St. Paul daily globe., 1896-03-29
PATERNALIsM GONE TO SEED.

Republican paternalism in Minnesota
has ripened and gone to seed in the
Jag-cure' act. 1t has gone through
the regular processes Of development
the duty Of government to. care for
everybody, its. application to the in
ebrlate, his treatment at the public
cost, the localizat1on of the profits Of
the process, and the fiasee.- In larger
fields we have seen the same process
moving to the same end, the flower Of
public utility bearing apples of discord.
How far selfish interests played on
legislative sentiment in the Initiation of
the act we do not know. Their activity
In other instances warrants a suspicion
that they did here. If so, it is fit that
other interests as selfish should have
defeated the promoters.
The facts are few and simple. The
legislature Of 1896 conceived the idea.
or had injected into it the idea that
it is the duty of the state to provide
treatment for those incapables who have
become SO through their voluntary ac-
quisition Of and indulgence in the habit
of intemperate use of intoxicants If
the state is to care for every one. here
was place for the application of the
doctrine. Strangely. the .drunkard was
left his option of taking the gold cure
or not; but If he wished to- or his
friends desired it, he eonsenting, the
ind rsf
subject needed the states help, might
commit him to such reputable double
chloride of gold cure institute or any
reputable institution in which inebri-
ates may be cured" as commission
appointed by the judge might select,
provided the institute were within the
state. Then the county commissioners
might contract with it's managers for
and the county must pay the bill. The
judge of probate appointed a commits
sion, and it selected an institute in a
neighboring city. The legislature hav-
ing limited location to the state, the
county commissioners naturally limited
1t to their county. They refused to con-
tract with the institute selected by the
commission, and the commission will
the jag-cure law hangs suspended in
mid-air between these two.
But there is in the act singular con-
tradictfen of principles, a sort of.
.Sha r,aa-faoad admission, .+bo+ - -4,4o -,
no right to provide. at the public cost,
for the cure Of a disease or a habit
voluntarily contracted, and an effort
to blink the bald paternalism of the
act. Section declares that the money
so appropriated and used is loan from
the county to the patient, and it re-
quires him to execute his promissory
note payable to the county within five
years without interest. It NAV he ,.e.
newed by the Judge If not paid when
due, and no minor is permitted to plead
the baby act" in Defense although no
power to sue to compel payment ia
given. While the state cares for in.
sane persons at its cost, regardless Of
how we'll or i'll able the patient is TO
bear it. the sjag-cure applicant must
be without money or property" If
he have a homestead, however this
will not count against him. These prol
visions We're needed to properly set off
the gretesqueness of the whole busi-
ness. There is humor worthy of
Hosea Bigelow in asking a Door.
worthless inebriate to give the county
his promfssory note. and, as IL rec
ognizing in advance the futiIity Of
the act, providing for unlimited
extensions of time. We doubt If the
legislature seriously believed that any
jag-cure patient would ever pay the
note. Naturally. such a one would ar
que that If it was the duty Of the state
to take care of him when he had in
capacitated himself from caring for
himself, then its correlative was his
right to have such treatment; and,