Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1912-03-07
CONDITIONS SCORED
Startling Charges Regarding
Local tuberculosis Hospital.
NUMBER OF CURES SMALL
Report to Women's Welfare Depart
ment, Civic Federation.
PRESIDENT LOW REELECTED
National Body Endorses Movement
for Reform in Legal Procedure.
Regulation of Corporations.
LOW REELECTED

would be the fitting inscription over the
tuberculosis Hospital of the District oil
Columbia, in the opinion of Mrs. Medil
Mccormick, national chairman, and Mrs
J. Nota McGill, Washington chairman OF
the committees on tuberculosis of the
woman's welfare department of the Ma
tional Civic Federation, made in a report
presented at the meeting of the depart
ment this morning in the New Willard
Hotel. OF 4O2 cases of tuberculosis treat
ed at the hospital. they cited statistics
there were 200 deaths and only S cures.
Praising the general character of the
institution, they found fault with the ward
system, whereby the course Of CHASTITY
death is burned into the brain of each pa
tient by the multiplied object lesson"
charged uncleanliness in the dining room
and the operating and apothecary rooms,
objected to the custom OF keeping milk
in cans rather than in bottles, denounced
the eggs as of the cold storage variety
and deplored the absence of a suitable
dressing room, with lockers, and an as
sembly room, where patients able to walk
about may get away from the scenes OF
intense agony in the ward room.
Seth Low Reelected President.
Seth Low, at the general meeting of the
organization, was again elected president
Of the National Civic Federation. Other
officers, named by a nominating commit
tee and elected without dissent, constitute
a reelection Of the present official staff
Of the body.
The officers elected are Seth Low. presi-
dent; Samuel Gompers. vice president:
Ellison A. Smyth, vice president; Benja-
min Ide Wheeler. vice president: Isaac n.
Seligman, treasurer; Ralph NJ. Easley,
chairman executive council: John Hays
Hammond. chairman committee on or
ganization; William r.. WILCOX chairman
employers welfare department.: Alton b.
Parker. chairman department on uniform
legislation; Nicholas Murray Butler.
chairman industrial economics depart
ment; August Belmont, chairman depart
ment compensation industrial accidents
George w. Perkins chairman wage
earners' insurance department.; Emerson
McMillin, chairman department interstate
and municipal utilities; Mrs. John Hays
Hammond, chairman woman's welfare de-
partment, and E. r. A. Seligman. chair
man taxation department.
At the meeting OF the womans welfare
department, held in the counsel room. on
the first floor, Mrs John Hays Hammond,
chairman. presided. In her annual re-
port she reviewed the work of the year
and discussed the plans for future actfyi-
ties Of the department. IL.
Reports were made by Miss Mona Wet
more, treasurer; by Mrs. Robert S. Chew.
secretary; by Mrs Francis Mcneil Bacon,
chairman of the New York and New Jer-
sey section: by Mrs. Richard Wainwright
on the subject of government employees
and the conditions of their labor. and by
Mrs. Archibald Hopkins, chairman OF the
Distsict Of Columbia section. on general
activities for the welfare of women in
the National Capital.
Charges Regarding Hospital.
Mrs. Medill Mccormick, reading the re-
port on the Tuberculosis Hospital. said,
in part:
1.-THE charges which the committee in
conscience feels compelled to make
against the institution are:
THAT a tuberculosis hospital conducted
on the ward plan is a mistake. the
national chairman OF hospitals having
seen from association with the work IN
other towns, and in climate far more
severe than Washington, that the per,
in the secondary stage, with patients
segregated in tents.
The horrors of an unscreened tuoercu-
lar ward, where each patient has impress.
ed upon his conscience the long agony OF
progressive symptoms and watches in an
other the inevitable approach OF death
cannot fail to charge the atmosphere OF
the whole institution with tragic gloom
and this seems to find its main express
sion in the hopeless appearance OF the in
mates and the unearthly stiffness OF the
place.
Uncleanliness Charged.
The second charge. scarcely less in i'm.
Of uncleanliness in certain parts Of the
hospital. Although midday. when the
hospital was visited the dining room OF
the patients able to go to table could
have been made more attractive and
clean, while the operating and apothecary
rooms especially the latter, were found
with a coating Of dust on bottles. coun-
ter and floor. while from the walls of the
dfugroom hung cobwebs.
Then, too. the milk should be deliver
ed and kept in bottles instead Of cans.
The eggs supplied to the hospital are OF
the contract, or cold storage variety.
"a fourth necessity for the comfort OF
patients is q suitable dressing room with
suitable lockers for the use Of those in
What the Hospital Needs.
ITO sum up, the situation requires 9
vacuum cleaning outfit, different dairy
service. adequate dressing rooms and
lockers for the patients and. last. but of
supreme importance, a new hospital sys-
tenn Of segregation.
"This object may be accomplished either
by q tent or room arrangement. but at
least let there be some plan devised
whereby the course of CHASTITY death is
not burned into the brain Of each patient
by the multiplied object lesson Of an open
ward, and where the sufferer may some
time be alone to pray or weep.
Zone last need is a room to be set aside
for the patients still able to walk about,
where they may assemble Tor an occa-
sional hour Of music.
Perhaps some such method might
serve to relieve the gloom of the Tu-
berculosis Hospital and for time OBJ
literate the impression made by the
knowledge that out Of 400 cases treat
ed there were 300 deaths and only .
cures, and that the appropriate inscrip-
ton to suspend before the entrance
would read: All hope abandon We
who enter here.
Resolutions Endorsed by Federation.
Resolutions committing the National
Civic Federation to the support of the
bill pending before Congress to permit
appeal to the Supreme Court from the
Judgment Of the highest state courts In
all cases arising under the federal Con-
stitution. and bills providing for the de-
cision OF causes upon merits. without re-
gard to technical objections which do
Mt afSoct the merits, Were Endorsed at