Evening bulletin. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1895-1912, 1905-04-12
D|CKH SEES DANGERS
IN THE ltpER Bills

Senator Dickey in his minority re
port on the leper bills reported to tn,
Senate yesterday, speaks as follows
Your special committee to whiCf
was referred Senate Bill GS and Houst
Bill 176 has made a majority repor
recommending that House Bill 176 b,
passed with certain amendments ant
| that the Senate bills be laid on the
table. AS a minority of that commit
tee | do not agree with the recon-
mendatlons and beg leave to present q
minority report.
The worst blot on our fair Terri
tory is the incubus of leprosy which
with great effort and at great expense
we have got bottled up on the little
peninsula Of Kalaupapa on Molokai.
Anything which will relax our policy
Of isolation and lay our Territory open
to the charge that lepers were allowed
anywhere else in the Territory than
at the leper colony would be a distinct
calamity.
House Bill 176 seeks to do this. My
objections to its passage are:
81. Section 1 provides that the com.
mission of physicians to examine sus.
poets be reduced from five as at pres.
ent to three, one Of whom shall be sci.
ected by the suspect, one by the Board
of Healt hand a third by the two so
selected. think that commission OF
five is much more safe than a com.
mission Of three only and more likely
to secure a just decision. The physi
clans selected for such a grave matter
should be bacteriogOlists and there Is
no provision In the bill as there Is in
Senate Bill 6S, introduced by Senator
Paris, to that effect. The patient may
under this bill may select a physician
who knows nothing of bacteriology
and there Is an even chance that the
third man may be just as ignorant Of
that science. | greatly prefer the plan
OF Senator Paris's Bill, which provides
for commission appointed by the Gov.
crnor of five members who shall un.
derstand that science.
go The bill provides that the sus.
pect shall appoint one of the commits
sion as before stated. think that the
suspect should be fully represented DO
fore the committee, and this Is pro.
yided in Senate Bill 6S. The commits.
sion itself should be permanent body
and not liable to constant change in
It's personnel as provided in this BllI
go Snsfinn A prANfiHnH T,t a
hospital at kalihi. This | do not ap.
prove of for several reasons. In the
FIRST place all lepers should be strictly
segregated at kalaupapa. Establish
Ing hospital any where else would
be saying that the plan Of strict segre-
CATION at the settlement was not adhor-
ed to and would tend TO bring our fair
land into disrepute. Tho section goes
On TO provide for the release OF lopers
after treatment OF one year. This Is
preposterous! 1t is well known that
many medicines ameliorate the disease
ana make It's symptoms temporarily
disappear, but that radical cure Is not
yet discovered. II lepers were turned
loose under the provisions OF this act
because they showed no signs OF the
disease there would be no protection
against their spreading the disease
rev months AFTER their release 1t
would be distinct menace to the
heaith OF the pubic. The bill provides
Tor the establishment OF hospital at
kalihl nut how Is 1t to be maintainSd?
u VIII cost a large sum per annum to
carry on such an establishment and