The news & observer., 1905-11-21
INSANE ASYLUM MATTERS AGAIN

Ifeld. a member of the board Of di-
rectors of the Morganton Hospital,
denying IN toto the statements made
in The News and Observer that in
digent insane" are and have been
crowded out of the hospitals establish
cd for the INDECENT insane and per
sons received for treatment whose
families are able to pay for their care
! at a private san;tarium. AS To the
| statement of the case of the Allegha-
| nv county woman. cited by Mr.. Arm
lield. which was used by DR.. Murphy
las an Illustration merely 10 show the
pressing need for more accOmmOd da-
| ton the fact has already been print
ed IN this paper that the woman kept
| in a pen ten years was taken into the
| asylum as soon as her condition was
] made known 70 the authorities. The
| error Of our reporter was corrected
ieditorially without waiting for an Of
case was only an Illustration and, ac-
cording to the officials, there are 9TH
| er cases of insane persons in Jail, IN
county homes, in homes of dire power
ty i'm North Carolina Mr.. Armfield
does not controSert the fact stated by
DR. Murphy in the Governors office
| last week that many insane cannot be
| taken in the hospitals, because of lack
of room These ''indigent insane are
Then denied treatment in the hospit-
/ ais of the State. while at Morganton
land at Raleigh room is provided for
patients whose families are able TO
! pay Mr.. Armfieid says there atc
only seventeen pa" patients at Nor
canton and DIR. Mckee says there are
only thirteen IN the Raleigh hospital.
| If each pay patient kept out only )nc
| '.indigent insane" person, there are
| Just thirty too many but IL
| these pay patients have attendants or
special apartments, they may keep
out more than thirty 'indigents.
Whatever the number every one
kept out to care for those who
could pay at private hospital
is contrary to the State Consti-
| tuition The legislative enacr-
ment permitting pay patients un-
der certain conditions, certainly cannot
be construed to justify leaving ''mdl-
gent insane" in jail. in county homes,
/ or in homes too poor to care for them.
/ If after the constitutional require
ment for INDECENT insane" IS carried
| out, there remains room for pay pa
tients the Legislature may order their
admission but not until then.
But there is another question-and
that is the materia, question TO real
i jreforms that are needed,--are al the
persons in the hospitals as 'indigent
really INDECENT? Mr.. Armtield, speak
ling for the Morganton Hospital, says
they are. Now To ascertain, whether
! Mr.. Armfield is right, we must be
told what the authorities at Morgan
ton mean by INDECENT 1t all turns
on that definition. In the past Dr.
IGrissom and DR.. Murphy and other
officials have had a definition as to
"indigent'' that would not pass mus
ter by county commissioners or the
board of pensions or any other State
Tor county authority. and patients have
been admitted as 'indigent' whose
families were amply able to pay for
their treatment in private sanitariums
THE only common sense definition OF
"indigent' is such as has been acted
Iupon by county commissioners and by
I, boards of pensions and like officials,
and not such as has too often been
acted upon by the authorities of our
Hospitals for the insane. Here is the
(, definition of ''indigent' given by the
Standard Dictionary:
Destitute of property or means OF
comfortable subsistence; needy; poor.
Judged by that definition and the
Ipractice that has always prevailed IN
other charitable institutions and pen
sion boards in North Carolina, will
the authorities at Morganton
and Raleigh say there are only
/ thirty patients in the hospital
that are not INDECENT" We
venture to say they will make no such
statement, and we do not doubt that
there are people received as "indl-
gent to the exclusion of the really
lindigent whose families are abundant
ly able to take care of them without
/ calling uoon the State to do so.
/ But this is not a matter that is to
,be settled by the definitions of hospit-
.faI authorities or the opinion of any
newspaper or individual. Nobody
should have any interest except to re-
ouire the hospital authorities To ac-
cept all ''indigent insane" now and not
wait fourteen months to do SO, if room
| can be made. 1t can be made certain
ly by transferring the pay patients TO
private sanitariums for thirty o.
more "indigent insane. More
room can be made also by refusing
to receive or care for any patients as
INDECENT whose families are able to
care for them. And more room can
be made by applying the rule of Civ
ing priority among INDECENT TO those
most needy. That rule has not been
enforced in the past. On the con-
trary, in not few instances. both al