. R. B. Miller,
Office of the Surgeon General,
War Department, Washington, D. C.

My dear Col. Miller:

I have your letter of May 14 (a copy of which is hereto attached), enclosing a copy of a letter from Governor Bickett to General Gorgas protesting against a commission in the Medical Officers’ Reserve Corps being given to me on account of my position here with the State.

I am enclosing herewith copy of a letter just received from the Governor of North Carolina with respect to my action. I fully realize my obligations to this State and am not inclined to doubt the position the Governor takes, namely, that I can render more public service in North Carolina than I can probably render in the army. The question with me, (as it is with a great many men who have applied for commissions in the Medical Reserve Corps), is not where I can render the most service, but a question of embarrassing personal responsibility that I can discharge only in one way, to wit, by placing the responsibility on the Office of the Surgeon General for determining whether I shall remain in my civilian post of duty or come into the army. I cannot afford to be personally responsible for remaining out of the army, and I will not accept such responsibility. If the Surgeon General decides that I am more needed here than in the army, I am perfectly willing to stay here; my responsibility to the nation and to the army will have been discharged. On the other hand, if he decides that I should come into the army and he issues a commission to me, I am going to accept it.

I have arranged for an important conference with Colonel Vaughan on Saturday morning. My conference with Colonel Vaughan deals with the general relation of state boards of health to the Office of the Surgeon General, and I believe that it will be possible, within the next two or three weeks, to turn over the entire state healthy machinery of all the states to General Gorgas so that he will be responsible not only for the medical service of the army, but for maintaining the integrity and efficiency of the state boards of health, he being given full power to move any member of the executive staff of any state board of health to any place of duty but also being responsible to the states for maintaining their health organizations. I respectfully suggest, therefore, that my application shall not be acted upon until this general plan is considered. I hope I may be able to see you for a few minutes on Saturday.

My application was personally handed to Colonel Noble by Major J. W. Long, of North Carolina, after office hours in Colonel Noble’s office on Saturday, May 4.

Very respectfully yours,

Secretary.

r.r