Pteblic H ealtlz and Social Welfare Work
379
Santa Rosa Hospital rendered signal service in 1918 during the devastating influenza epidemic. Although overcrowded and overworked, Reverend Mother Mary John supplied eleven Sister Nurses to the Base Hospital. As long as the epidemic lasted, the volunteer nurses did yeoman service working almost twenty-four hours at one stretch. Some were sent also to help out at the Robert B. Green Memorial Hospital at a time when practically all its nurses were more or less afflicted with the ailment and incapacitated for duty. Both the Commanding Officer of the Southern Department and the Mayor of the city officially thanked the Mother Superior personally for the "services rendered by the Sisters." 35 Tlte first crippled cleildren ward. Santa Rosa Hospital, a pioneer institution, has the distinction of having established the first department devoted exclusively to the care of crippled children. A ward was set aside by Mother Robert for the use of children requiring surgical treatment, and the ladies of the city formed the Crippled Children's Association to aid in the good work, pledging themselves to support and equip the department with the necessary surgical appliances. Each day during the scholastic term students ft'om the Social Science Department of the Incarnate Word College conduct classes for the crippled children of the Pediatric Department. Taxation e:xemptio11 precedent set. A suit. far reaching in its effects, was brought against Santa Rosa Infirmary by the City of San Antonio in 1920 for taxes allegedly accumulated and owed by the institution. Upon its decision depended the future of all Catholic institutions of charity and social welfare in the State. The District Court in the original trial found in its consideration of the case that Santa Rosa was not being operated by the Sisters for profit as alleged and that under the Texas Statutes it came within the category of a "purely public charity" and was therefore entitled to claim exemption from State, County, City, and School Taxes on its buildings and lands. The City, firm in its determination to tax the hospital. immediately appealed the case to the Court of Appeals. After more than a year, the Court reversed the decision of the lower or trial Court and ruled cate- gorically on March 21, 1923 against Santa Rosa Hospital, holding it liabl~ for a large sum of money, the payment of which would have forced the Sisters to close the hospital. The new ruling affected not only Santa Rosa but every Catholic charity hospital in the state.
35 /bid., 42.
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