Evening star., 1898-12-19
THE HOSPITAL BILL
Opponents of Measure Given Hearing
by Commissioners,
STATEMENT MADE BY DR.. J.E. RANKIN
President and Faculty of Howard
University Present Views.
FURTHER HEARING PROMISED

hearing given today by the District
Commissioners on the bill recently intro
duced in the Senate by Senator Mcmillan
for the establishment of a municipal hos
pital- The hearing was granted at the re-
quest of he trustees and medical faculty
of Howard University, who oppose the bill,
the provisions of which have been published
in The Star. They believe it is unjust to
the Colored race to do away with Freed
mems Hospital.
The Rev. DR.. ]. E. Rankin president of
Howard University; Drs. Robert Reyburn,
Chas B. Purvis and F. ]. Shadd of the
medical faculty OF the university and the
Rev. Dr. Teuns S Hamln. pastor of the
Church Of the Covenant, appeared at the
hearing, DR.. Rankin being the first speaker.
He said:
Howard University does not appear here
as a remOnstrant against the municipal
system proposed. but wishes to give some
reasons why, in her Judgment, Freedmen's
Hospital may wisely be omitted from this
system. 1t is mainly a coored institution.
1t is for the accommodation of colCred in
mates, not individuals merely, which is
not exceptional now, but in numbers. There
are no pay patients among them. 1t is the
only institution in the District, with its
5000 colored people, where a colored man
or woman secure clinical instruction.:
where colored woman can secure training
as a nurse: where colored physician is
recognized as belonging to the medical pro-
feSSiOn; where color is invisible
Racial Differences.
LAS those who have studied the question
of racial differences for more than a quar-
ter of a century, the authorities of the uni
versity are satisfied that the economy of
Freedmen's Hospital is the best one prac-
ticable for both races. There can be no
nd a Ip Of pplorp1 if
liens except from this basis. under a
nicipal system. If Freedmen's Hospital
were embraced in il. the medical depart
ment of Howard University would be cnti-
tied to precisely the same recognition as
that accorded to the same department in
institutions where colOred students are not
admitted, and whore colOred men are not
admitted rs instructors
The white wards should be really the
legitimate ground OF study to the colored
man the CnlOrCd ward. COlOred phySi-
clans must demand the same recognition
white men. That may be promised Us.
Does any reasonable man suppose we snail
get it? We believe that to be wholly i'm
practicable. We believe the weaker party
will be driven to the wall: that all COM
petitive advancement OF the coiorcd people
in such an institution viii be directly or
Indirectly resisted by the whites. We may
as well look that fact in the face. In Freed
mems Hospital there is no such cOmpci-
ticn, though not few of our students have
been whites.
LAS to the Importance of Freedmen's
Hospital to the success of the medical de-
partment of Howard University, let me say
one word. Certainly it is fundamentally
important. The government could not
strike a more direct or fatal blow at our
medical department than by aholishing
Freedmen's Hospital. All the advocates of
the Municipal Hospital if the system
should embrace Freedmen's Hospital a
colored ward. or imply the destruction of it.
admit this They mean it. To them il is
only the cold and unfeeling carrying out
of municipal economy. To us ii is the
destruction of department of the univer
sity. virtually founded by the government,
and now-with the exception of the medical
epartment-almost wholly supported by
the government.