Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1893-12-07

"a L0 uuStee0 ouu OI eVefyO0Qy con-
nected with the management shall be
bent to place these institutions upou the
very highest plane of excellence and su-
periority possible and that no personal
considerations, no considerations Of
friendship OF political patronage must
be permitted to stand in the way one
minute.
''The public l. reasonable. Il asks
only what is fair. This being q Dem
ocratic administration, when you en-
ploy men for important positions the
public will not find any fault with you
il you employ Democrats, but it will
find fault and it should condemn you for
employing men who are either in
competent or dishonest, or who are not
thorough-going. Let me say here, one
trouble constantly met with in the en-
ployment of men whoare urged by local
politicians is that they are simply what
are called good fellows Now, no
business can be run on good-fellow.
ship alone. We need energy and thor.
ugh-going purpose, and let me say to
you, gentlemen, that if you were to at
tempt to make places for the friends of
local politicians in these public institu-
tons and were to shut your eyes to lax
ity of management and extravaganza
you would never get any satisfaction
out of having held this office, for when
you step out of the Office there will be
nothing to give you any comfort and the
very men whom you have helped to
place in positions will not respect you
after you have ceased to give them a
job. In this connection let me suggest
further that you cannot manage an in
stitution with a high degree of in.
dependence and thoroughness if you
fill the places with men whom, for any
reason, it may be embarrassing to re.
move. You should not have an en-
ploye in an institution whom you eau.
not remove without moments hesita-
ton whenever it becomes apparent that
the best interests Of the institution re-
quire it. There has been some embar-
rassment OH account of the great expec.
tations of the localities or towns in the
immediate vicinity of certain institu.
tons. The people Of these towns seem
to regard the institutions as belonging to
them ant. they expect to run them-to
furnish the help and the supplies-and
| they usually want to do it in their own
way and they do not want to have too
thorough a scrutiny of the management.
They do not want too much competition
in furnishing supplies and they don't
want such thorough-going methods en-.
ployed as interfere with their friends.
The position of the local trustee is most
embarrassing. No matter how able OF
honest a man is, his position is embar.
RAISING. His town expects everything
of him. To sefSe his townsmen and
neighbors he must go in one direction,
while his duty toward tine state may re-
Quire him to so in another. In a few
cases we have no local trustees and our
experience is the most satisfactory there.
| INSPECTION BY TRUSTEES.
ION the subject Of inspection by trus
tees and by the members of the state
board of public charities will say that
to my mind, little is accomplished by
going to an institution In a body, getting
a good dinner and taking walk around
it, or even through it. and those trustee.
who simply so to the board meetings
and do not give the institution much at.
tention in any other way do not do their
full duty. Each institution is SO large that
it is almost impossible for one man, act
ing as superb ntendent, to keep wide
awake, energ etc spirit prevailing all owe,
it, and the trustees can help very much
in this regard if they will 60 singly and
go often and so at unexpected hours te
an institution and go all over it; lool
into every room, nook and corner Of it
go into the kitchen; so into the dining
room when the patients are eating; lool
after everything. In this way they will
greatly assist in keeping up the tone and
will make it very much easier for the
superintendent to keep the entire force ol
employees in that spirit in which nothing
will be neglected. ! want to impress or
you that every person who is guilty OF
brutal conduct towards patients should
he promptly discharged. not simply he
cause of some particular act, but be
cause of a disposition unsuited for the
place. Let me here also suggest the ad.
visibility Of having competent female
physician in each Of our large asylum.
where women are confined.
ELL OF FARE.
II want to impress upon you the vital
importance of having thoroughly com
potent person to supervise the making o.
the daily bill OF fare and tile cooking
and service. The success of your man
agement will depend largely on this
There is such great variety of subsian
tial articles Of food. costing about til,
same price, that aEikh n = little ingenuity
the table can be greatly improved with
out increasing the expense. This LA,
been too generally neglected in th,
past. Not only the superintendent bu
the trustees should give the table all tn,
attention possible. =
PURCHASING sUPP1IES. 90
''But the principal reason for calling
you together here to-day was to consid
er the subject Of purchasing supplies
and in doing this I do not wish to be un
ders.ood as rejecting upon any person
who has bought supplies for any Of tn
institutions in the past and certainly no
Al. IL Al.