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There was also another lesson to be drawn from the Hartman incident: skillful publicity catches public attention, increases business in a "dental parlor" no less than in a shop. The A. D. A. has great plans for publicizing dentists, especially over the radio. In charge of such publicity is Dr. Caleb Willard Camalier, 49, a beaming Washington, D. C. dentist whose hobby is lobbying. Lobbyist Camalier's greatest triumph this year was securing the cancellation of radio broadcasts for advertising purposes by certain Utah dental laboratories. Dr. Camalier simply got in touch with Director James Wr. Baldwin of the National Association of Broadcasters in Washington. Mr. Baldwin "telegraphed the broadcasting stations involved and within two days received notice that these stations had canceled the broadcasting contracts." Last week the A. D. A. elected Dr. Camalier its 1937 president.
Dentists' most immediate need is public support during the social alterations ahead. By raising the level of their profession they hope to have their patients treat them well, give them that social and scientific esteem they consider their due. To persuade the public to treat dentists well is the job of new President Leroy Matthew Simpson Miner. Because, with New England shrewdness and Harvard learning, he is one of the most estimable men in the profession, Dr. Miner's administration was off to a good start last week.
Dr. Miner's life is a dentist's dream. His day begins before 7 a.m. in the Boston suburb of Newtonville, where he owns a wooded acre lot and a spacious white Colonial house. By 8 o'clock he is driving his 1933 Franklin to one of six Boston hospitals, where he operates for an hour or so. Thence he goes to his private office on Marlboro Street, a 14-room suite where go the big Boston names who make up his clientele, keeps two associates, three nurses, two secretaries and a receptionist busy. Dr. Miner consults, performs minor operations, dresses incisions, pulls teeth. Two mornings and two afternoons a week he attends to his duties as Dean of Harvard Dental School, sitting by a grandfather clock, before a large oak desk littered with papers and books, his feet firmly planted on an Oriental rug. Among his operations, consulting and school schedules he squeezes in one class a week to Harvard dental seniors (principles of surgery), one class a week to juniors (physical diagnosis), one dental clinic. At Boston University School of Medicine he gives four formal lectures a year on stomatology. He also gives three lectures a year to dental hygienists studying at Boston University. Dental and medical societies get another dozen or so lectures from him each year.
He practices his contention that no one should work more than ten months a year. His vacation spot is Greenfield, N. H., near Lake Nubanusit, where he owns a farm, has telephone No. 1, is called The Squire, has fun snowshoeing, skiing, riding, golfing, pitching hay with his robust family. Winters he takes a holiday in Bermuda.