New-York tribune., 1921-09-19
Private Owners
10 Seek Return
OF Polytechnic
Petitions To Be Circulated
Among Million in Dis
trict Formerly Covered;
Is Government Hospital
Would Care for Soldiers
Trustees Charge Neglect
Is Bringing Institution
to the Verge of Ruin

strenuous drive is soon to be bepun
oy the trustees Of New York Polyclinjc
hospital, at 345 West Fiftieth Street,
and by its medical staff, its graduate
nurses and its friends, to have the hos
pitai released from government control
and returned to its owners. it was nm
nounced yesterday.
DR.. John A. Wyeth, founder and sec
resary of the institution, said the gov
ernment was abusing the moral obliga-
lions 1t incurred when the hospital was
turned over to it during the war. and
was now, by its seeming disregard for
the public and financial interests of the
hospital, bringing it to a state of de-
moralization.
A petition will be circulated in be-
half of the trustees among the 600 mn
or more residents in the district for
merry covered by the Hospital. The petit
tlon will detail the necessitv of HAVING
the hospital returned to private owner.
ship and will be forwarded to a Senator
IN Washington. Five hundred graduate
nurses Will give out the circular. to be
signed.
Taken Over by Government
The Polytechnic Hospital was offered
to the government on October 20. 1918
1t was set forth, however, in the rov-
ernment's lease that it's possession
OF the property should not extend be-
yond eighteen months after the termi-
nation of the war.
- After the signing of the Treaty of
Versailles there was no Justification for
the governments continued tenure of
the hospital" said Dr. Wyeth. "The
War Department, instead Of giving back
the property, turned it over to the
United States Public Health Service
me wartime emergency is past" he
declared. eve do not want to turn the
service men out of the hospital. We
VIII take care of them at our own ex-
pense. But the needs of the people in
that locality and the needs of the hos
pltal demand that it be returned to its
owners"
The hospital is in the heart of the
city, one block from Broadway. AS
things are now, anyone who meets
with injury in the Broadway district
has to wait until an ambulance is sum-
moned from Bellevue Hospita! or
knlcke rbocker Hospital, a trip of from
two to four miles.
No Ambulance Service
"The Polytechnic Hospital is at pres
ent useless for the needs of the civil
ian population. 1t has no ambulance
service. Its endowments have been
stopped. It's former medical staff has
been broken up. It's medical and nurs-
ing schools have been closed. Under
government control it has reached a
state of stagnation in the care of a
comparatively small number of service
men who could be just as we'll cared for
# the hospital were again an institu-
tlon OF general usefulness.
Two years and six months have
passed since hostilities ceased, and we
insist that the officials OF the Public
Health Service have had ample time to
provide accommodations for the care
of our incapacitated ex-service men, in
stead Of taking advantage of the pre-
text that the war is not yet over to CON
tinue an occupancy which is akin to
conflscation and which threatens the
destruction of great institution"