The Somerset herald. [volume] (Somerset, Pa.) 1870-1936, 1883-01-10
WHOLE NO. 1914.

} 0UD boys ana girls. IN ADDITION 70
, labor on the farm. employment is
! given on the premises in many forms
of trades industry. Schools are open
daily for all the inmates The dis
cipline was found to be firm and pa
rental. 1t is pleasure to assure YOU
that, after making, in company with
a number of gentlemen qualified to
Judge, an official inspection of SINH
lar institutions in several of the
States, which bad received judicious
approval from persons familiar with
the appliances needed in such
schools, we found our own school at
Morganza easily and decidedly the
superior in discipline, comfort and
efficiency to any we bad seen. The
directors and superintendents of this
institution deserve eommendation
for restoring it to condition OF the
greatest usefulness.
STATE CHARITIES.
The State ha~ in operation FIVE
hospitals for the care of the insane
at Norristown, Harrisburg, Dan
vile, Warren and Dixmout The
latter is not strictly Stare iustitu-
ton. but receives liberal aid from
the Sta'e In them are accommoda-
tons for nearly 1900 patients. The
buildings have cost several millions
of dollars, and are constructed in
view OF the largest experience. In
all of them, certain sums are requir-
ed of the State for annual mainte-
nance For the INDECENT insane, the
proper county or poor district re-im-
/ burses certain portion of the ex-
pense. In general the State receives
III return something more than balf
the cost of support. Some of the
hospitals are overcrowded, others
have a paucity eliminates dispropor-
toned To their capacity for treat
ment. 1t is evident that the State
has made much broader provision
for this class than will be actually
required in many years. The Board
of Public Charities have been, year
after year, laying their reports, mi
mute and careful in their facts and
recommendations. before the Legis
lature, but they have received no
adequate attention. No criticism is
intended of the management of these
Institutions. Still it is admitted that
III so vast a scheme of charity, there
is want of system and unity in adj
ministration which needs legislative
action. There ought to be uniform
charges made against township and
county authorities by all the hospit-
ais, to prevent what the board Justly |
call "a pernieious spirit of rivalry |
and underbidding, ending in lower
ing the standard of institutional |
care, and finally bringing it down to
the level of the ordinary aims
house" Provisions should be made
to- transferring patients from the
overcrowded institutions, and, if
need be, the whole system of dis
tricts" broken up. Above all, the
Legislature should hit upon some
general principle upon which APP
preparations are to be made to them
for maintenance. Otherwise, the un-
due urgency of some one institution,
or the combined ingenuity and per-
siitence of all together, may lead
either to an inequitable distribution
of your bounty, on the other hand,
or an utterly extravagant one on the
other. Such uniform rule it will
not be hard to discover.
As there is, at the disposal of the
Board of Public Charities, no fund
with which to carry their inquiries
beyond the range of State lnstitu-
tions, | requested a commission of
gentlemen, experts IN medicine, law
and technical treatment and man
agement, who propose to do SO at
their own expense ito examine into
the rtseIt sy stems, and inquire into
the legislation and experience OF
other States and countries, and to
make report OF their Investigations,
and recommendations,
for the further protection of the in
sane" These Investigations extend
ed to ''the care, mode of instruction
in public and private asylums,
general scope OF treatment, mode OF
and release" Their re-
port in the form of bill, | transmit
to you. 1t has involved a vast
of research, labor and ex-
pense, which the gentlemen of the
have voluntarily unders
gone. 1t is accompanied with a
of the laws of every State
and territory in the Union, 1nd with
of the French Ind Ger {
man laws. The English laws have
been fully studied. The information
which has been thus gained, and by l
great familiarity with institutions
for the insane i'll MANY of the States 5
in Europe. has been availed of, in {
order to give excellence to the scheme a
Of legislation on this question. / t
it to you as legislation
suited to the civilization under which {
we live.
In 1879 the Legislature directed /
he erection of State Hospital for {
injured persons of the anthracite
,oal regions, for the counties of
5chuylkill, Carbon, Northumberland, I
Columbia and Dauphin. This in :
'titution is now completed. The =
buildings are well arranged, the site {
: an eligible one, and the purposes "
If the act seem likely to be success n
'ully reached. The trustees took :
possession of the building in April U
asst Deeming it important that the q
hospital should be promptly opened n
md the buildings being unprovided ii
With the necessary furniture and n
appliances, they have advanced the n
unds required. In the situation Of o
fairs, then, this was a discreet and +,
udicious exercise of their functions, a
md its propriety will be recognized. n
n the incomplete condition of the 7;
lospital grounds, further appropria- .,
ions must be made in their behalf. %
Besides these State institutions +
cry liberal appropriations have n
'een made in the interests of the q
Iefective classes in Institutions not a
,pder State control. These are pure i