Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1901-11-21
UNF FA|R CRITICISM
Board OF Control Charged With
Harassins County Officials
About the Insane.
Cownie Shows How Unreason.
able is the Charge..Reason-
able Regulation Wanted.
Morrison Believed to Have the
Best Of it in the Glove
Case.
special to Times. .Republican.

Des Moines. Nov. 2l.-one Of the
harshest criticisms of the state board OF
control for having adopted stringent
regulations for the government Of coun-
ty and private insane hospitals ap-
peared in the Ottumwa Courier few
days ago, the purport of which was that
the board is engaged in harassing the
officials in charge of county asylums SO
as to compel them to abandon their in
stitutions and to send their insane to
the state hospitals and asylums, and
that this process of discouraging local
asylums is for the purpose of primarily
filing the state hospitals and making an
excuse for maintaining them on such
large proportions. Specific reference was
made to the hospital at Independence
and an accusation that the board had
difficulty in keeping it filled. The edi-
torial was shown to John Cownie, of the
state board of control, last evening, the
only one of the members in the city,. He
said:
bend the aims of the board in this mat
ter. We only desire that the county and
private asylums shall be managed SO as
TO provide for the comfort and safety of
the insane. We are not engaged in try
ing to fill our state hospitals. Why, our
state hospitals are filed to overflowing
low and we do not know what to do
with the patients. The corridors of the
hospitals are filled with cots to accom-
modate the patients. The trouble we
have is not to find patients, but to find
places to put the patients. Here on my
table are applications or recommends
tions for paroles III q number of cases.
DR.. Hill has been paroling them out
just as fast as it is possible to do SO.
that he may make room for others.
Whenever friends or relatives desire that
patients shall be returned to them and
i. is deemed safe they are allowed to
CO.. at the same time we have applica-
tions from managers. of county asylums
tor.removal OF patients to the state hos
pitals which we are compelled to refuse
because we have no place for the pa
tients.''
BY our reports Just made it is shown
that at the present rate of increase of
insanity in Iowa we will have to build
another new hospital every ten years
This is an alarming condition OF affairs.
The present hospitals can be enlarged by
addition of cottages and room be made
for them, but the state will probably
never be in position to care for all the
insane of the state at the state hospitals.
But we are not trying to get more pa
tients for these hospitals. We recom-
mend laws that will reduce the number
by shutting out those dumped on us
from other states.
No; the purposes Of the board are
misunderstood In this matter of regulat-
ing private and county asylums. We
have adopted only what we regard as
reasonable regulations. and IL they are
lived up to or approached it will be bet
ter for the unfortunates of the state
The termination of the case in the SUI
perior court of KeokS1S involving title
TO some of the land connected with the
penitentiary at Fort Madison gives
pleasure to the board of control The
land on which that pentitentiary is To-
Gated was conveyed to the state by deed
in 1888 Descriptions We're not as clear
as they should have been. The land sur
rounding had been plated and after
wards was partly unpiatted. The in
definiteness continued until few years
ago one Currier purchased adjoining
land and secured sheriff's deed. Then
ii was found that Currier claimed por-
ton of the penitentiary land. He undec-
took to build a fence on land which had
been for many years regarded as the
property of the state. The warden in
terfered. Finally the warden had to
threaten to use force to prevent the
building of the fence, which fence would
cut off the water supply from the reser-
voir which supplies the penitentiary
asked for an injunction to restrain the
warden from interfering with him. The
reason he didn't go into court on an or
dinary law case was that the warden
being an agent of the state could not be
sued in that way. The case has been in
court about two years and finally Judge
Hughes has thrown it out of court, leav-
ing the state in possession of it's own
The Morrison glove case from Grinnell
developed into a decidedly interesting
one. involving much more than appeared
on the surface. Judge Mcpherson took
it under advisement last evening and is
expected to deliver an opinion almost
any time. Those who watched the case
from the outside believe that Morrison
had the best of it all thru. The express
sions of the court during the progress of
the case indicated that he had no pa
tience with those who have tried to
prevent the establishment of the indus
try in Iowa and to prosecute men who
have insisted on securing skilled labor
regardless of expense. The case involves
the alien contract labor laws, and much
more.
Ex-Speaker Webb Byers is again suf-
fering from his eyes A letter from him
yesterday indicated that he has had
some sort of an operation performed OH
his eyes and that he has been kept in
dark room for week pending the devel-
opment of the case. He has had trouble
of similar nature before.
Des Moines contractors are importing
brick into Des Moires to finish their con.