The Stratford Evening Post WITH WHICH IS INCORPORATED THE EGMONT SETTLER THURSDAY, JUNE 22, 1916. THE HOSPITAL DISPUTE.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXX, Issue 66, 22 June 1916, Page 4

The Stratford Evening Post WITH WHICH IS INCORPORATED THE EGMONT SETTLER THURSDAY, JUNE 22, 1916. THE HOSPITAL DISPUTE.

The present ill-timed am! uncalled-fur ait'iack, wliich Dr. Paget is making on tho Chairman of the Stratford District Hospital Board, and on the institution itself, under the belief (or assumed belief) that his rights haro been infringed and his personal dignity flouted, isj so regrettable that we had hoped the; tiling would have dropped with the publication of Mr J. McAllister's ad-mirably-worded and courteous reply to the letter from Dr. Paget, which latter any other than a blind partizan must characterise as grossly unfair and scurrilously personal. But as the aggressor, with obstinate pertinacity, continues to slander a highly-respected citizen and a public man possessing the full confidence of the public and of the Board to which he does honor in acting as its Chairman, it becomes a duty to speak plainly anil to express abhorrence of the tactics that are being used to spitefully belittle an honorable iiid deeply conscientious public man. Those who have resided in Stratford for the past ten years or more know Dr. Paget for what he is: they know of his medical skill and the good work he is capable of doing: but they know also of his outbursts of ungovernable temper and of his arrogant rudeness and intolerance towards all who fail to agree with him in his sometimes extraordinary views of right and wrong. Further, there are at least some who have by no means forgotten Dr. Paget's attitude of jealous exclusion towards other medical practitioners, and their patients, when he was the Medical Superintendent of the Stratford Hospital. Apparently Dr. Paget has obliterated several incidents which occurred in the earlier days of the Hospital from his memory, or he could never have the hardihood to make the unreasonable demands he is now putting forward. The essential point of the"whole matter, though it is carefully avoided by Dr., Paget in Ins allegations and assertions, undoubtedly is: Did the .Medical Superintendent (Dr. Steven') fulfil his obligations by appointing a fit and proper substitute during his unavoidable absence from duty?" The Hospital Hoard and the Inspector-General are satisfied that he has done so, and the public have no cause for complaint. This being the Lnse, Dr. Paget's whole carefully- ! erected fabric must fall to the ground. •To angrily assail Mr McAllister as | ono who is "pig-headed," '-wanting ;n common-sense." -'stupid" (i.e., literally deficient in understanding), lacking in frankness and guilty of misrepresentation, comes ill from such :i

' source. Tho history of every instituItiop or body in Stratford with which i Dr. Paget has ever heen associated I produces sumo sin-pming iust.-uicp.s <>l liiow easilr iniolorance raid h:ul una-

per inny create a disturbance about nothing—at leant nothing more tmui the failure of some reasonable man to agree with a person of limited vision but vast conceit in the lightness of his particular views at the moment, and the wrongnoss the even criminal wrongnoss—of anyone daring to disagree with such imaginings. Did Dr. Paget but possess ono quarter tlioj "common-sense" he prides liimself he really does possess- holding it almost as a world monopoly- lie might still

have been the honored .Medical Super-' jintetident of the Stratford Hospital (a. i position he chose to fling away), ami he would possibly have retained i'riendi ships flung recklessly aside at a win-' jpered word. .Mr .McAllister, the noul, ; o: : honor and as far above shuffling and. pett--, meanness fof which Dr. Page, ac-j .•use's him) as any man in this to-.vu could be, has always been, as Chairman of the Board, the honest friend and well-wisher of Dr. Paget. Knowing Mr McAllister's high principles, as in his heart Dr. Paget must know them, such cheap baiting as he persists in. is deplorable. He knows full well that Mr McAllister will refrain from reply to persona! attack, and also that his feeble challenge to settle something hyj the arbitrament of a wager (a f«rm of argument a certain type of bellicose dividual adduces on all occasions 1 ! will not be accepted. When will Dr. Paget find some of the "oommonsedse" he is! so fond of telling us all we lack? Will Dr. Paget ever realise that he is merely an ordinary mortal, even if he does; cultivate extraordinary attitudes, and, that if he is not amenable to law and reason, he must pay the penalty. What, in fact, after all, docs anyone really care, whether or not Dr. Paget finds Mr So-and-So "stupid": we have} even beard stupidity alleged against himself! Jt is all so regrettable and the perspective is so sadly untrue when a man sets out to quarrel with the world, that we are sincerely sorry for him. For Dr. Paget wo bear none but the kindliest regard, and for bis skill a high appreciation. But bis manners very badly need mending—and hence these frank words: frankness at least Dr. Paget professes to appreciate.