Honolulu Republican, Volume IV, Number 504, 23 January 1902 — LEPER BILL SCHEME MEETS WITH LITTLE FAVOR IN CONGRESS [ARTICLE]

LEPER BILL SCHEME MEETS WITH LITTLE FAVOR IN CONGRESS

[Src< i ai. Correspondence.] WASHINGTON. P. C.. Jan. It.— Delegate Wilcox' bill, to make Molokai a leper settl.ment for the whole ( United States has met no favor in Congress. The bill was secretly advanced by -ome of the government h alth officers, who are making a •ipeeial study of leprosy and who late ly get out an alarming report about the spread of th' disease in the I'nited States. These are the same men who have frequent periods of mental aberration over the danger that the world is in from bubonic plague. It is a purely professional scarce. Mr. Wilcox may not have been prompted directly by these men to introduce his bill, but they were beniud the thing, at any rate. Those mi mbers cf Congress who have seen the Wilcox bill simply scoff at the idea that a leper colony is needed for the United States and say that if one is needed at any time in the future it must, in humanity and decency, be located at an isolat d spot on the mainland. |