Nephew of Theodore Roosevelt Attacks Bishop on Closing of Clinic

An attack on Bishop William T. Manning, which reiterates the charge that racial prejudice is responsible for the closing of the Body and Soul Clinic of St. Mark’s-in-the-Bouwerie, is made by Monroe Douglas Robinson, nephew of the late Theodore Roosevelt.

The letter which appears in the New York Times, repeats the charges against Bishop Manning made by Dr. Edward S. Cowles, founder and director of the ousted clinic. The letter says in part:

“I have read in the New York Times your insinuating statement with respect to my intimate friend and physician, Dr. Edward Spencer Cowles. Why do you as my Bishop, deal in personalities when great humanitarian principles are involved: I blush with shame that my Bishop should stoop to personalities.

“You have put a ban on the clinic at St. Mark’s Church and there can be no adequate reason to justify this action because you have never seen the work of the clinic. There are thousands to testify to the saving of life and the restoration of health by Dr. Cowles. Why do you side with the vestry?

“I have been a vestryman of St. Mark’s Church and have been an Episcopalian all my life. My whole tradition is Episcopalian. I am horrified that my Bishop should be so lacking in sympathy as to sacrifice human welfare for prejudice at any time, but especially at this time of medical, mental, spiritual and worldly need.”

Dr. Cowles has made public a letter from Dr. William N. Guthrie, rector of the Church wherein the rector admitted the “moral obligations if not the strictly legal rights” of the clinic to demand a continuance after ten years of operation free of charge.