The Manning times. [volume] (Manning, Clarendon County, S.C.) 1884-current, 1914-02-18
Fight On A LADY
MADE BY GOVERNOR BLEASE
AND REGENTS.
GIVES ALL The FACTS

DR.. Babcock, Superintendent Of the
State Hospital for the Insane, Tells
of the Brutal Manner in Which
Lady Physician Was Treated by
Governor and Regents.
The following is DR.. J. ". Bah
cocks testimony before the commit
tee investigating the insane asylum
matter:
Dr.. Babcock briefly sketched his
appointment in 1891 by Senator Till
man, succeeding Dr.. P. E. Griffin,
and that up to the first of last July
the appointments of the subordinates
at the asylum had been made by the
board of regents after consultation
with him and largely upon his advice
and recommendation. By rule
passed last July the regents, he stat
ed, assumed the power of making all
appointments without consulting him.
and after July / they had no COM
munication with him but went ahead
and made great many changes in
the staff at the asylum. He said he
made a personal appeal to Governor
Blease to have Dr.. Eleanor B. Saun-
ders, the white lady doctor, retained,
and through the governors in
auence she was kept. He said he had
no information and nothing to do
with the other appointments. He
said the regents made no complaints
to him as to subordinates, and those
who were replaced were entirely sat-
isfactory to him. He said he had
made some complaint to Dr.. T. R.
Carouthers, the chairman of the
board, and the latter had talked to
him about what he chose to call fric-
ton at tie hospital between the medi-
cal staff, and especially about the fric-
ton between DR.. Babcock, the super
intendent, DR.. Thompson, his first
assistant, and DR.. Griffin, a member
of the medical staff. He said Dr..
Griffin was "sore" because he would
not discharge a nurse against whom
complaint had been made as he did
| not think there was anything in it.
DR.. Babcock said the present board
Of regents was composed of DR.. T. R.
Carouthers of Rock Hill, president.
J. A. Summersett of Columbia vice
president, J. D. Bivens Of Ridgeville.
]. H. Taylor of Columbia, and Dr.. W.
L. Settlemeyer of Gaffney. He said
the governor appointed the superin-
tendent and he is subordinate to the
board.
He substantiated Senator Tillman
in his statement that it was Dr.. Bah
cock who gave the senator the infor-
nation on which he based his conf
Dental letter. He said he stopped
to see Senator Tillman at Trenton on
January 3 professionally, by request,
when he was returning from Atlanta,
and during the day went over with
him the situation at the State hos
pital for the Insane, and especially
the friction between himself and the
board of regents and the efforts he
said were being made to oust him and
Dr.. Saunders. He said he said moth
ing about any 'uhderlings and safe.
lites" OF Governor Blease trying to
sell the asylum property, but said
that Policeman Bishop, out at the
State park, had told him that Gov
ernor Blease had said he, the gov
ernor, was in favor of selling the
State park property and retaining
the building erected there and con-
verting it into a tuberculosis hos
| pital. He said ". H. Wylie, the su-
perintendent Of the grounds at State
park, had first told him Of this con-
versation Policeman Bishop had with
Governor Blease about the sale of this
property.
He said the informant went on to
say that Governor B1ease's idea was
to retain the present asylum build
ings in the city of Columbia for the
white patients and convert the peni-
tentiary building into hospital for
the negro insane patients, for the
pen!tentiary would soon be depor'l-
lated. as he proposed sending all of
the convicts back to the county chain
! gangs. He said he heard the gov
ernor make this same statement to
Senator Weston during the meeting
of the board Of regents in December
He said he told Senator Ttllman
about this idea of Governor Blease's.
DR.. Babcock said Dr.. Griffin was
first appointed on the medical staff
| about six years ago upon his and DR..
B. w. Taylor's recommendation. He
said DR.. Griffin was rearpo!nted last
July by the board Of regents. DR..
Babcock harked back to the investiga-
| tion in 1909 of the asylum, which,
he charged. wes aimed at him, and
said at that time Dr.. Thompson and
Or. H. H. Griffin had done him all
the harm they could by running
around making false accusations
against him. He said that P. L. Har-
din and Mr.. Carey told him that Dr.
| Thompson had come to the commit
tee one night and wanted to retrat'
certain charges he had made against
Dr.. Babcock, but the next day failed
to do so and let the matter go. He
said that, Notwithstanding all the
work done against him by these two
he had not allowed it to interfere
with his work or theirs, and he ad-
vised the regents against removing
these two men afterwards when they
wanted to do so, for he did not want
personal matters to enter into his ad-
ministration, and went out of his