New-York tribune., 1902-03-08
GOVERNOR ODELL UPHELD.
AN EXPERIENCED ADMINISTRATOR OF
CHARITIES ON REFORM OF STATE
HOSPITALS,

HOSPITALS.
TO the Editor OF The Tribune.
Sir: The effort being made in the Empire
State to consolidate the functions Of the local
boards of trustees which manage the inter
ests Of the insane in single board having ju-
risdiction all is being watched with inter
est by all friends of the movement throughout
the country The straw which has been
threshed over in the arguments for and against
the Governors bill, which is now law, is not
new straw, but the threshers occupied new posi-
tions on the threshing floor, and their fails Of
fered something instructive in patterns. 1t is
refreshing TO know that those who opposed
Governor OdelPs recommendation were not will
ing to rest their side of the upon the simple
consideration of the welfare Of the unfortunates
whose comfort and hopes involved, but
willing that the less noble considerations of
possible trade interests should be forced upon the
public attention. They thus furnished one of the
best reasons why such change should be made.
for 1t is certain that every system of local con-
troll is more or less Influenced by the political.
business and social interests which characterize
the life Of institution towns. and often to the
detriment of the broader policies of the larger
community, the State. Kansas. Wisconsin, Iowa
and Minnesota have all thrown off the bondage
of local control. and are proving that the same
in private corporation affairs to insure har-
mony Of efficiency and progress equally de-
sirable In the conduct of the public business.
The effort of the Governor of Illinois to ac-
complish the same reform failed at the recent
session of the Illinois legislature notwithstand-
ing the fact that it had the support of the State
Board of Charities and Correction, which was
to be abolished by the change. The officials of
this supervisory board, whose functions
limited to the giving of good advice, quite
willing to go out Of Office If in their stead there
might be abolition OF all local boards of trus-
tees and the consolidation Of management in a
single board of control. Much has been said
in praise Of the disnterested service Of the un-
paid local trustee; and, without in the least
detracting from the evidence of kind motive
which SO uniformly characterizes the member
ship of the local board, 1t may be justly said
that as a rule the members Of such boards give
but minimum of time from other business vo-
cations to the grave problems of state and their
visits too often partake of the character of So
cial calls and compliant acQuiescence in the sug-
gestions of superintendents than of original
painstaking study conducted on independent
lines
A great truth to be kept in mind in such study
is that evolutons of progress in the public ad-
nnistration of charities and correction set
in motion or retarded by the influences which
control each legislative sphere Of action. In
stead Of a single parliament dealing with the
country as a whole, have multitude Of par
liaments, each supreme in its sphere Of jurisdic-
ton There is more wonder that States do not
learn of each other than there is that nations do
not learn Of each other.
More than thousand years ago Belgium gave
TO the world a humane example in the care of
the insane, when the peasants of Gheel found a
way to open their homes to the shelter and care
of the lunatics who were brought to the shrine
Of a patron saint in the hope of relief, and dur
ing the centuries since the children of that re-
markable community have associated with the
queer people who seek refuge in the COM
nnunitv Less than one hundred years ago the
hest that the New World. with it's noble aspira-
tions for civil and religious liberty, had to offer
in hospitality to the stricken insane was the
log cabin chains and straw, which augmented
the grief and fear which afflicted every house
hold into which the disorder of unreason had
entered But the world of intelligent thought is
a moving world, and America, through the very
waste of her State systems and the repetitions
of error in laws and customs, has accomplished
more through the teaching of experience in
hundred years than has been learned in the
centuries of complacency under systems of
tional bureaucratic methods. And what strides
we are making! Barely thirty years ago the
form of hospital and asylum construction for
the insane contemplated the expensive housing
of the larger number in separate quarters, the
innumerable bedrooms constituting a heavy
feature of expense. Now know that the
larger number of the insane be trusted to
the liberty Of freedom in association, and, aside
from special cases which exhibit tendencies TO
homicidaI and suicidal mania, the skilled at
tendants trained in the hospital school are
abled to govern their patients in much the same
manner as children governed Thus
NOW learning what the peasants Of Belgium
learned a thousand years ago, and they are now
turning TO the New World for the light which is
deye,oned through our rapid forms of expert
mentation.
rIere in Minnesota as well as in other States,
tba farm colony plan is making satisfactory
headway. There is no medicine for the distress
., ,unacv which compares in efficiency in its
acect upon an able bodied man with that af-
,orded bv Mother Earth in her gardens of vege-
.h,es and her orchards and vineyards
t2etter hospitals for the possible curables and
,o the care of the sick and feeble, well equipped
With all the appliances which science demands
,n the name of humanity are the order or the
,haea will he made possible through a