Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1881-01-27
a STATE HOSPITAL FOE DECAYEL
MINERS.

Assemblyman WATSON, of Mono, has in
troduced bill to provide State hospital
and asylum for miners. 1t is to be &c a
"public hospital and asylum for the re-
'ception, care, medical and surgical treat
"ment and relief of the sick, injured, dis
"abled and aged miners" The bill does
not make any appropriation for the insti-
tuition, but provides that it shall be man
aged by Board of Trustees to be ap-
pointed by the Governor. The Trustees
are to choose Superintendent, who shall
hold for ten years at least, unless re-
moved for misconduct or incompetence.
The bill provides that " INDECENT miners
"shall be charged for medical attendance,
surgical operations, board and nursing,
''while resident in the hospital and asy-
"lum, no more than the actual cost; pay
"ing patients, whose friends can pay their
"upon townships and counties, shall pay
according to the terms directed by the
Trustees. 1t may seem strange that in
digent miners are to pay for what they have,
| for INDECENT miners are impecunious min
ers. We presume, however, from the tenor
of the ensuing clause, that the counties
which send this class are to foot the bills
for them. How the hospital and asylum
is to be built the bill does not indicate, no
,,ro,,;a;o,, bov;Dr baar ,nada for an1- Jro "a
upon the treasury save such as can only be
drawn alter the Institution has been fully
organized and put in working order. In
the absence of any explanation we fail to
understand how it is intended to build the
hospital Such an institution could not
be erected at less cost than $3.50, 900
probably, and it is not to be supposed that
the sum received for the keep of INDECENT
miners would furnish fund sufficient to pay
even the annual interest on this amount,
while the prospect of a considerable
revenue from paying inmates would we fear
be very poor. The objection is sure to be
raised, moreover, that an institution of this
kind would attract decayed miners from
the whole coast; that in fact it would
drain an enormous watershed in this re-
spect. Experience has proved that what
ever State institutions California maintains
for the relief of the afflicted and the dis.
eased, are resorted to by the people of the
entire Pacific Coast. This has been the
case with the insane asylums, and it can
not be doubted that the same experience
would be repeated with the miners hos
pital unless rigid rules were adopted for
the exclusion of all but California miners.
Apart from the uncertainty enveloping the
methods by which the hospital is to be
built, and the objection just named, how
ever, we are free to admit that the design
of Mr.. Wasson's bill is good one. There
exists very considerable class of
broken down miners scattered all
over the State, and these unfortu-
rates, having exhausted their strength
and health, and having laid nothing up
against rainy days, are certain in the ma.
tural course of things to become dependent
upon public charity. They must in fact
be supported in some way, and therefore
the question of what it will cost to keep
them is not an important one. Whether
the public pay the amount directly to the
recipients of their bounty, or indirectly
through the medium of general taxation,
matters nothing. It may be thought also
that these decayed miners have some claim
upon the hberahty of State which has