Hopkinsville Kentuckian. [volume] (Hopkinsville, Ky.) 1889-1918, 1902-08-19
Am ILLlNoIs .couNTERPART.

AN ILLINOIS COUNTERPART.
Illinois. a Republican state, is
HAVING an asylum scandal, or gath
Ter a series of scandals, that are
/ almost exact counterparts Of those
that have characterized the West
ern Kentucky Asylum The Chica-
90 Record-Herald, a leading paper
Of Illinois and a staunch Republi-
can organ, is leading in the demand
for an investigation, taking the
ground that political party should
do its own house-cleaning.
The following editorial, with a
change of names, would fit Ken
lucky as well as Illinois:
''In spite. of a strenuous effort to
forestall an honest Investigation Of
the charges against the manage.
ment of the insane asylum at Kan
kakee the inquiry has proceeded
far enough to disclose abuses that
are a disgrace to the state and a
reproach to the intelligence of a
people who will tolerate such a
system.
1t was the evident purpose of the
board of charities, which is now
part of the governors state ma
chine, to lay plans for a general
embarrassing of the whole affair.
The spectacle of one branch of
political machine Investigating
another branch of the same ma
chine is of course an absurdity
calculated to excite the mistrust of
intelligent taxpayers BY having
the attorneys of the Civil
Service Reform League and of other
civic organizations present, howev-
er, it was hoped that a whitewash
of the management could be pre-
vented. Through their vigorous
protests and insistence upon the
right to produce witnesses and ex-
anime them before the board sensa-
tional and damaging disclosures
were finally made.
The testimony of DR.. V. p. Podes-
tata, for time chief of the medical
staff of the hospital, and connected
with it for seven years, showed that
Senator Len Small and not Super
intendent Corbus is the real head
of the institution; that applicants
for positions were always referred
by the uperintendent to Small;
that the two women patients who
recently gave birth to children
were allowed liberties in violation
of the rules of the institution, and
that one of them must have been
betrayed by an attendant; that the
relation between male attendants
and female attendants were grossly
improper; that he himself had paid
regularly to Superintendent Corbus
a political assessment of 5 per cent.
of his salary; that liquors were
served in abundance to visitors.
OF course all these charges will
be vigorously denied and an at
tempt will be made to discredit the |
testimony Of witnesses discharged /
from the institution. But the peo-
pie cannot be persuaded that such |
direct allegations are entirely with- |
out some foundation. They are of /
such a serious character that any
to whitewash the manage |
ment on the part of the board OF
charities will excite popular pro-
test and public suspicion. A white
washing report will not close the
the affair at Kankankee.
Kentucky has no Civil Service
Reform League, but healthy pub
lie sentiment, backed by the COURTS
will carry on the fight for deceney
Unfortunately there is no great
state organ to represent the people,
and the country press must be
relied upon to expose the rotten
ness that has received a co at of
official whitewash.