Dr. Saliba Withdraws Offer to Cancel Hospital Lease, July 6, 1923

Dr. Saliba Withdraws His Hospital Offer. . . Elizabeth City Will Carry on Hospital Free from Doctor Control

Dr. John Saliba has withdrawn his offer to take his hospital property off the hands of the Pasquotank Municipal Hospital Association and pay the indebtedness incurred by that body. The Hospital Association held a meeting Friday night to consider Dr. Saliba’s proposition, but no action was taken. “I will not press the matter further,” says Dr. Saliba.

The Hospital Association is much in the predicament of the man who got hold of a bear and didn’t know how to turn loose. That’s why no action was taken Friday night. A majority of the Board of Directors might have been inclined to have let Dr. Saliba taken his property back. But J.C.B. Ehringhaus, who wrote the charter for the Hospital Association, served notice on the directors that they had no authority to cancel the lease. Mr. Ehringhaus contended that, in his opinion, only the incorporators of the association, named in the original charter, had a right to cancel the lease. And nobody seemed to recall just who the incorporators were, since no one had brought a copy of the charter to the meeting.

Mr. Ehringhaus made a passionate speech for the continuation of the hospital as a community enterprise, tho it continued to operate at a loss. He is sure that there are enough publicly spirited citizens like himself who will go down into their pockets from time to time and make up any deficit. He also voices a belief that no deficit in the future will be anything like the deficit incurred in putting the hospital in order and getting it established on its present basis.

Mr. Ehringhaus is of the opinion that a privately operated hospital in Elizabeth City would be a calamity in view of the jealousies and animosities of local medical men. Mr. Ehringhaus believes that if any one doctor or group of doctors undertook to run a hospital here, other doctors would antagonize the hospital and jeopardize its success. And so the Pasquotank Municipal Hospital Association will continue to function for the sake of harmony. Certain citizens have already pledged subscription in a sufficient sum total to take care of the rent of the property for another two years.

From the front page of The Independent, Elizabeth City, N.C., Friday, July 6, 1923