St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1885-08-12
AND CHARITIES.
The State Board Considers the Sub
ject of Out Door Relief.

JeCt VI Out DOOR helAeIs
The state board of corrections and char
tiles held its tenth quarterly meeting at the
Office of the board at the capitol yesterday
morning. Gov. Hubbard, president of the
board, being absent the vice president, Rev.
DR. Dana, occupied the chair. The MEM
berS were all present, Messrs. ID. c. Bell,
Minneapolis; c. II. Berry, Winona; William
Campbell, Litchfeld; NJ. MEG. Dana, st.
PauS; G. Vivian, Alexandria, and II. r.
Wells, Preston, and the secretary.
Messrs. Dana, Bell and Hart were ap-
pointed committee to represent the body
in matters pertaining to the next national
conference of charities and corrections.
which will meet in st. Paul in 1856, and to
report the names of the citizens of the state
to constitute with themselves am executive
committee to make arrangements for the
conference.
The secretary presented his yearly re-
port, which was received and placed on file.
The secretary was instructed TO subscribe
for 200 copies of the proceedings of the
Washington national conference for distri-
button.
The secretary was authorized to visit the
Wisconsin institutions and confer with
Secretary Wright of Wisconsin and Secre-
tary Wines of Illinois with reference to
uniform statistics on pauperiSm, insanity,
ETC., for the three states.
Bills were audited and ordered paid and
the secretary submitted a plan which was
approved for village lookup to provide a
building, fire proof, easily kept clean. well
lighted and ventilated and sufficiently Sc
cure. The building is to be constructed Of
brick and iron, with capacity of four pris-
oners and to cost 81, 600.
DOCTORS FOR THE POOR.
In his report the secretary dwelt at
length on the results of an investigation he
had made into the expenditures of the
counties for the medical treatment of pau
pers for the year ending March 1. Nine
and probably eleven of the counties fail to
comply with the law requiring the employ
ment of a county physician. In all but
two of these the rate of medical attend
ance is higher than the average. In six Of
them the expenses are more than 90 per
cent. in excess of the average, and are
probably in every case too high.
Twenty counties pay fees instead of sal
aries, which range from % cents per mile
in Murray county to s. visit and 81 per
mile in Mile Laos county. Twenty-Five
counties pay salaries ranging from SIS per
year in Lincoln county to 5000 in Hennepin
county, S1.5OO for the city of Minneapolis
and 81, 500 in Ramsey county, including st.
Paul.
Expenditures for medical attendance and
medicine constitute a little more than 10
per cent Of the pauper expenses of the
counties, averaging in 1888 3 cents and in
1884 81 cents per inhabitant. Since 1888
twenty-One counties have increased their
average medical expenses and thirty-two
have decreased them.
The secretary then gives an account of
his visits TO county jails. Concerning the
jail of Becker county, it is said that it is not
secure nor sufficiently protected from fire.
The Douglass county jail was reported
utterly unfit for use, for diverse reasons,
being under ground, dark, damp and in
secure.
The Brainerd city lookup was reported TO
be an insecure fire trap unit for use. About
fifteen or twenty jails were visited in all.
Statements are given as to the condition of
other jails and prisons.
The secretary also gives an account OF his
visit to the city jail of Washington, ID. c.,
which is in the form of a cross, arranged
for the solitary confinement of prisoners,
and is one of the three or four best jails in
the United States.
Concerning the state institutions the sec
rotary says that the expenses of the institu-
ton for the blind are being increased by the
necessity of heating for thirty-five pupils a
space sufficient for sixty. He also thought
it difficult to understand why it Should be
thought necessary to light the institutions
for the blind and imbecile with gas.
He reports the new shops for the deaf as
rapidly approaching completion.
In this report Secretary Hart gives a
synopsis of the national conference of cor
rectiOns and charities at Washington, and
eXhorts the board to take measures to de-
rive the most possible benefit from the sug-
gestiOns there made. He argues against
building another state prison at stone
quarry for the purpose of making stone
quarrying and cutting the chief occupa-
tions of the prisoners, for the reason that
such an institution could not be made re-
formatory, and that only a minority of
conYictS are adapted TO working in stone.
Moreover, the quarrying industry can be
prosecuted but part of the year.
OUTDOOR RELIEF.
The secretary also submitted the results
of an investigation into the subject of out
door relief, as practiced in twenty-eight
different counties, in which the increase
and decrease of expenditures is noted.
The following table shows the number of
cents expended per inhabitant for pauper
relief in each of the counties named: also
the amount per inhabtant paid for ''out-
door relief of paupers and the number of
individual cases reported as receiving out
door rrlief, with the average amount paid
to each case added. The table is reduced
to this form for convenience OF comparison:
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