The Irish standard. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn. ;) 1886-1920, 1907-06-08
We'll TO PROTEST
The Secularized, Unio nized Hos
Z pital OF France.
Wretched Conditions Of Pres.
emit Service Set Forth.

If you happen to be hurt in an ac-
cident in France, insist upon being
carried to your hotel, or to a restau-
rant, railroad station or jail-but
while you retain consciousness pro-
test against going to a secularized,
unionized hospital, writes Ernest l..
Aroni. staff correspondent of New
York Evening Mail, from Paris under
date of May 20.
One of the consequences of the sep
aration Of Church and State which is
difficult for an American to compre-
bend is that in this country Of great
scientists, of Pasteur, and hundred
other mighty benefactors of humanity,
the nursing of the sick has become
an open scandal. by grace of the as
saults upon religion and the advance
of socialism.
In the United States it does not
matter in the least whether the help
less patient be of one. or any or no
religion: nor whether he he taken to
a place where he is tended by the
sweet, patient sisters of charity, or
by those splendid women who are
sent forth skilled. efficient and per-
fectly equipped to be the right arm
of the physician" by the great train
ing schools Of New York Baltimore,
Chicago, and even the less famous
institutions. But it is not so in
France.
The only trained nurses that this
country knew until very recently were
the sisters. / do not believe that at
best they had skill or efficiency COM
parable to those qualities Of the
American trained nurse. But they are
lamented today by every French sur
geon or physician whose politics does
not blind him to his profession.
They have not been expelled from
Of charity and of ST. Vincent Gle Paul
is still to come. But they have been
deprived of their old functions in the
state institutions. They may still care
for private patients. But in the hos
pitfalls there is hay nursing
Just how the soothing of the fevered
their lives to that work was incom-
patible with the liberty, equality and
fraternity stenciled on the hospital
walls was beyond my comprehension.
Still, as a non-Catholc American,
did not see that any real harm was
done, aside from the injustice to the
sisters. provided that the trained
nurse system hore was equal to our
own. Therefore, it was about this
point that l set about inquirng.
One Of the first things I learned
was that the nurses and attendants
are unionized. The "syndicat DIES
gardesmalades'' is we'll organized So
cialistic body, which has the right
to strike"-the "droit de greve." which
is proclaimed and admitted by the
government to be an inalienable right
of all organized workers..
incidentally, the idea prevalent in
America that the Clemenceau govern
r1ent has assailed successfully the
formation Of unions by state employees
with this right to strike" is entirely
erroneous. The sole contention of the
ministry has been against the afilia-
ton of the recognized unions lof
clerks. Ipostmen, telegra piers, mes
senger boys. tobacco dealers, match
sellers and all other government
"fonctionnaires' - including hospital
nurses-with the General Confedera-
ton Of Labor.
But the fear of a possible general
strike" which has forced the govern
ment into temporary conservatism
does not alter the fact that. on any
day, the nurses union might call
strike and walk out from the hospi-
tals-and. on the whole. what I have
learned causes me to believe that that
day would not be an unlucky one for
the patients.
My first inquiries brou ght responses
that it was impossible to believe were
not based upon prejudice. Seeking the
truth and expecting an unqualified
y denial of all that l had heard. sought
an introduction to DR.. George Bull,
4 an American. long resident in France
4 and esteemed here as an eminent
i specialist. He is man whose mod
esty equals his ability. But 1 doubt
whether he ever has been more en-
i barrassed than he was by my ques-
Il tions.
4 REALLY cannot say anything" he
4 answered. "My practice does not take
4 me to the hospitals often. And then
you see I am a foreigner-and it
& would not be right nor courteous to
! criticise-and really you must see