Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1889-02-08
& QUESTION OF HUMANITY AND
ECONOMY.

As has been repeatedly said in these
Columns, SO again we assert that the ques-
tion AT what precise point shall
the Home for the Predetermined be
located y is not at issue, but simply
that OF removal from the present site.
The fear of our Santa Clara friends that
removal means removal beyond their
county appears to be the chief reason for
their resistance to the bill to provide the
institution with a proper location and ade-
quate buildings and acreage.
We have shown, we think, by citing the
experience of others, by proving that
Improvement of the feeble-minded can be
ms'ie under right treatment, that the great
an overshadowing purpose of the institu-
zion IS to make the inmates self-helpful !;
that to do so their surroundings must be of
th' best character; the sanitary conditions
must be of the highest order, the grounds
fertile, we'll elevated, with fine sun ex-
p7sure, as great freedom from natural de-
fests as can be secured, and SO related to
the buildings as to be easy Of access from
then. They must be sufficiently large to
enable varied farming and gardening TO be
carried on, and the climatic conditions
must be such as to conserve the highest
state Of physical health.
-, too, with the buildings; they must
be Of such character in their spaciousness,
conformation and internal arrangement as
viii best respond to the methods of train
ing found essential to the Improvement of
their unfortunate inmates. These require
ments were set forth few days ago in elab-
crate detail in these columns as drawn
from the experience of similar institutions
IN various parts of the world, and there
fore need not be now repeated
/ follows that to attain these ends there
must be fully as broad liberality of endow-
men' Of the Home by the State as is asked
for in the bill now pending, for properly
eqnipping the institution Anything less
than that will cripple the Home" for all
Its future. True economy dictates to the
Stale that it should start right in this
MAJ e., and not provoke future i'll and
greater outlay by present pinching. An
intelligent correspondent of the San Jose
1iales rebukes the people of that section
who oppose relocation, and declares that
they do not represent the entire commu-
nifty. Those who have examined into the
matter, she says,
Carefully, dspassienateiy and unbiased by
any soeal sel1shness-will be convinced that to
accomplish the object for which il is designed
our Aome for Feeble-Minded Children must he
currently located. Keeping ever in view the
taet that this institution is endowed by the
etale not in the interest of the town of Santa
Clara or Los Gatos or Milpitas but for the ameli-
Oral on OF the saddest class of afflicted beings
upon the earth-and carefully considering the
best means for this end, then the present site is
unlj Tor this purpose. Why? Just now is a
lu'ning point IN the existence of the Home"
Inc buildings are all of temporary nature
HeBcetorth IL must build for future that shall
ext-nd through who can say how many years
1t must build for a community of very many
hundreds, which will have within . few
yeas ior this class is growing class and must
De, rs long as children are born the weakened
OF eelormed expression of parental sim sorrow
OF t2eess.
This writer, who rises superior to local
prcudices, and is far seeing enough to view
the future, then proceeds to point out the
irrcparable defects of the present location
alal 20 show that the scheme of making
thu inmates of the Home self-helpful and
very nearly, if not wholly, self-supporting,
cannot be carried out under present loca-
ton conditions. She declares that the
question of employing the inmates is not
experimental, it involves no uncertain
proolemi on the contrary, it has been
demonstrated that the feeble minded can
be made self-helpful. As the correspond
ent referred to says:
IA he Elwyn Pa. Institution for Imbeciles
all the garments worn in the OBSERVATION-DISCLOSURES
tn ie are many hundred people-are made nv
u o1pils, and many sewing machines are en-
plos ed Bedmaking. dining room work sweep
inu the ike labors, are performed by the
glfis. All the boots and shoes worn in the in
stit Lon are m7de by the pupils These com.
pihtd ministries not only save to the State of
fes sylVania many thousand dollars every
yea, fut, what is of indefinitely more yaIne
ma Industrious, self helpful Citizens ont Of
ms O nefwise helpless class. In the Columbus
mo successfully by the pupils, with the same
result Some boys are colonized on portions
ana work under direction most probably
The writer might easily have cited other
insisnces. If such things can be accom-
plisaed IN the East, what may not be done
with these unfortunstes under the favor
lns conditions that prevail in California
Lst as not handicap them by such Mig
gsf0'r economy and by retention of an
ilf-sAosen location, as will divert and
weaAen the humane effort to ameliorate
the condition OF the Predetermined. or pre-
vent their removal from the category of
wholly dependent State charges.