Repository: UIHistories Project: Board of Trustees Minutes - 1922 [PAGE 484]

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BOARD OF TRUSTEES

[ A p r i l 12,

have for the study of disease. I have found, however, in reviewing the history of the matter that another thought was in the minds of some concerning at least part of the organizations and buildings under discussion. As a result of my inquiries and on reading again the agreement of July 12, 1919, it has become clear to me that the hospitals and institutes mentioned in that agreement fall into two classes. The Illinois Charitable Eye and^Ear Infirmary, according to the agreement, is to provide medical and surgical treatment for all indigent residents of Illinois, etc. That phraseology clearly describes a custodial hospital. From this phraseology and from information obtained from other sources than the agreement, it seems evident that it was the intention of the Department of Public Welfare, under the administration of your predecessor, to replace the existing Illinois Charitable Eye and Ear Infirmary with the new Illinois Charitable Eye and Ear Infirmary in this group not only as a research and educational hospital but as a custodial hospital. The same interpretation I think must be put upon the description of the Illinois Surgical Institute for Children. The description of the institution clearly indicates it as a custodial as well as a research and educational institution. The Illinois Charitable Eye and Ear Infirmary originally was a private corporation, created by a special act of the legislature in 1871. It was later taken over by the State. The other hospitals or institutes mentioned in the agreement of July 12, 1919, are either already existing divisions of the work of the Department of Public Welfare of of the University or are such divisions as these authorities under their existing legal powers could organize and conduct. I have discovered, as I think, that when in 1917 discussion of the improvement of the State's charitable organization was under way, the intention was to secure appropriations for a series of separate hospitals, possibly, although I am not sure of this, in different places. As discussion proceeded, the economical and other advantages of unified administration and professional management so impressed those people who were actively interested that the idea of separate hospitals was abandoned and the appropriations secured in 1917 and 1919 were put together for the purpose of making one great central group large enough to take in and care for the work of the various divisions included in the agreement of July, 1919. It was the hope of those concerned that in the future the expansion of this central group would make it possible to secure the advantages of centralization for other divisions of the hospital and welfare work of the State under the direction of the Department of Public Welfare. It was not the intention of those interested, as I have gathered, to try to put all or even most of the hospital work of the State in this group. The purpose was simply to make a central group which, while being custodial for some purposes, would in the main be research hospitals for the study and prevention of disease and which would at the same time afford advantages to the state-supported institution, the Medical College of the University of Illinois. My understanding of the situation is that you differ with your predecessor as to the wisdom or practicability or both of transferring the Illinois Charitable Eye and Ear Infirmary as a custodial institution from its present physical quarters and of incorporating its management in the management of the central group of hospitals, and that it is your intention not to make this transfer. Is this interpretation of the situation correct? If it is, the change of plan constitutes, of course, a departure from the agreement between your Department and the University signed in July, 1919. Whatever view the University authorities might take of such a change as an abstract matter, it is well understood, of course, that so far as the University is concerned, it is within the scope of your authority and power to refuse to be bound by the act of your predecessor in office. I shall be grateful if you will kindly inform me whether I have described the situation as you understand it. If I have, it is clear, since you do not wish beds to be provided for the custodial work of the Illinois Charitable Eye and Ear Infirmary in the new central group, that in the assignment of space for hospital beds for the different lines of work, it will be necessary to set aside a smaller number than the original agreement would have required for the purposes of treatment and study of diseases treated in the Illinois Charitable Eye and Ear Infirmary. Therefore as soon as I feel wholly