Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1934-07-20
Expensive, Wasteful Confusion.

Ahe puSlIleSS Oh oeClolak Wnere the
adult tuberculosis hospital will be
built. II the Public Works Admins
tration grants the District a loan for
that purpose. proceeds from one de-
gree Of confusion 10 another.
At the District Building the word
is passed around that the Commits
sioners are more or less helpless in
the matter because Mr.. Ickes does
not want the new hospital built at
Glenn Dale, Md. where land has
been bought for that purpose and one
unit of the proposed tuberculosis CEN
ter is already completed. But Mr..
lckes, apparently resenting criticism
for indicating an arbitrary point of
view. now says that he has an open
mind on the subject and that all he
has done is to express a preference
for a site in the Virginia mountains
as more socially desirable" than the
Glenn Dale site. He denies having
said that he would not grant the
loan for hospital at Glenn Dale.
commissioner Hazen, in the mean
time, has appointed committee of
Municipal Government officials to Sc
lect a site-anywhere but at Glenn
Dale. On this committee are repre-
scented "a the District surveyor; (2)
the municipal architect; (3) the su-
perintendent of the Districts tubercu-
losis hospitals; (4) the corporation
counsel, and (5) the Engineer Com
missioner. 1t is perhaps significant
that the District Medical Society is
not represented on the committee.
The District tuberculosis Association,
which has done more than any other
single agency to fight tuberculosis in
the District, is not represented on the
committee. The Board OF Public Wei
fare is not represented on the COM
mittee. The Public Health Service,
which should always be consulted on
such matters, is not represented on
the committee. And no one, unfortu-
nately, represents the taxpayers of the
District, who, If present plans are car
ried through. will be asked to shell
out money for a new site far away
from the city, duplicating one already
paid for, and who will be put to the
expense of maintaining two separate
directed STATS, instead of the ade-
quate, single staff that had been
planned, together with duplicated ex-
pensive medical equipment.
Before the Commissioners send
their site picking committee on
jaunts through the countryside in
search of property for sale, it is only
reasonable to expect from them some
satisfactory explanation of this sud-
den abandonment of the Glenn Dale
site. Where is the expert medical
opinion on which should depend such
an important decision? Who has
given that opinion? If Glenn Dale
recommended originally by competent
medical authorities-is now consid-
cred unflt, does the District propose
to send its i'll children there? If it is
logical to abandon the site as unfit
for adults, does it not follow with
equal logic that the new hospital for
children should be razed and moved
Immediately TO some socially desir-
able" site in the foothills of Virginia,
along with the adult tuberculosis
hoSpital' Should not the Commits
sioners Immediately stop expenditure
Of the half million dollars, avail
able for completing the children's
hospital, instead of throwing it away
on a location that is suddenly discov-
cred to be unfit?
But it has not been established that
there is any sound reason for ADAM
doning the Glenn Dale site. The tax
payers, who must pay the cost, should
certainly be convinced that a change
of plans at this late date is essential
in the interest of tuberculosis victims.
and absolutely necessary, before the
change Is effected.
Not even pretense at the Submis-
sion of such evidence has been made.
-s-@e@~-
Hell Hitler" was impressive while
it lasted, but it proves no more con-