The Sentinel=record., 1918-09-14
|V|NDICATION.OF
 | CHARITIES WORK
CHARGES THAT HAD GROWN OUT OF ACCUSATION BY
 oPHELlA JOHNSON SHIFTED.
Committee Of Citizens and Board Makes Through Two Day lnVesti- gation and Reaches Unanimous Conclusion in Finding.

The management of the Associated | Charities, the conduct of the insti- ! tuition, and the integrity of it's sec retary and manager, Mrs VanIDyke were viudicated in a unanimous re- l port which was made public yester ! day afternoon at the concIusion of q
 two day investigation o@ ane of the
 most serious charges evdf 3made here
 against individual or instBution- Ophelia Johnson ddpple girl, who had been an inmate of the insti- I tuition at intervals, and who became
 mother Of a child in this city, was the prosecuting witness against Sergeant VanDyke of the Army and Navy Hospital: and claimed that she was an inmate of the institution when the child was fathered Mrs. VanDyke wife of Sergeant VanDyke, is the secretary and manager for the
 Associated Charities. The army of ficer's case was recently tried by
 court martial at the Army and Navy
 Hospital, and a finding resulted, lut
 not made public because it had to be sent 10 Washington for approval, as all court martial findings now take that course
 Gossip growing out of the charge against Mir. VanDyke had extended to criticism of the Associated Chairl- ties, which was a naturai conclusion If the charges were true, the insti- tuition would have been guilty of the most serious negligence.
 The investigation conducted by the board, and the citizens, vindfcates the institution, and that naturally carries with it an eXoneration of the NanDykes. since the committees could not have believed Mrs. Van Dyke guilty of even the minor ac- cusations against her, and retained her services; and neither could they have we'll retained her services ]. l they had even the shadow of a doubt that her husband had been guilty oi
 the charge against him
 Ophelia Johnson, the girl in the case, was before the committee. and her evidence was direct, but it was developed that just previous to a serious operation, she had stated that another was the father of her child and had done so voluntarily. The circumstances surrounding the wit att al. sympathy from members of the com mittee of the association, as from aecusers. for the cripple girl had been woefully wronged; but they did not believe that Sergeant VanDyke was guilty, but rather that the re- sponSibility for the girls condition could have been traced to a young
 man whose first name was Albert, and who had been at the girls sis ter's home, and that it was there the familiarity between the two grew up. The board and committee did not
 go into lengthy detail in the report.
 as they did in the investigation, and
 while the report is brief, the probe was as thorough as they had oppor
 tunity to make 1t.
 The complete findings of the board and committee. and the unanimous
 and signed up report that was sub
 mittee, is given herewith;
 The Board of Directors of the As soeiated Charities in session on Sep tember 12th and 18th, meeting with the citizens committee, has thorough - ly considered ali matters that have been brought before it. These con eerned the management Of the Assc- citation, the competency of its secre- tary and the manner in which the Home under its charge had been con ducted. It has patiently heard all tes- timony that was brought before It; 1t has invited all who had any informa ion to give to appear and it has given free access to it's books and files to the above committed
 The Board after hearing all of the