Seward daily gateway., 1925-08-13
DIRECTOR LEAVES JOB
 ON LEPER ISLE AFTER
 QUARTER OF CENTURY

HONOLULU, Aug. 13. (P-Almost quarter of a century in the serv- ice of the inmates of Kalaupapa, the "saddest spot on earth, on "the lonely leper isle of Molokai," was completed recently when John D. McVeigh retired as superintendent of the settlement and assumed a su- pervisory and advisory position for the leprosy receiving station at kal- ihi. Honolulu.
 McVeigh was succeeded as supen- intendent by Ralph L. Cooke, former superintendent of the wireless de- partment of the Mutual Telephone Co. Dr. w. J. Goodhue, who has served as physician at the settle ment since 1902, also retired and was succeeded by Dr. Harold Mar shall who has been at the settle ment in Louisiana.
 Reviewing his service on the small iIldusuId1 SnCll DcLWCCl lllS OSSSAA breakers and the virtually impassa- be windward cliffs of Molokai which houses the settlement, McVeigh said that the three greatest changes were the building of poi factory, the introduction of motion pictures to the colony, and the discovery of the Dean Chaulmoogra oil specific for the treatment of the inmates. These provided palatable food, distraction for the mind, and relief and perhaps cure for the body he said.
 The Chaulmoogra oil specific is more efficacious at the Kalihi re- ceiving station, for it's greatest ef- feet is obtained in the early stages of the scourge and Kalaupapa re- ceives only relatively advanced cas- es. So highly does McVeigh regard the treatment that he predicted the close of the Molokai settlement with in 20 years if diseased persons would surrender themselves and receive in jections in time Education and the enlisting of public support for the territorys fight against leprosy are aims to which he intends to devote himself
 Almost every passenger steamer arriving here from the mainland has some contribution to the tuberculosis sanitariums," he commented. But little Is done for the lepers. There is too much of the attitude, Oh, he's a leper; send him to Molokai to die'.''
 As the first man who gave his undivided attention to the settlement, McVeigh was called upon to do a great deal of pioneering work, inter- ested the inmates in baseball, horse racing and other sports that would help them to forget their condition and brought them to realize that they were not outcasts but "Vic- tins of a certain disease"
 Describing the patients, McVeigh said: They are first rate. They come into my yard to work, but they would never think of entering my house. They are law-abiding and it is remarkable what little disciplin- ing they need if they are all treated alike.
 'When the United States entered the war I called the lepers together and told them that things might be a little hard and food short. That's all right said their spokesman So long as the country is in trouble we'll not complain They invested all they could in war savings stamps, some buying more than they could afford, but they never tried to sell the stamps until the war was over During a Red Cross campaign the settlement raised $99970, and the lepers wanted to make clothes for the boys in France. I explained to them as carefully as I could that we could not send nothing because it would not be accepted, but that did not stop them and they subscribed money to have clean persons do the work"