Evening journal., 1912-11-30
PIRIIC sENTrMENT MusT BE REspECTEp.

PUBLIC SENTIMENT MUST BE RESPECTED.
IAT Il do not think undue Importance should attach
w to the fact that the Delaware Anti-Tuberculosis
Commission has placed charge Of the property
Gently purchased in the Eleventh ward negro care
taker who suffers from tuberculosis and who is
Of its dspensary patients II it be the idea Of the
mssioners that his employment there makes OF that
property State Sanatorum for consumptiyes
and that such institution Is to be maintained there
or in other section OF city in defiance Of public
opinion, We think the minds Of the commissioners will
be disabused by early developments The people Of
the Eleventh ward fully determined the institution
shall not be inflicted them and that feeling is
shared by the people in the other wards II is unthink
able that state commission would resort TO short
cut in the midst of negotiations, to defeat the pur
poses of ordinance pending in City Council
Any such underhand business inevitably would tend TO
intensity public Indignation against commission that
already by its disregard for public sentiment has
rihced much Of the popularity it formerly enjoyed
The people of Wilmington in no temper TO be
trined with by the Delaware Anti-Tubercuosis Com
mission in this matter. All the wards stand with
the Eleventh ward for the protection OF it and them
selves against the short-sghted and unpopular plans
Of the commission. II perhaps will be well for the
members of the commission TO reconcile themselves
TO the fact that public sentiment is unalterably op
posed to the placing Of the proposed tuberculosis sana
torum within the city limits
In this connection it may be said that those who
directing the fight prevent the establishment Of
the State tuberculosis Sanatorium for coored folk in
the Eleventh ward, or any other section Of city,
have made mistake. In ordinance which they have
proposed City Council for passage they have
beyond their original purpose and made il apply to
general hospitals the extent OF providing that in
future no general hospital shall be established In
built-up section Of the city In/ other words they
started out with a proposition that applied only to
tuberculosis hospitals and pest houses, and that
had practically the undivided support of
munty. and when it came to proposing prohibitory
legislation to City Council included general hospitals
in the ordinance Thereby they aroused against that
ordinance opposition which would not have existed
had the fight been restricted to its original and high
Unpopular lines
There are thousands of persons who stand heart
soul with the people in the Eleventh ward against
the establishment OF a sanatorium for tuberculosis
victims who do not with them in the proposition
that any general hospital that may be established here
in future shall be compelled to have site in the out
skirts of the city The inclusion Of such provision
in the proposed ordinance unwise as II
unnecessary It's effect will be to opposition
among persons in thorough with the chief pur-
pose of the people of the Eleventh ward and precip
tate fight that might have been avoided had the
proponents of the ordinance centered their fire against
tuberculosis hospitals and pest houses and left the
general hospital question for consideration by pos
terity.
We cannot conceive that a majority OF those who
initiated the protest against the State tuberculosis
SanatOrlum being established III the Eleventh ward,
any other ward in the city, contemplated this de-
parture. which converts q plain and popular PROPOSE
tion into a complex and unpopular We doubt
that Councilmen who favor the exclusion Of tu-
berculosis hospitals and pest houses from city,
will favor the proposed ordinance in its present FORM
striking. II does, at general hospitals Our sugges-
ton is that the proposed ordinance be amended
that its application be restricted to tuberculosis hos
pitfalls and pest houses and that, in its amended FORM
Council pass it and leave it to the State and county
officials select sites for such institutions outside
our city.
Point is made by those who favor the ordinance in
its present form that it practically is copy OF
era law that exists in Pennsylvania That is true but
IL may be said by way OF reply that Pennsylvania has
many laws that Wilmingtonians do not want and that
Delaware probably has many laws that Pennsylvanians
do not want The proponents OF the ordinance
pending forget that exceedingly important part Of
the work done by general hospitals like the Della
ware. the Homeopathic and the Physicians and Sur
geons' is made up of emergency cases in which few
minutes OF delay in reaching the side of patient may
spell the difference between life and death Il would
be maniesy wrong to force such lifesaving institu
tons to locate in the unbut-up outskirts Of city,
remote from the fields in which, in emergency cases,
their services would be most needed. Let it not be
forgotten that every day in this broad land of
hundreds OF lives saved by the fact that
geons, ambuances and hospitals to the scenes
Of accident The general hospital is on a different
footing from that of the tuberculosis hospital the
pest house That fact should be recognized by the
Eleventh ward folk and their friends and especially
by our City Coueilmen
The sensible thing for City Council 10 do is to
amend that ordinance and pass it and for the Council
men, the members OF the Anti-Tubercuosis Commits
sion aud Of the Levy Court to meet in conference and
make arrangements for building the State sanaorum
at Farnhurst
THE POPULAR VOTE.