The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1899-12-11
TOO MUCH ECkARDT.

: The trustees of the Queens Hospital
have apparently left hat place in the
hands of a man who thinks that boor-
ishness and clam-wisdom are the
qualifications he is paid to use. So far
as the Advertiser is able 10 learn they
are the only ones ne has. Several
times this paper has made inquiries at
the Hospital as was proper in a public
journal pursuing public Investigations
and each time its requests have been
met by brilliant flashes of silence. by
vulgar humor or by cheap wit. Yes
terday il was morosely told that the
Hospital is not run for the newspapers.
Mr.. Eckardt was quite right in that
and he might have added that il is not
run for the public, whose natural solic-
itude for facts about the affairs of an
institution whose bills il helps 10 pay
the newspapers represent. Judging
from the way the door of the place
shuts on the h~alf-dying men and
women who are brought to its TIRES
hold without money to pay the fee it
must be run for Eckardt. If h is
indeed the case the Advertiser will
present some good reasons when Ho-
nOlulu gets its municipality. why the
Hospital should have a chance to make
a very quick choice between Eckardt
and its public appropriation.
If the Hospital were a private affair
it might have a right to deny the re-
pOrters admittance or refuse answers
to their questions though hat is not
now the practice of such hospitals in
large American cities. Still we con-
cede the point here. We will go fur
and admit that private cases treat
ed at the Queens Hospital are not fair
subjects of public inquiry unless there
are strong grounds to suspect NAL
practice. But when a man goes to the
Hospital as the result of injuries pub
licly sustained, especially in a case in
volying a transgression IN his or some
other persons part against the law, the
At w tA9 III AAS1I ~ dI AZ
iata about him which the hospital can
give. save that withheld at the in
of the police. 1t goes without
that the reporters who seek the
Information deserve to be treated with
courtesy. 1t would not be necessary to
give hat hint to a gentleman; Mr..
Eckardt seems to need it.
Has it occurred to the trustees that
mystery with which their Super
ptendent invests the practice of the
raises unfounded suspicious
lbout it and stimulates interest in any
which suggests a new and rival
Years ago when the San
francisco Receiving Hospital tried the
Ian of secrecy the newspapers suspect
d something wrong and they were
light. The surgeons and internes had
in the habit of trying the most
operations on helpless pa
tents, not caring in their privacy
whether the patients lived or died.
Generally they died. The horrors of
he secret chambers of that hospital
the marrow of the State and il
lid not take the authorities long to
a remedy. The doors We're
brown open and publicity shone in
ike a search-light. There were no
candals in the ken of hat un-
blinking ray and since then every CAL
fOrnia hospital. which is honestly and
Iumanely conducted lets the reporters
ave a chance to testify TO the fact.
the policy is so i~rrationally diff
erent that room is left for the worst
c~spicions.
The Advertiser is tired of having its
to get the news which the public
) entitled TO secure, baked by Eek
rdt and made the theme of his lame
impotent wit. Like that part OF
he public which makes occasional use
I the Hospital. it is also tired of Eek
rdt himself. There is no more often
i've person on earth than a small man
ressed in a little brief authority. We
mphasize brief" for unless the Super
ltendent of the Queens Hospital
arms the fifty or sixty things that are