John Punnett Peters papers

The John Punnett Peters Papers document several aspects of the professional life of Dr. Peters, John Slade Ely Professor of Medicine at Yale University. The Papers provide information on his battle for national health insurance under the auspices of the Committee of Physicians for the Improvement of Medical Care, Inc., his involvement in liberal causes, the loss of his security clearance, and his research interests and publications. They are divided into four series, PROFESSIONAL PAPERS, WRITINGS, PERSONAL PAPERS, and CASE FILES.

Series I, PROFESSIONAL PAPERS, is housed in Boxes 1-7, folders 1-198. It contains correspondence primarily, but also includes broadsides, reports, minutes of meetings, newspaper clippings, etc. Series I has ample material to document Peters' crusade for national health insurance and his activity in support of progressive causes from the late 1930s to the 1950s, but much less on his professional activities and his relationship with patients.

Many of those represented in Yale's Contemporary Medical Care and Health Policy Collection came from public health backgrounds, but Peters' education and training were strictly in medicine. He became concerned with the backwardness in the delivery of medical services to the indigent and elderly during the 1930s. As Peters stated in 1937, "I have as you know always held a brief for socialized medicine, and have rather thought I was conducting a restricted experiment in my own clinic." (folder 31) The impetus for action, however, was provided by a survey conducted by the American Foundation and its publication, American Medicine: Expert Testimony Out of Court (folder 63). As a result of this study, a group of liberal physicians, mostly associated with, medical schools, published in 1937 "Principles and Proposals" for the improvement of medical care and established an organization, the Committee of Physicians for the Improvement of Medical Care, Inc., for which John P. Peters served as secretary. The first two "Principles" forthrightly affirmed that "the health of the people is a direct concern of government" and that "a national public health policy directed toward all groups of the population should be formulated"(folder 50). The Committee of Physicians had the support of only a small minority in the medical community, but was in the vanguard of the movement for national health insurance.

John Punnett Peters devoted a great deal of time and effort to the cause of national health insurance or "socialized medicine," as it was termed by its opponents. For material on this important subject, primarily see the folders for Committee of Physicians for the Improvement of Medical Care, Inc. (folders 23-82), plus the American Forum of the Air (folder 6),and the Physicians Forum, Inc. (folder 170). Series II, WRITINGS, contains articles and speeches on national health insurance.

Peters was also involved in several liberal causes, both because of his support for civil liberties and his devotion to national health insurance. Among the noteworthy files are those for the American-Soviet Medical Society (folder 10), Civil Rights and Bill of Rights Congress (folder 21), Committee of One Thousand (folder 22), Communist Party (folder 85), Independent Citizens Committee of the Arts, Sciences and Professions (folder 109), National Committee to Repeal the McCarran Act (folder 155), National Council of the Arts, Sciences and Professions (folder 157), and Progressive Citizen of America (folder 171).

As a pacifist and socialist, Peters was associated with a variety of organizations in support of the Soviet Union, the loyalists in Spain, and in opposition to fascism. His involvement was generally at the level of petition signing, although he was occasionally more active. In 1941, for example, he was treasurer of the Spanish Refugee Ship Mission in New Haven (folder 177). Sometimes, however, Peters was embarrassed by his association with progressive causes. On August 14, 1939 Peters was one of some four hundred "leading Americans" to sign an open letter published in the Daily Worker appealing for greater unity among anti-fascist forces and for "close cooperation with the Soviet Union in behalf of world peace and security." Ten days later the Nazi-Soviet Pact was signed and the German invasion of Poland began on September 1, 1939 (folders 154 and 156), As a civil libertarian, Peters signed a number of petitions and was connected with several organizations in support of the rights of Communists, in opposition to the House UnAmerican Activities Committee, and in support of those taking the fifth amendment or refusing to divulge their past association with people or organizations characterized as Communist-front. See, for example, the American Committee for Democracy and Intellectual Freedom (folder 5), Citizens' Committee to Free Earl Browder (folder 20), Committee of One Thousand (folder 22), Federation of American Scientists (folder 94), and Institute for Medical Research, Cedars of Lebanon Hospital (folder 110).

This activity culminated in Peters' being anonymously accused of disloyalty (folders 122-141) and a decision by the Loyalty Review Board dated May 22, 1953 that "there is a reasonable doubt as to Dr. Peters' loyalty to the Government of the United States "(folder 135). As a consequence of this action by the Loyalty Review Board, Peters was prohibited from government service as consultant on health care matters. Peters had often worked in the previous decade for the War Department, Department of the Army, Federal Security Agency, and Public Health Service, but with his loyalty impugned he could no longer work for the government, and his entire reputation was threatened. His lawyers, Fowler V. Harper, professor of Law at Yale Law School, and Thurman Arnold, took his case to the Supreme Court. It ruled 7-2 on June 5, 1955 in Peters v. Hobby that he had been improperly discharged on disloyalty charges in 1953, but the Court sidestepped the crucial question, whether a federal employee can be dismissed as a security risk without being given the opportunity to confront his accusers. The files on "Loyalty case" contain correspondence, briefs and statements on behalf of Peters, petitions, and a scrapbook of newspaper clippings.

Series I contains much smaller amounts of material on the publication and research activities of John P. Peters. He taught and did consulting work for the Departments of War and Army from 1943 and 1951 (folders 153, 184-185, and 190). From 1949-1951 under the auspices of the National Research Council, Peters helped develop a "Handbook of Biological Data" (folder 161) and he was also on the editorial board of several journals (folders 114-116 and 147).

Although Dr. Peters only had a small practice at New Haven Hospital, he was considered an excellent physician who was devoted to his patients. Only a handful of letters, however, give a hint of the regard in which he was held by his patients and their families. As one person put it:

On behalf of my family and myself, I wish to thank you for the many kindnesses you showed to my sister Sadie. She thought of you not only as her most considerate physician, but also as a friend upon whom she could rely. We know she found a great deal of sympathy and comfort in her visits to you. No matter how she felt physically, her mental attitude was better after she had been to see you (folder 174).