Evening journal., 1922-02-04

pital. the following letter was sent
to him, which regret did not reach
DR.. Steele before the meeting held at
Farnhurst on February second:
"Dr. Walter II. Steele. chairman.
Board of Trustees, Delaware State
Hospital, Newark, Del.
MY dear Doctor Steele:
Court Our Lady of Lourdes, No.
All, Catholic Daughters OF America.
representing 526 of the women vot-
ers of Delaware. wishes to call your
attention to the following Want
Ad" appearing in the Journal of the
American Medical Association on
January 21st and again on January
2Sth. 1922:
Wanted-Second assistant ply
sician: male - single. Protestant;
trained in pathology and bacteriolo-
gy; salary $500 per year. full main
tenance; complete information. ref
erence in first letter, photograph,
DR.. William II. Hancker, Supt., Del
aware State Hospital, Farnhurst,
Delaware
I'VE read in the daily paper that
Doctor Hancker. fearing the word
Protestant in this 'ad' might give
a wrong impression. has wired the
Journal to eliminate this word from
the 'ad.
1T seems to us that there is but
one impression any fair-minded per-
son could possibly get from reading
this ad and that is, that none but
a Protestant physician is eligible.
according to Doctor Hancker's
standards.
I'VE are also reliably informed
that a similar 'ad' was placed in the
same journal by superintendent of
tEe Danville State Hospital and,
when called to the attention of Gov
ernor Sproul of Pennsylvania and
the Attorney General. the superin-
tendent of Danville Hospital was
dismissed from the service.
I'VE, therefore, prefer charges
against Doctor Hancker because OF
the advertisement in question, and
unless he can prove that he is not
responsible for this 'sd'. we respect
fully request your board to give
this matter your earnest considera-
tion and to take such definite action
that Delaware will be vindicated
from the suggestion that religious
intolerance is permitted by those in
charge OF public Institutions.
Sincerely yours.
MARY A. MORAN.
Grand Regent"
on the evening Of February 1st
was invited to attend a conference
Of representatives OF different socie-
ties held at the Knights of Column
bus Hall, and as Diocesan Repre-
sentative, representing the Catholic
women of the State, was appointed
as one of a committee to present a
protest to the Board Of Trustees Of
the Delaware State Hospital at their
monthly meeting on February I'd.
Mr.. Charles Lee Horsey, represeting
the National Council of Catholic
men. and the other members OF the
committee from the knights OF Co
lumbus being Mr. Charles f. Cur
ley. Mr. Thomas Monaghan and Mr..
Charles f. Higgins.
We received the most courteous
treatment from the Board of Trus-
tees who were truly sorry that DR..
/ Hancker had so far exceeded his au-
thority. A report from DR.. Hancker
was read in which he said 1--WE are
sorry" meaning, l suppose. himself
and DR.. Tamauranz who appeared
/ to be the acting superintendent. i
have as yet seen no official commun-
ication as to the action taken by the
Board OF Trustees, but upon reading
their resolutions in the paper, while
they deprecate the action OF DR..
Hancker it does not appear to me
that they have assured us the incl
dent would not happen again.
From my letter to Governor Dem
ney, it will be seen that we contem-
plated a joint meeting with the
Knights of Columbus to protest to
the Governor. Upon being informed
that the committee from the X. Of
C. were authorized to report that
they would not proceed further with
their protest as they accepted the
action of the Board of Trustees as
an 'Amende Honorable" we decided
not to meet jointly with the X. of c.,
as we did not concur in this decision.
on February 3, accompanied by
Mrs. Martin +. Keogh, vice regent,
and Mrs. j. A. Spragg, trustee, we
were received by the Governor and
as nearly as l can recall, the follow
ing is report of our conference with
I the Governor. who treated us with
4 every courtesy ana consideration
and who, while he stated had nc
power to discipline employees Of tn,
State Hospital, assured us he would
do what he could.
After the usual preliminaries a.
to nature of our protest, having re
ported that 1 attended meeting OF
the board OF trustees the previous
day. 1 asked the Governor II 1 had
been superintendent of the Delaware
State Hospital and had inserted in q
journal an ad for q Catholic As
sistant." what he thought would be-
the result for me. He replied "he
could judge" and 1 said knew ]
would be dismissed and justly So
and while we all hated to request
the dismissal of a man ~ years OF
age. and who had been there 35
years, still it was very evident he
had been there 20 years too long
judging from the methods in vogue
at the State Hospital; that we did
not care whether the superintendent
were Catholic, Jew or Protestant
/ just so he was a capable man and
d vouid show no discrimination