The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1905-12-30
OUTRAGE ON POOR
Cry for Reform in Conduct of
County Farms.
Labor Commissioner Johnson
Speaks Out Plainly.
HERDED TOGETHER.
Refined and Educated With
Gross and Ignorant.
superintendent Named With
out Regard to Qualifications.
TOGETHER.

commissioner. Mr.. johnson said:
Reviewing the investigation of
county charities made by our bureau
of labor in 1899. we divided the sub
| jeet into two parts, asylum farm and
outside relief. It should be borne in
mind that the law governing the Kan
/ sas system of county asylums and the
disbursement of our outside relief was
/ enacted in 1852, with but a few slight
amendments since that time, and that
1 it is patterned after ancient models,
and reflects and perpetuates the de-
fects of time when all ideas relat-
ing to our helpless and unfortunate
were in a crude. undeveloped and un-
4 systematized state.
THAT this ill-advised county
asylum system has become so firmly
| fixed upon US is perhaps accounted for
from the fact that the class of persons
for whom the system is intended is
composed of the most hopeless and
unimp rOvable element of our popula-
ton, in whom public interest is always
at low ebb. If they can be kept out
of sight and out of mind the public
is usually satisfied to know that they
have a roof over their heads and suffi-
cient plain food to prevent actual
suffering.
while the law provides for a
county asylum on a poor farm, owned
/ by the county, and for a superintend-
| ent who must be, in the language of
the law, a humane and responsible
| person, yet our investigations have
brought forth. among other things, a
number of defects, which may be re-
/ ferred to here as follows:
''F'irst-The law provides for no pro-
/ per separation of the sexes. Under the
/ system as operated under the law it is
practically impossible to enforce such a
sex separation as is absolutely neceS-
/ Sary to prevent immoral and denOraliz-
! ing practices. AS it is, only the utmost
! superintendent can prevent the gross
est disregard of the rules of common
/ decency.
"Second-A notable defect in the law
is the absence of any provision for the
/ classification of the inmates. The aged
! and respectable poor, the dissOlute,
/ coarse, and degraded, the feeble-mind-
/ ed, the cripples and physical wrecks,
the insane and even the vicious may be,
and usually are, herded indiScTiminate-
! " together, with no legal restraint to
/ the contrary. To compel an aged WO-
| man of intelligence, Who has been all
her life accustomed to a decent and re-
| fined standard of living. to associate in
| timately with the gross and ignorant
| who constitute a large share of our
asylum population is an injustice at
! which humanity revolts.
/ "A third defect in the ease with which
! persons who are canable of self-support
may become public burdens by entering
| our poor asylums. as well as the ease
with which well-to-do persons may
avoid the care and support of INDECENT
relatives by shifting them upon the
/ county.
still another serious defect in the
law is the manner in which poor asylum
superintendent are appointed and dis
! missed Equally great is the fault of
the law in prescribing the qualifications
of the superintendent. Judging from
results, the language of the law-'hu-
name and responsible persons admits of
widely and wondrously different applica-
tions. Seldom are appointments made
4 wholly upon fitness. and usually the
same is true of discharges. So long as
poor asylums are regarded as legiti-
j mate political spoil, and the county
commissioners take their turn at nam
ing the poor farm superintendent. their
management cannot be a credit to the
state that such an institution should
be.
referring to the distribution of out
side relief it will be seen at a glance
that the principal defects of the law are
with the township trustees whose duty
it is made to disburse our county char
tiles for outside relief. They are elected
for short terms. and the earring for the
dependents within their charge is re-
garded as one of the minor duties, and
that primarily they were not elected for
the administering of this particular
! township trustees almost autocratic
power in the expenditure of public
funds for the relief of the poor. What
ever may be the legal limit to the au-
thority of the overseers of the poor in
the distribution of public funds, there is
but little doubt but that the limit is
ldisregarded in a great many instances,
with the result that the money paid by
the people in the form Of taxation has
in some instances been wasted, and has
T1T-~.
has been a powerful influence in in
creasing it.
During 1899 the appropriations for
maintenance and support of the eight
state charitable institutions in Kansas
were $46S-OOO- In addition to this
there was expended in the mainten-
ance of asylum farms for the same
year, $135. 97S-40, and for outside re-
lief other than asylum farms. $685.
152.67, or in other words a total ex-
penditure through the legal forms OF
the state for charita bic purposes for
the year of 1899 of $S13,131 or an
amount equal to 81 cents per capita
for these purposes, yet many issues OF
i lesser moment enter into our state and
i governmental affairs and find their
way into political platforms, make and
unmake governors, and ambitious
4 statesmen mend or mar their legisla-
tive records by posing as the special
champion of the taxpayers or of some
special institution. while the almost
equal expense and infinitely worse
management and, which is Of greater
moment, the legal machinery pertain
ing to the management of county
charaities, do not cause even a. rip
pie of legislative comment
1T seems to me that the essential
purpose of this state association OF
charities should be to arouse public
attention to this state of affairs and tc
prevail upon the legislature for an en-
tire revision of legislation on the sub