The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1893-09-12

/ trust your honorable board will make
/ proper provision, so that the INDECENT sick
/ may suffer nothing from this change OF
| peiicy on the part of the city,"
| Mr.. Gasch, when seen by q Posr-ISTEI-
| LIGENcER reporter Immediately after the
| receipt of the above letter yesterday, was
| perusing another paper which he had had
Tor some time. 1t was a legal opinion on
| the question in point, furnished him by
w. ;. Bush several months ago, and reads
as follows:
THE same power is given to cities as to
counties In regard to the support of the
poor. Section z. article OF the coasti-
tuition. provides:
mo county, city or town, or other mu-
nlclpal corporation, shalt hereafter give
any money, or property, or loan its
money or credit 10 or in aid of any indi-
vidual, association. company or corpora
the poor and infirm.'
section Is OF the charter of Seattle is
to be construed in connection with this
section of the constitutions. So also is
section % of the charter.
Zone of the usual and regular powers
OF municipal corporations is to care for
the poor. This is based on the early Eng
lish statutes making the care of the poor
the duty OF the parish to which they be-
long. IL Is recognized in this country in
the regulations which authorize sending
paupers back to the town of their resi-.
dence. See section 1905, volume 2, Hills
code.
Section 3.0S7. Hills code, confers on
the county commissioners full and ex-
elusive superintendent of the poor, only
where incorporated towns or cities have
no power over the subject
THE constitution confers on them the
same powers it does on cities, and this
section Is part OF its charter, and thus
gives the city OF Seattle the same power
10 aid the poor as il does the county.
This aid should come from the general
fund. A city which can coolly violate the
constitution and its charter by buying of
its citizens coal and mineral palace has
no right TO refuse TO exercise its power to
aid the poor in its midst. 1t has no right
TO impose on benevolent citizens. in hard
times. the duty expressly conferred upon
ii by law. When the constitution was
adopted, section 10 of the charter provided
Tor the support, restraint and employment
of Migrants AID paupers. That was the
usual power of cities OF the Iirst-ciass
when the new charter was framed. That
is its power today. Ii was exclusive at
that time as to the poor OF the city. BY
the same rule it is now"
King county has never refused to care
for patients whose care properly belongs to
it, said Mr.. Gasch. The fact may be
shown by the reports of tho county hos
pital and poor farm, and by the sums of
money We pay out every month for the
support of deserving poor. But there is a
class that We cannot be held responsible
ior--non-rssidents, who come here solely
for the purpose of getting aid. The cases
referred TO by DIR. Palmer in his interview
are in point They came here solely TO
get treatment and support. The CITY
health board took them up and kept them
in the hospital instead oil shipping them
back TO their homes or reporting the
matter TO me at the time. After thew
had been here six months they
we're residents and then the city showed
them off onto the county and we had TO
care for them. There IS a class of patients
that the city should aud must care for.
The county has no physician in to wn. and
the physician at the county farm has his
hands full all the time, While the city has
physician az good salary. The county
certainly will not hire physi-
clan to do the work that should
pe performed by the city paysi-
clan. Today DIR. Palmer sent me
a man who wanted medical assistance
for his wife. lie had been in the city only
few days. The city physician certainly
should attend 20 suen cases as this and I
50 informed the man. do not know how
many. if any. OF the patients al Providence
hospital mentioned In DIR. Paimer's letter
are proper county charges. The county is
and always has oeen ready and willing TO
care for the sick and poor. but Ii does not
intend 70 let the city shirk It's share of the
responsibility.