Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1902-08-05

ing the insane or to their demon
strated fitness for the work. No
fouler scandal has been unearthed
in the history of the state; nothing
more horrible could be conceived than
the betrayal of the irresponsible vic
Tins and the birth into the world of
children whose eventual insanity is n
matter almost of certainty. From
one end of Illinois to the other men
and women will shudder at the
thought of the helplessness of the
poor creatures who have been con-
demned to the mercy of the wretches
on the rolls of state asylums. The
relatives of other women in the
asylum will tremble for their fate. r
ut cannot be said that wrongdoing
is impossible in an asylum where the
merit system prevails, but the posi-
bility of its occurrence is slight.
If the merit system had been in
force at the Kankakee asylum the
employees would have been chosen
after a close inquiry as to their fit
ness, moral and mental, for. the work
they were to perform. If unfit men
got in no influence would have saved
them from dismissal. As it. is, the
rolls are filled with the political
hackers of n local boss" and others,
whose chief qualification as guards
of insane people is that they will
work for machine" This is not
the first scandal in Kankakee that
has reached the public ear since Gov.
Yates election, although on the previ-
Gus occasions, as now, there was an
effort to hush up the matter.
The secret is out. There can be
no defense on this occasion as there
was afew months ago, when an in
sane boy was scalded to death at
Jacksonville. AS infamous a crime
as ever disgraced the service of
mercy has been done. The men who
nominally had actually manage af-
fairs at the Kankakee asylum are
Gov. Yates friends. 1t is never
agreeable to investigate ones friends,
but il is the governors duty, as he
well knows, to order an investigation
one of the searching kind. 1t is
specially incumbent on the governor
to do this because during the cam
paign which preceded his election he
asserted that the blot on the demo-
cratic state administration had been
its failure to care for the wards of
the state. The record of the Altgeld
administration was not blameless,
but was married by no such crimes as
those committed at the Kankallee
asylum.
THE sickening facts printed in the
Tribune will move Gov. Yates to or
der an Investigation. They should
move him TO do more than that. They
should open his eyes to the grievous
error he committed when he broke
faith with the people. He gave them
to understand that the state insti-
tutions would not be managed after
the old spoils system. If he had
kept that promise there would have
been few, if any scandals in the in
situations. If offenses had been com
mitted at any one of them the of
tenders would have been exposed and
punished at once by vigilant officials
who owed their places to merit, not
influence. Such Officials would make
no effort to hush up matters and
screen unworthy employees.
''The wrongs which have been done
at Kankakee cannot be undone. But
it is not too late for Gov. Yates to
turn over new leaf. If he chooses
he can make the repetition of the
crimes committed at Kankakee prac-
tically impossible. He can take the
asylum out of the hands of a local po-
litician. He can give it nonpolitical
management under which it will he
purged of immoral and incompetent
employees, or he can cling to the sys-
tenn of political management in the
Kankakee and other institutions
But if he does there will be future
scandals, some of which his appintees
will be no more able to hide from the
public than they were the odious aft
fair at Kankakee."