NEWYORK SCANDAL

Bay of Plenty Times, Volume XL, Issue 5777, 4 March 1912, Page 8

NEWYORK SCANDAL

DISHONESTY -A"NO.", I>KVKA\ ITV

ASTOUXi'iNtJ •-■\JuiL:t:<.; .vn<»- fe?.

Much political excitement has been caused in. America by the publication of an oflieial letter written hy (JoV( ..rnor l>ix, of -Nt'w York Statv, demanding the immediate. i-esigni\tk)if s as health olluer oi the port of New York of IT: Alvah M- Uoty. irL the opinion of practically ih<; entire medical profession of New York State ■Dr.' Doty is the ablest «iuaraiUino ottioiT New York ever had, ami deserves the highest praise for saving the State Jast summer t'rom an epidemic of cholera.

Mr Hix, however, declares his view that gross incompetence was displayed by Dr. Doty as health oflicer.

"•It must be considered providential," he says, "that the dread disease was not scattered far ami wide throughout the land.'" The Governor asserts that the conditions prevailing at Hoffman and Swinburne Islands, where immigrants are quarantined, are such as shock everyone's sense of decency and make Americans ashamed o f their country.

He goes on : "The immigrants are housed ati'd fed amid into'erable filth and the ollicers employed in themuarantine * ser \iic:o <x,i~i3 pvnxii t t.0<.l to coin - mit outrages upon them, especially upon women, tlmt defy description. Apart from the prevailing Immorality, practices of the most inhumane character are tolerated.

"Orderlies are .permitted to carry in their arms the bodies of dead children, covered with sheets, from the hospital to the morgue. Whenever th.is occurs —t'h<_- yrderlies Ijcing: obliged to pass through the open grounds —mothers who 'have iiot seen their sick children in the hospital axiti tlo not know their con-Uiticm follow the orderlies, hysterically weeping and wailing and trying" to pull oil" the sheets to ascertain whether or not the bodies are those of their own children." Mr l>ix states that Dr. Doty has not made any attempt, tv disprove the charges of misconduct,, dishonesty, depravity, and iinnioralit\ against his administration ; therefore he must resign immediately. Dr. Doty's position is worth 1:2500 a year. He was originally appointed by the Jvepublieans in 1895. NHe has always maintained that he is too busy fighti'nigi disease to pay' any attention to the •'•'non-.' Mensical evidence concocted at the hearings oi the commission."