The Washington times. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1902-1939, 1927-01-20

segregating the occasionally violent
from the harmless ones. What
else can you expect?"
We couldn't answer that one.
Assault and battery by a maniac Is
as far ahead as we wanted to look.
That sane patients are subject to
many terrifying experiences, we
nave affidavits to show. And they
will be printed in the next two or
three installments Of this series.
Such conditions cannot be entirely
prevented. With two or three
thousand lunatics on your hands
there's bound to be trouble. We
believe that DIR. White is managing
that difficult situation as well as it
can possibly be managed We don't
think that any just criticism can
be aimed at DR.. White in that
regard. He can't keep those crazy
patients from assaulting one
another occasionally.
But he can keep the crazy ones
from assaulting the sane ones. by
letting the sane ones 90 at the
earliest possible moment.
He released six Of them at the
first suggestion Of a habeas corpus
writ.
He might as well have Let them
20 without that expense.
And IL others were found sane
by the jury, and their conduct since
release has shown that the jury
was right.
The verdicts Of the juries in those
6S cases show clearly enough what
the community desires with respect
to the release Of psychotic cases.
The five or six juries that have
passed on these questions include
some so or 20 representative citi-
zens from all parts of the District:
they have listened attentively and
respectfully to the hospital Doctors
statements, and they have retired
to the jury room and have given
careful thought to each case, UNDER
their oath as jurymen TO render
fair verdict, and in 80 cases out of
the S. they announced by their ver-
diets:
at is for you to say, doctor,
whether these men are sane or ir-
sane. That. you are better quail
fled to judge than we are. But 1t
is for US to say whether these men
shall be released or not. And we
say to release them"
Long before the last Of these S.
trials was completed, the hospital
authorities must have gained fair
idea Of what the community wishes
with regard to the release Of such
cases.
Time and again the hospital has
been shown by the verdicts of
numerous juries that the community
does not wish to hold men
AGAINST THEIR WILL merely be.
cause they ara psychotic, or theo-l
retically insane. or because they
need further treatment
The jury has repeatedly rejected
those reasons for holding citizens.
Yet the hospital win not let them.
go without habeas corpus fracasa
and $500 or so expense.
st. Eltzabeth's, 1t seems, is setting
its Judgment against the viii Of the
community. AS long as the hos.
pital maintains this attitude, just
that long will the expensive habeas
corpus trials continue.
What do the people know about
It? Learn from the fate of Louis
XVI, Charles /, George III, and Mr..
Hohenzollern. They asked the same
question, and answered it themselves.
And fate gave them zero on it.
"Oh, but this Is a technical mat
ter" That's the answer. The same
answer that got the above quartet
into trouble. Statecraft was a tech.
nical matter only a century ago.
What did the people know about it?
Less than the average man knows
about psychiatry today, probably.
Most Of the people Of Louis time
couldn't even read. They didn't
know anything about government.
But they knew an awful lot about
raising fog.
The habeas corpus writ is one of
the most important defences of lib
erty that ever was invented, for
those who can afford to buy one, and
the fact that 1t has been used so
much in Washington the last year
shows that liberty needs good deal
Of defending-it's in a right shaky
condition.
And that's the really important
feature.
What happened to the % sane men
while they were locked up in the
ward IL Of secondary importance.
What counts is that those sane
men were locked up.
IL you take a mans liberty away
from him unwarrantably, what else
you do to him is practically imma.
terial!
(Another instaIInent tomOrrow.)