The Waterbury Democrat., 1939-01-23

That rugged individualist the Republican elephant-"materializeS" like Peppers playmates of the Thor1e Smith books and cinema reproductions today on the front page of the Waterbury Republican.
 Under the playful heading, For sale: One municipal white ele- phant, slightly used, at the exact price 1t cost the owner, $874, 1923" l" Waterbury's isolation hospital, the "white elephant" is resurrected from the Republican limbo of the influenza epidemic regime of the late Mayor William H. Sandland, Republican mayor from Jan. 1, 1913 until Jan. l, 1922.
 I'm 1918!
 It was during those days of man. ufacturing prosperity, wartime or- ders, 807 deaths from influenza in the three autumn months of 1918, that the Republicans dominated the scene hereabouts. It was then, in the early monhs of 1919, that the isolation hospital was planned as panacea for the thousands who mourned those the epidemic killed.
 But 1t was more recently, as late as last summer, in fact, that Wil- liam J. Pape, publisher of the Re- publican and president of the Anti-Tuberculosis League, sought use of the isolation white ele- phant" begat by his Republican con- temporaries of two decades ago TOT those tuberculosis sufferers await ing entry at state sanitoria.
 The Anti Tuberculosis League, through Pape, appointed commit tee to confer with a like committee from the board of health. Eventu- ally, the latter board sought an appropriation of $30,000 from the board of finance to put the isola- ton hospital into shape to receive the white plague sufferers. The matter aas tabled by the board of finance and investigation ensued as to just what was needed to pro- vide temporary repa:rs.
 City Paying Up
 Now Mir. Pape's paper calls forth the Republican white elephant" as Indicative of waste of the tax payt<s' money, that same waste" which resulted in so many of the bond issues of the Republican re- gimes when the city lived" on bor- rowed capital, today Is paying up in more ways than one for the low0red tax rate, for the Repub- licaa ruffed individualism which granted favor to the manufacturer, let 1iae average citizen dwell in the false security of permanent prosperity, "a chicken in every pot" was one of the slogans of the period. GOT was it used during yet another Republican regime in the iso-called "Mauve Decadep")
 The Republican cites today that the total cost of the isolation hos pial, evidence of the Republican regard for the city's future, will not be paid off until 1874, which may, or nsay not, be another Republican year. The city, by the figures offer ed, owes $387,475 and it will take to pay for a dead horse 55 years" The elephant" becomes a dead horse" for humor's sake.
 By elaborate computation, the Republican shows bond payments through the years, expenditures for maintenance to a total of $89,823, remarking with coy pleasure that the isolation hospital has handled practically no isolation cases"
 Smallpox
 There was, of course, the time when Waterbury had three cases of small pox and one of these was quarantined at the isolation hos pital. Most of the time, the Repub- lican white elephant" was await ing another influenza epidemic which, somehow. was not in the cards for the Republican platform