The Washington times., 1906-02-27
A Moral Obligation.

An organization Known as the
Medico-Legal Society of the District
of Columbia published in The Times
of Sunday, the 18th instant, a series
of charges against the administra-
tion of St. Elizabeth's Asylum for
the Insane. Immediately on reading
these charges the board OF visitors
of the asylum undertook an iLvesti-
cation of them. and an Invitation was
sent to the MedicO-Legal Society to
aid the board by producing the infor
nation on which its allegations were
based. That Invitation was declined.
The ground foc the declination given
by the attorney for the Medico-Legal
Society was:
That. exclusive of other reasons. we
would not be justified in participating
In any inquiry by your board. pending
action upon the resolution now under
consideration. providing for such an in
NeSUgatlOn by a committee of the
House of Representatives This would
be foTestalling the action of Congress-
A resolution of the sort indicated
was offered in the House and referred
10 the Committee on Rules. There
it lies, and, according to present indi-
cations, there il is to lie. There is
no fair warrant for expecting that
il will ever be reported to the House.
or that if it were to be reported it
would be adopted. On the contrary
the chairman of the Senate Committee
on the District of Columbia introduc-
ed a bill putting upon the board of
visitors, wisely or unwisely, the
whole responsibility for probing these
charges. And there is vastly more
chance that this bill will become law
than that the House will ever depu-
tie a special committee to conduct
the investigation.
So the outlook is today that either
the Medico-Legal Society must help
the board of visitors uncover what
wrongdoing exists at the asylum or
be itself subject to Just adverse criti-
cism for Withholding from the regu-
larly constituted authority the facts
which are in its possession. Even
were the outlook in Congress differ
ent, assuming even that the House
might take up this matter and in
vestigate it, the present attitude of
the makers of these charges does not
seem wholly reasonable.
The board of visitors is responsible
for conditions in the asylum. 1t is
its duty to discover wrongdoing at
the earliest possible moment. II has
undertaken to fulfill that duty and
in the doing so il has asked the help
of an institution which has announced
TO the world that it knows of specific
instances Of wTOngdoing. Further
more, pending action on the resOlu-|
ton now under consideration, this
board of visitors is the only body
competent TO conduct such an investi-
cation, and there has not vet been
any suggestion from any source that
It's sincerity or its competency is
doubted. The Medieo-Legal Society
has, indeed, described the situation
OF the board as delicate" but it
has never said, and it would have
no apparant right to say, until the
board had been given a chance and
failed, that this "delicacy" would
interfere with the full performance
of its duty.
The Medico-Legal Society is a new
body. Only a very few names have
been used so far to indicate the
quality of its membership. 1t has
first attracted attention from the
public by a series of sensational ac-
eusations. And until those accusa-
tions are fully investigated the
Medico-Legal Society is on trial for
the good opinion of the community.
Its obligation to help the board of
visitors uncover the basis for IT'S
charges is only moral, and in the
event that Senator GaIlinger's bill is
not passed it will continue to he
only moral. But if this society has
preferred its indictment with a pur-
pose to help reform the asylum-and
so far no one has any right to doubt
that was the purpOse-it Will meet
its moral obligation and at the same
time do the most polite thing it DOS
sibfy could do by assisting the estab-
hshed authority in its effort to get
at the facts.
RegiOninO AT HOma