New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1917-12-19
Drug Victim I Husband Tells
How Home Was Wrecked
He Describes Ravages of Morphine to Com
mittee-Mrs Philip Lydig Declares One
Out of Ten Persons Is an Addict

osses, morphine stimulates them. Some
of the best known actors, lawyers ana
doctors are victims of the drug habit.
Most geniuses are
"Have you any idea how many people
ere addicted to drugs" asked Harold
II. Corbin, attorney for the committee
which is conducting the hearing.
81 believe one in every ten persons
takes drugs" Mrs. Lydig replied.
There are great many charming per
sons among my friends. whom nobody
suspects. The tragedy is that we
should use the word suspect in connec-
ton with this, which is not a criminal
affair, but n disease, for which we
should feel pity, not suspicion"
Mrs. Lydig declared that the state
should maintain a hospital where drug
addcts could be treated as invslids, not
as criminals.
Defends Boy Victim
Both Mrs. Lydig and Miss Bara Gra-
ham Mulhall, president OF the Women's
Conservation Movement, attacked the
methods by which Judge Collins and
Commissioner Lewis had secured an
affidavit from Godfrey Davis, boy,
then in the Harris Island Jail, whose
story was told 10 the committee on De-
cember b. his mother. The following
day Judge Collins discredited the story
by producing an affidavit signed by the
boy to the effect that he had received
no drugs on the island.
This boy has written to his mother
letters which. tell how he was intimi-
dated into signing the affidavit" said
Mrs. Lydig, in answer to "A question
from William II. Allen. "He says he
was told he would get into trouble and
his mother would suffer if he did not
sign it.
1.-THE morning after the affidavit was
read to you ! reminded Commissioner
Woods over the telephone of this
promise 70 parole the boy to our care.
Commissioner Woods acted INN ediate-
ly. but his request 10 Katharine b.
Davis was answered by her in letter
which stated that the boy is not Grim
inal. and. according to Judge Collins's
statement, has been cured by institu-
tional methods without any treatment
Yet this boy is still refused his liberty
is still retained in a penal instltu-
ton, il not menace to himself, an
added burden to our Taxpayers"
The little, thin. shabbily dressed
woman in the third row, who had been
following the hearing with intense
earnestness. popped up just then, with
out waiting to be recognized by Chair
man Whitney. and burst out:
"Yes, I'm the mother of that boy,
and ! want to know what the police
wanted to frighten me for?'
Deaconess Aids Addicts
Deaconess Virginia Young, with
silver cross on her breast and the long.
flowing black robes of her order, was
the next witness. She said she was
the only member Of her family who
was not a drug addict. and she knew
that their stories were not ripe
dreams" She said she conducted
home for girls at II Beekman Place.
and she had learned from them of
their hopeless search for a cure. which
they never found in city institutions.
Irving McKenna. formerly a police
detective in The Bronx, testified that
many doctors were in the habit of get
ting the drug for their personal use
through false prescriptions TO drug
gists. lie said druggists who'll violate
the laws should lose their licenses.