The Washington herald., 1911-03-26
Produces an Affidavit Made by
the Patient.
Also Exhibits Bills of Fare to Show
that Patients Are Improperly Fed.
DIR. MaEruder Makes Detailed
Statement in Defense of DR.. White
beth's-Board of Visitors Acts.

Florida, who was instrumental in
getting Congress to investigate the
management of the Government
Hospital for the Insane about a
year ago, was asked by F. S. But
terfeld, secretary of the Congress
Heights Citizens Association, yes
terday to introduce a bill in Con-
gress at the extra session next
month to reopen the investigation.
Mr.. Butterheld thinks the COM
plants of the citizens of Congress
Heights will be granted more ia
vorable hearing with a Democratic
Congress.
PREVIOUS INQUIRY.
Representative Clark was on the COM
mittee which investigated the institution
at the last probe, and was one of the
minority OF the committee who reported
favorably on the bill. Mr.. Butterfeld
said that Representative Clark had told
him on several occasions that in his
opinion, the hospital was mismanaged.
Charges that letters between him and
his clients, who were patients at the
hospital were intercepted and held for
several days, and in many cases not
delivered at all, were made by Richard
P. Evans yesterday Mr.. Evans said II
the practice was not stopped and he
was not allowed to see his clients regu-
larly he would institute mandamus pro-
ceedings against Secretary of the In
terror Fisher and DR.. William A White,
superintendent OF the hospital.
As a result of the charges made by
Mr.. Evans, and printed in The Washing
ton Herald yesterday morning, a meeting
OF the board OF visitors of the Govern
ment Hospital for the Insane was held at
the Office of Brig. Gen. George M. Stern
berg. L. s. A, yesterday afternoon and
resolutions were passed commencing DR..
White on his exceptional administrative
ability in managing the affairs of the
hospital" and branding as false the
statements of Mr.. Evans.
Dr. G. Lloyd Magruder, one of the
members of the board of visitors, said
last night:
the asylum have recognized for some time
the insecurity of Howard Hall. and in
their report for 1910 asked that a new
building be erected for the care of the
criminal insane. Owing to the economy
plan of President Taft and Congress, 1t
was stricken from the report, and did not
even reach the Secretary of the Interior.
The management of the Government
Hospital for the Insane courts investiga-
ton, and always has courted it. The
work at the asylum is excellent The rec
ommendation of Mr.. Evans and others
that a thirty-foot wall be erected about
the grounds is absurd, but we agree that
adequate protection should be given the
residents of Congress Heights, and we
have striven to do this.
The Pure Air Cure.
THE greatest cure for insanity, as in
any other disease, is pure air and Gods
sunshine. This many of the residents of
Congress Heights object to.
Repeated requests have been made for
additional Enclosures for the hospital
grounds 1t should be recognized that
large proportion of the patients in
such an institution, as one of the symp-
toms of their mental disease, have a
grievance, and that they are always
any sympathetic person who will listen
to them. As a result of this it is always
easy to obtain evidence from inmates
detrimental to the character and eff
cheney Of those whose duty it is to exer-
else control over them.
'"The management of the hospital has
already taken additional precautions to
prevent a recurrence of the escape of
s1ga nd
SO far as the means AT present at its
disposal will permit, will be made to
keep close supervision of those who are
allowed the liberty of che grounds"
In support of his contention that DIR.
White did not visit Howard Hall once
in eighteen months, Mr.. Evans yester-
day showed an affidavit from Frank E
Oliver, former patient in the asylum,
in which he said:
THAT he was confined in the Govern
ment Hospital for the Insane at Wash
ington from about June q, 1909, to De-
cember 16, 1903; that from the said June
q, 1903, to November 16. 1909, affiant was
confined in Howard Hall. in ward known
as Hall No. l. that during that entire
period. the superintendent, DR.. William
A White, never once visited the said
hospital, and aff1ant was informed by
other patients that the said superintend-
ent had only been in Howard Hall once
in over a year past"
Further in his affidavit, Oliver says the
only time he saw DIR. White was when he
was called before the hospital board for
examination, after his attorney had COM
proceedings in his behalf, which
terminated In his discharge by order OF
the court.
Oliver further asserts:
'"The food was unfit to eat, and the
patients were not separated in classes.