The following letter was written to Gary R. Street, D.C., president of the Illinois Prairie State Chiropractic Association, by long time member, Clarence E. Prill, and is also available on the Chiropractic Journal website.

Dear Dr. Street,

Thank you for your letter of December 22, 1986 expressing your concern about my resignation from the IPSCA (Illinois Prairie State Chiropractic Association).

I am not a new kid on the block. I have been in practice in Illinois since 1946. I practiced for 14 years without the benefit of an Illinois license. I, as well as many others, faced arrest and legal action against us on more than one occasion. I was active in our state organization and was the delegate from this district in the late 1950s when legislation was finally passed to grant us the permission to take the Illinois State Board exams for licensure. To my surprise I passed on the second try. Our practice trials and tribulations were at an end. We had all been severely tested, our emotions strained, our bank books depleted, but our resolve continued on in the face of great opposition.

Our immediate goal was relief from persecution by some form of licensure even though we knew that the medical practice act was not what was wanted and was certainly not ideal. Our long range goal was to establish chiropractic as a separate and distinct science entirely divorced from medicine; to legally define chiropractic and to provide for a chiropractic licensing Board composed of chiropractors.

Return to top

The Aftermath of Licensure

Unfortunately, after licensure, the vast majority of our fellow chiropractors drifted quickly into mixing, diluting the great potential effectiveness of chiropractic. They were led to believe that the present law presented some prestige, granting them limited physician status and growing insurance coverage of chiropractic. Many were lured by the dollar; the chiropractic principle was somehow set aside and the accumulation of dollars became the primary objective and good. Thus the lure of money and false prestige took top priority.

No longer did we propose or even attempt to approach the legislature to establish a reasonable definition of chiropractic, a chiropractic Board of Examiners composed of chiropractors. When the subject was brought up in a district meeting we were told that now is not the time, we don't want to rock the boat. The IPSCA will continue to monitor the situation. We were told to refrain from such discussions so as not to embarrass our mixer members. Such legislation would be expensive and futile because of ICA (Illinois Chiropractic Society) opposition. As for a chiropractic Board, forget it for the same reasons. Wait, we will continue to monitor the situation as more and more members drifted into mixing, physical therapy, acupuncture, nutritional therapy, vitamin therapy, rather than concentrating upon improving their knowledge and skills in the great science, philosophy and art of chiropractic to the greater benefit of the sick and suffering of this world.

In our monthly meeting there was no more talk about Innate Intelligence, the subluxation, the adjustment. Such conversations were discouraged because we might hurt the feelings of our mixer members. "Don't rock the boat!" Instead we suffered through medically oriented seminars and lectures. Analysis became diagnosis, the adjustment became manipulation and a treatment for disease. One cause and one disease was not mentioned. Chiropractic became just another unrecognized medical therapy spoken of only in hushed tones or in just a small group of friends of kindred mind.

Seminars, yes, composed mostly about medical orthopedics, cardiology, medical diagnosis and management, arthritis and the advancement of medical manipulation in the diagnosis and treatment.

So we had a nice meal, enjoyed each other's company, reveled in the fact that we are legally recognized physicians in the state of Illinois that somehow made us feel important even if we might not really be. Don't talk about a definition of chiropractic, a chiropractic Board and establishing chiropractic as a separate and distinct science, philosophy and art.

Return to top

Conspiracy to Destroy Chiropractic?

The conspirators to destroy chiropractic formulated and promoted, even established CCE (Council on Chiropractic Education) apparently without our knowledge or consent. Little, if any, opposition was made against it, no alternate plan was presented or advanced. CCE was accepted as a fact of life, essential to the improvement and advancement of chiropractic. After all it will create better chiropractors, placing them on a par academically with the medical profession making the chiropractor more acceptable to the community at large. Just look, chiropractic is now better because it is more like medicine! Wonderful! No thought was given that more could have been done by other means and at the same time preserve chiropractic in its purity, truth and strength.

The Palmer College of Chiropractic, the fountainhead of chiropractic, fell head over heals for the CCE program, teaching more basic sciences and less and less of chiropractic, eventually eliminating and ignoring chiropractic philosophy. Upon attending CCE seminars at the Palmer College we heard more and more the terms of diagnosis, treatment, manipulation instead of analysis, adjustment and Innate Intelligence.

Yet, we have a school in South Carolina and also one in Pennsylvania that still hold to all that is chiropractic, teaching chiropractic, its science, philosophy and art. Still teaching chiropractic philosophy and unashamed to mention Innate Intelligence. How to analyze spines for subluxations, how to adjust subluxations for the elimination of nerve interference.

However, graduates of these two schools are excluded from Illinois. Not once have I heard in monthly meetings or anywhere else any concern about the inability for these well-trained chiropractors to obtain Illinois license. Nothing has been done to assist the effort to allow these true chiropractors to sit for the Illinois Board. In fact the entire question is "mum." It is as though such a situation does not exist.

Yet, out of Palmer we are getting people whose goal it seems to me, is to be medical doctors. They have a D.C. degree, they hold themselves out to be chiropractors before the public, but they do not practice chiropractic. Many of them are engaged in nothing more than physical therapy, acupuncture, nutritional therapy and any other kind of therapy they can get away with. It is impossible to carry on a professional conversation with them since they do not seem to know or appreciate chiropractic terminology, science, philosophy and art. Many of them do not know or even care to know how to analyze the spine and adjust vertebral subluxations. Many of them do not even attempt to do so. They are engaged in every form of therapeutics that they can legally get away with, enjoying their lofty status as a "bastard physician."

One very nice young man in our district claimed that he was a straight chiropractor, yet, his conversation consisted of nothing more than how he treated this and that patient with various forms of therapy ranging from physical therapy to acupuncture. They look down on the true straight chiropractor, an antiquated outmoded procedure not worthy of intelligent conversation in the presence of a real physician.

Return to top

"Chiropractic, Who Wants It?"

Now we have the so-called chiropractors under the banner of the ICS (Illinois Chiropractic Society) introducing legislation to integrate chiropractic into medicine. Of course they claim that nothing is really changed from what the law presently provides, that nothing will really change. However, their proposal clearly integrates chiropractic with medicine. The proposed new law will make it mandatory for chiropractic colleges to teach medical therapeutics including minor and major surgery. These so-called chiropractors think so little of chiropractic that they are very willing to give it to the physical therapist or trade it off for medical status. Their attitude is, "Chiropractic, who wants it? And if anybody does, let them have it!"

We have three different groups of people today practicing under the banner of chiropractic. We have the true chiropractor who practices chiropractic in accordance with the science, philosophy and art of chiropractic, we have the chiropractor who mixes his chiropractic services with therapies diluting his chiropractic and depreciating its effectiveness, and then we have a third group who call themselves chiropractors but do not in any way practice chiropractic. This group practices nothing but some form of medical therapeutics. This group is very willing to trade off the wonderful science, philosophy and art of chiropractic for medical voodoo-ism.

Now we have the IPSCA embracing Illinois law that it formerly opposed. The IPSCA now proposes that we retain present Illinois law instead of taking advantage of sunset provisions to at least introduce legislation to define chiropractic, establish a chiropractic Board composed of chiropractors. They are failing to at least take the initiative to separate from the mixing and non-chiropractic element of the profession, creating a new chiropractic profession completely separate from the riff-raff that are destroying it.

Return to top

Preserve Chiropractic for Chiropractors

Actually, in effect, the IPSCA is now in the position that the ICS has been since 1923, in favor of the present Illinois law. There is no longer a voice for straight chiropractic in Illinois. That element that claims to be straight has accepted mixing as the norm and present Illinois law as desirable. It will be said that we cannot do anything else. I say that something else can be done and now is the time to do it. Define chiropractic, provide for a chiropractic Board, separate from the mixer and the non-chiropractor academically and professionally. Let them go their own way. Preserve chiropractic for chiropractors and the clients that need and appreciate them.

I am now 62 years old. In three more years I am going to retire from full time practice. My clients are accustomed to high quality straight chiropractic. They expect this high quality service, especially those who have been to those so-called chiropractors who provide a fraudulent service. Unfortunately, I cannot obtain a chiropractor properly trained in the science, philosophy and art of chiropractic to take my place. The last prospect that I heard from, a recent graduate of Palmer, told me that he would be glad to come into my office and bring it up-to-date. He proposed the inclusion of therapy if for no other reason than to make some money. I can't get a real chiropractor out of Sherman, because they are not allowed in the state of Illinois.

Can I accept an Illinois law that has not been, is not now and never will be in the best interest of chiropractic? Certainly not. At the same time, can I as a chiropractor who is about to retire from the field impose my opinions and desires upon those who must practice in this state for at least a lifetime to come? I think not. Chiropractic will go whatever way the chiropractor allows it to go. Those who let it go that way are the ones who will have to live with whatever results. Since we are no longer walking in the same direction, the trail seems to end for me here. Good luck, farewell. I wish you all the best.