It was now resolved to organize a society devoted expressly to sanitary reform, and the “Sanitary Association” came into existence. For several years this body annually introduced a health bill into the Legislature, but the measure was regularly defeated through the active opposition of the City Inspector, whose office would be abolished if the bill became a law.
In the early sixties the famous “Citizens Association” was organized, with Peter Cooper as President, and a membership of one hundred of the most prominent citizens. This was in the days of the Tweed régime, and at a period when the City Government was most completely in his power. The objects of the Association were reform in all branches of the Municipal Government, the promotion of wise legislation, and the defeat of all attempts to subordinate the city to the schemes for control by Tweed and the coterie of politicians who were under his directions.
The friends of sanitary reform decided to attempt to secure proper legislation through the Citizens Association. The application, by a delegation, for the aid of this Association was well received and a plan of procedure adopted. The secretary of the Citizens Association, Mr. Nathaniel Sands, had been a member of the Sanitary Association, and as an enthusiastic sanitarian had been disappointed at its repeated failure to secure legislation. At his suggestion, it was decided to create two committees, one on health and another on law, and through these agencies to have the Citizens Association accomplish its work. The first committee eventually came under my direction, while the second was directed by Dorman B. Eaton, Esq.
In the Committee on Public Health were many of the more prominent medical men of that period, as Dr. Valentine Mott, Dr. Joseph M. Smith, Dr. James R. Wood, Prof. John W. Draper, Dr. Willard Parker, Dr. Isaac E. Taylor. The Committee on Law was equally distinguished for its membership, having on its list the names of William M. Evarts, Charles Tracy, D. B. Silliman.
It was determined, as a preliminary step, to prepare a “Health Bill” and introduce it into the Legislature, which was that of 1864, and thus learn the obstacles to be met; for efforts had repeatedly been made to pass health bills without success. The bill was drawn along the lines of previous bills, and was altogether inadequate in its provisions to effect the required reforms. The effort, however, developed the fact that the real opposition to health legislation was the City Inspector’s Department. As that department exercised all of the health powers, any proper health bill would abolish it altogether.