The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1905-11-25
Spirit of the Press.
The Weak and the Strong.

Charity and Children.
DR.. p. l.. Murphy, of the Morgan
ton Hospital, in an address before a
conference in Raleigh last week, i'll
urging the necessity for enlargement
of the insane asylums, made the start
ling statement that there is a young
woman in Allegheny county who has
been confined for ten years in a pen
adjoining her fathers home, and that
the roof was not of sufficient height
to permit her TO stand erect, and as a
result her body is deformed as much
as her mind is deranged."
In a ringing editorial the News and
Observer of Friday demands to know
why this young woman has suffered
this criminal neglect for all these
years. Somebody is responsible and
somebody ought to be brought TO taW
about it.
We desire to join the News and OBJ
server in its demand. The people of
North Carolina pay taxes to support
and take care of exactly such cases as
this. The doors of the hospital ought
to stand wide open to the INDECENT in
sane. If the building is crowded let
some of the rich patients be turned
out. They will not be put in pens. And
let a few of the prosperous drunkards
who are said to be occupying space
in the hospital be sent to Keely.
We are persuaded that there is vast
room for improvement in the manage
ment of our insane asylunlS. At Raj
eigh disclosures of cruelty have been
made that must be remedied, and at
Morganton again and again it has been
alleged that the doors always swing
open to the wealthy and influential.
These things ought not to be so;
and they must not be. We take it that
in the particular case of the young
woman who is forced TO live in a pep
that DR.. Murphy was in ignorance OF
her distressing condition, and that he
will speedily provide place for her.
He cannot do less.
But all over the State there are
cases of the worthy poor who are
knocking in vain for admittance. Is
there q family of social or financial
influence in North Carolina who has
found it impossible to secure a place
in either of our saylums for a loved
one wandering in the darkness of in
sanity? We simply ask the question.
We know of none.
Is this the faithful observance of the
law that provides first and foremost
for the "indieent insane?" Should the
influence or ability of a citizen give
him the preference over the poor and
the obscure? 1t is not strange that
this is the case, but is it right and is il
in accord with the law governing the
Institutions?
We believe the Morganton Hospital
is both wisely and humanely managed
as regards the treatment of the pa
tents on the inside, but the oft-re-
peated assertion that the rich find
reader access to its blessings than the
poor must have some foundation in
fact. What is the use to enlarge the
building or to increase the appropria-
ton # this course is to be pursued?
The weakest and most obscure
ought TO have the advantage over the
great and strong: but is it so?
If there have been any mistakes in
the admttance of patients at the Nor
canton Hospital on DR.. Murphy's part
they have been on mercys side, for
their is no kinder or more humane
man among us than he, and his man
agement of the hospital is most adj
mirablc.