Santa Fe daily New Mexican. [volume] (Santa Fe, N.M.) 1885-1897, 1897-01-22
UTILIZING OLD FORT MARCY
Provisions of the Bill Now Pending
in Congress for National
'Sanitarium.
HIGH COMPLIMENTS FOR OUR CLIMATE
Full Text of the Senate Act and the
House Amendments-Dr Crosson
Scientifically Defends the
Measure.

t Measure.
As the matter of granting the Fo,
Marcy reservation to the American Ir
valid Aid Society, of Boston, is at pres
, ent of great interest to the residents o
Santa Fe and the territory in general, tn
New MEXICAN herewith presents a revie'
of the bill, its amendments, recommenda
tions and present status in congress. 1h
original bill as introduced by Senate
Gallinger, of New Hampshire, and passe'
by the senate ia as follows:
Be it enacted, etc, That the abandone,
Fort Marry military reservation, aLd al
the improvements thereon, situated il
the territory of New Mexico, be, and th,
same is hereby granted to the American
Invalid Aid Society, of Boston, Mass.
upon the conditions that said society
shall establish and maintain perpetually
thereon national sanitarium for tht
treatment of pulmonary diseases: Pro
vided, That said society shall within two
years from and after the passage of this
act accept this grant and shall establish
on said reservation a sanitarium for the
purposes herein named; and whenever
The said lands and buildings shall cease
to be used by said society for the pur.
poses herein provided the same shall re-
vert to the United States.
On Saturday, January 16, Mr.. Catron
asked unanimous consent for the consid-
GRAFTON Of the bill in the house, and after
some little discussion the committee in
charge of the bill presented the appended
report:
| The committee on the public lands
have had under consideration senate bill
1898 and report the same back with
amendments, and as amended, recon
mend its passage:
A charitable corporation has been or
ganized in New England to assist pnlmo-
nary invalids to 60 to the mountain re-
gion of the west for treatment. In the
city of Santa Fe, in New Mexico, Is To-
Gated the military reservation of Fort
Marcy. 1t contains about ia acres of
land. The reservation has been abandon
ed and the city of Santa Fe desires that it
may be used for sanltarium for lung
and thront diseases. The climate of New
Mexico is unsurpassed for its beneficial
influence in such diseases, and this reser-
vation would be especially advantageous
for the proposed purpose.
The reservation .s divided into two
tracts of about four acres and the
other of about thirteen and one-fourth
acres. There are several buildings on the
reservation formerly used by troops that
may be utilized for sanitarium purposes,
l. Z (, tn no nyC
and permanent buildings.
Your committee think that portion
of the grant should be permanent 80 long
as The land is used for the purposes pro-
posed, in order that the corporation or
association may erect its permanent i'm
provements thereon, but the remainder
of the land we think should only be
leased, at least until the experiment shall
have been fully tried.
The purpose is charitable one, and
the amendments proposed by the COM
mittee require that the medical treat
ment shall be gratuitous.
1t ia not necessary for your committee
to discuss at any length the admirable
location of the proposed sanitarium. It
is recognized by all medical men who
have given the subject any study.
Your committee incorporate the fol-
lowing telegrams in its report to show
the view of the matter taken by the peo-
pie of Santa Fe:
Appended to the report of the commit
tee were recommendation in favor of the
bill from the Women's board of trade,
city council and board OF trade, of the
city of Santa Fe, and a lengthy statement
of the status of the reservation from s.
W. Lamoreux, commissioner of the gem
eral Office, and also letter from VIM. H.
Sims, acting secretary of the interior, rec
ommending the passage of the bill.
The amendments proposed by the house
committee are as follows:
Strike out on page l, after the word
"assembled,' in line 2, all contained in
lines 8, 4, s, 6, Z and 8, down to and in
cluding the word "diseases," in line 8, and
insert in lieu thereof the following, to-
wit:
GAN that part of the abandoned Fort
Marcy military reservation, with all the
thereon, in the city OF San
to Fe, territory of New Mexico, lying be-
tween Washington avenue and Lincoln
avenue, in said city, be, and the same is
hereby, granted to the American Invalid
Aid Society of Boston, Mass, and the re.
mainder of said reservation, with all the
thereon,be, and the same ls
hereby, granted for the term of twenty
Ave years to said society, the said grants
hereby made being upon the conditions
that said society shall establish and main.
tain thereon national sanitarium for the
treatment of pulmonary diseases"
Amend by inserting in line IL, after the
word ''named," the following words, "and
shall make no charge for medical treat
ment therein"
Representative Terry raised the point
that heretofore the governor had asked
that this reservation be turned over to
the territory, and that the people of San
ia Fe, themselves, were not aware, and
possibly not in favor OF the present
proposition. After considerable discus
sion one way and another, Representative
suggested that the bill 90
over until later in order to give mem bers
a chance to investigate the case, and after
q formal OBJ jection TO the consideration
Of the bill at that time by Representative |
the subject was dropped for
The time being. II is likely, however, to
be brought up any day and is pretty GER
tain to become law.
some Criticiems Answered..
Some OBJ lection and criticism has been
made against this plan Of utilizing Fort |