The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1928-01-25
E:MPL.OYE TELLS
The HISTORY OF
NY. INSTITUTION
Broad Street Got Boom
in Wall st. Blast
(By a Worker Correspondent.


will Illustrate to the worker-readers
of The DAILY WORKER the causes
back of the unhappy conditions, the
long hours at starvation wages and
the kennels provided as living quar-
tiers which are the portion of the
hospital workers.
knowledge of graft and unfitness
among hospital officials of this city
viii help the worker to understand
why he is asked to pay $25 a week
and more when he seeks hospital adj
mission, and, unable to do so, finds
the doors of the hospital slammed in
his face.
At the Waterfront.
The conditions for workers and pa
tients at the Broad Street Hospital
are the conditions existing in any
hospital in New York.
The Broad Street hospital is at
the junction of Broad and South Sts.,
at the East River waterfront. 1t
serves a district in which thousands
of longshoremen work and which at
the same time includes the Wall
Street financial section. 1t serves
also the dismal living quarters of
Washington St., screened from the
eyes of big business by skyscrapers.
The Broad Street Hospital was
founded II years ago, thru the agency
of one A. ]. Barker Savage, former
Canadian medical student Casting
about in New York for a steady job,
he succeeded in interesting several
wealthy men, notably James Barber,
the senile head of the Barber Steam
ship Lines, one of the worst exploit
ers of seamen, and William Hamlin
Childs, capitalist with hands in many
a ficancial pie.
Explosion Profitable.
For a few years the shedding was
hard for the Broad Street Hospital
with its 80 or so beds located on the
site of a former warehouse. Then
t-:s--ssrsrreat the celebrated Wall Street ax-
plosion in 1919, which the govern
ment and the bankers attempted to
blame on revolutionary workers. The
Broad Street Hospital with its few
beds happened to be but few blocks
away and rendered emergency treat
ment to most of the injured.
Savage Cashes In.
A. j. Barker Savage cashed in on
this fact. In campaign he sent out
donation-seeking circulars by the
thousands. He failed to mention that
most of the sufferers in the explo-
sion were workers, unable to pay hos
pital bills. They were, of course, sent
to Bellevue, the city Slaughter
house" Wall Street, scared by the
"red plot invented by the William
j. Burns International Detective
Agency, responded generously and
the money rolled in. An addition
bringing the bed capacity to about
120 was built. Savage was superin-
tendent of the hospital at salary
of $4,000 year. His policy was to
fawn upon the rich, especially the
Wall Street business men.
The Workers Paid.
The men of business were given
the best private rooms and the best
of attention and the hospital bills
were "taken care of" by Savage. The
poor had to pay or go to Bellevue.
The attention of most of the hos
pitfalls medical staff was showered on
any broker or financier or a member
of his family, often i'll with some
minor complaint such as the grippe.
Little care and poor food continued
to be given to the ward patients.
The excitement of the Broad Street
Hospital when James Barber, the
hospitals "sugar-daddy," or some
Standard Oil official or relative of
Elisha Walker, of Blair & Co., was
a patient forms neat contrast with
the welcome accorded some South
Street jobless seaman, brought in
dripping with blood after beating
up by two or three policemen from
Old Slip Station.
Finances Drained.
Savage's assistants, whose number
was legion, received large salaries
The hospital, ostensibly founded for
the treatment Of the workers of down.
town New York and their families
was steadily being drained of its
finances due to mismanagement,
high salaries and, according to the
employees of the hospital, graft. Even
the hard-boiled board of directors
got tired at last, and in the winter
of 1923 Savage and his clique were
dismissed. A professional reorgan-
izer was called in. At salary of
$4,000 year and with a gang of
high salar'Hd officials he accomplish
ed nothing. The hospital kept losing
thousands of dollars annually.
Masons Fill Beds.
In 1924 the Masons decided to take
over the hospital and its deficit.
NJ" Nns were appointed officials at
ptuous salaries. Members of the
Masonic order, seeming something
fnr pofbsno cxua ,-,,,al Joxxyx, ~, Al