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Molokai Impression Sirs: It is to be regretted that in your interesting and informative article on the "Return of Damien," in TIME, Feb. 3, you did not correct the general impression that the entire island of Molokai is a leper settlement, hence the name "Molokai" a bit loathesome.
In fairness to that beautiful little island it should be known that the leper settlement occupies only about six or seven square miles on a low lava flow peninsula which projects from the foot of the sheer cliffs, 1,500 to 2,000 ft. high, forming the imposing north coast of the island. The settlement is accessible from the remainder of the island only by a very steep and narrow foot and horse trail, carefully guarded. In fact the settlement is closer, insofar as accessibility is concerned, to Oahu than to the remainder of Molokai.
The main part of the island (area about 255 sq. mi.) is made up of a mountainous east end covered with perennially green forest and a drier west end covered with cattle ranches, thousands of acres of pineapples, and the Hoolehua-Palaau and Kalanianaole homesteads and house lots of the Hawaiian Homes Commission—totaling some 7,500 acres—on which that Commission is successfully rehabilitating some 1,250 Hawaiian farmers and their families. There are now about 410 "patients" at the settlement and a population of near 10,000 on the main island.
G. K. LARRISON
Hawaiian Homes Commission
Territory of Hawaii
Honolulu
Sirs:
As one of the 7,000 non-leprous residents on the island of Molokai, and as one of the two physicians on leeward Molokai, I would like to clarify and correct the wrong impressions held by most people on the mainland, which were. no doubt, strengthened after reading your otherwise excellent article on Father Damien. The general impression seems to be that Molokai is inhabited solely, or, at least, largely by lepers.
The territorial leprosarium, commonly called "Kalaupapa," which cares for some 500 lepers, is located on a relatively small peninsula jutting off the windward coast of Molokai. . . .
The incident of leprosy on leeward Molokai has been and is no higher than on any of the other islands of the Hawaiian Archipelago. . . . Amongst the causes of death in the Hawaiian Islands leprosy ranks very low. being under one percent, and, of course, all of these deaths occur in the two hospitals for lepers. . . .
LAURENCE WIIG, M.D.
Government Physician and Registrar Kaunakaki, Molokai, Hawaii
Supreme Court Relief
Sirs:
TIME unusually well-read and well-informed ought to answer a question that bothers my humble mind void of any legal enlightenment.
There is a great deal of agitation for a Constitutional Amendment curbing the power of the Supreme Court. We will not go into the question as to whether the Supreme Court, has gone into the business of framing laws rather than interpreting them, although current events clearly show that that question is debatable.
What I do like to know is why a Constitutional Amendment should be required when Article 3, Section 2 of the Constitution expressly provides for relief in case the Court's decision is liable to cause unsatisfactory conditions. The section referred to reads: