The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1902-09-17
w. o. SMITHS VIEWS.

w. O. SMITHS VIEWS.
Mr.. w. o. Smith then took the stand |
and talked of the leper situation, tell |
ing how long he had been connected
with the Board of Health. He then |
told of the great opposition there was |
by the natives in the beginning. Sew |
eral people had been killed. A sheriff
on Kauai was shot dead by leper and
his own brother, DR.. Jared Smith of
Kauai, had been shot and killed in his
own house because he had denounced a
certain laborer.
A person suspected of leprosy is !
first examined by physician and if
believed to be infected is sent to the
receiving station, where he is treated
until it be finally decided by COM
mittee of physicians whether or not he
is a leper.
The marriage relation has always
been serious matter. 1t had been
deemed better that a couple should
marry than live together without mar
riage. For a period of nearly 40 years
the late r. W. Meyer was superintend-
ent of the settlement, man of very
high character and married to a Ha-
waiian woman. Different well-known
ing DR.. Emerson now present who was
the physician for two years. This So
cial question had always been discuss
ed with great zeal and with such men.
The Catholic and Protestant clergy
concurred in the general assent to the
marriage relation. Witness related his
own experience in dealing with lepers
extending back to 1868 In recent years
he had paid frequent visits to the set
Element. He knew many of the lepers,
some of them before they went there.
This question of wedlock had been con-
sidered from every point of view
A spirited colloquy ensued between
Senator Burton and Mr. Smith. The
Commissioner strongly suggested that
men and women might have reasonably
adequate social intercourse without
living together. His idea would be to
erect a high fence athwart the settle
ment for the separation of the sexes.
1T would have to be a very high
and very strong fence" Mr.. Smith
remarked. He said the Senator's inn
preston seemed to be that the i'm
proper practice was officially approx
ed.
No said Mr.. Burton, "but my i'm
preston is that it is universally prac-
ticed and tolerated.
You are mistaken rejoined Mr..
Smith. TT is not universally prac-
ticed. There are many married people
living together
| Burton-I don't think the moral ques-
ton is so serious as the birth of chill
dren there.
Smith-The only preventive would
/ be complete segregation. Very few
children were born The tendency of
the disease was to make the victims
sterile. Very few children were born
llepers. Those who acquired the dis
ease later did so from incubation.
! The care of young lepers was an ex-
tremely grave matter for the Hawai-
ian people. Witness told of the Home
| for Girls founded by Chas. r. Bishop
and the Home for Boys by Henry P.
Baldwin. He diverged to discuss the
pathology of leprosy. In many coun-
/ tries the attempt at segregation pro-
duced revolt. 1t was evidence of the
/ fine quality of the Hawaiian people
that they had been so tractable in sub
! hitting to the severe trials of separ-
alton from home and kindred
! Mr. Smith spoke of the encourage
/ ment given to moral influences at the
| Settlement, where there were Catho
] lie, Protestant and Mormon clergy
men. He proceeded to pay a high
tribute to the work of the Catholic
Sisters, as we'll as Brothers, in taking
care of the homes for girls and boys.
Witness led on to clerical interfer-
ence, stating that this was at the bot
tom of the necessity for removing a
former superintendent himself a lep-
er. When Brother Dutton was put in
charge of the Baldwin Home, Father
Wendelin asked the witness why he
had done so without consent of the
Bishop, and was told that neither the
Bishop nor he would be allowed to in
terfere with the management of the
Settlement
Father Conrad whom Senator
Mitchell knew. interfered so grossly in
affairs that the Bishop himself wanted
him removed. Father Wendelin's in
reference lately had compelled re-
quest for his withdrawal.
Mr. Smith related the beginning of
the system of employing government
physicians The Islands were settled
sparsely in widely separated communi-
ties. Physicians would not undertake
practice excepting in the larger towns
and villages other than Honolulu. Gov
pIy WSIS pau %oV q
month. They had to examine 1eper
suspects, vaccinate the people. inspect
schools, and give health certificates to
the pupils, there being fine for a
child attending school without certff-
icate.
Reverting to the settlement Mr.
Smith opposed the idea that the super
intendent should not have the right to
enter houses for all purposes of inspec-
ton, seeing that the inmates had their
rations, if anyone were sick, if swipes
were being manufactured.
He considered the appointment of a
resident magistrate a great mistake
being promotive of litigation. The idle
ness of the people made them suscepti-
BILE to differences as mere diversion
He commended the efforts to provide
recreation in the form of athletic
sports.
He spoke strongly against national
control as that would bring the people
under the care of those who DO nc
understand their habits or needs.