Amador ledger. (Jackson, Amador County, Calif.) 1875-19??, 1906-11-23
STATE HOSPITAL ADMINISTRATION
A System that Beats no System, but a
Better would Work Better.
By Arthur j. piIlsbury.

By Arthur j. PiIlsbury.
The care of the insane and feebI,
minded, the epileptlc and the I'M
beetle, is at once profound charity
and tremendous burden. 1t takes al
awful burden from the shoulders Of
the individual and the family, but il
costs California more than million
a year to maintain its six benevolen;
institutions. 10 be more nearly ex.
act, for the year ending June 30, 1906,
the total direct and current expense OF
the hospital system was 81, O59, 749,
without counting deterioration OF
plants or interest on the gross in
vestment which now amounts to
upward of $1,000, 600 conservatively
estimated. And this is one public
investment that ought not to be less,
but more. 1t affords an Instance
where money can be invested to a
great saving of expenditures in after
years, and to greater saving in the
economic productiveness OF men and
women returned to society healed of
their mental hurts.
The Limitations of Local Boards.
1t is one of the limitations of un-
regenerate humanity that men shall
overvalue the interest that lies
Immediately at hand and undervaIue
those interests which are common to
society at large, but lie at greater
distance. We see this, for instance,
whsre delegates to nominating con-
vention will swap off "unsight and
unseen" votes for legislative, execu-
tive and judicial candidates in order
to secure place on state ticket for
a mere clerkship for local citizen,
who desires to be thus honored. We
see it where local interest will be
advocated although contessedly de
structive of state or national interests.
In common with similar limitations
local boards of managers of state
hospitals in their enthusiasm for the
interests of their immediate lnstltu-
tional charges, overlooked the higher
requirements of sound state policy.
There was little good ''team work.
among the several institutions for
the care of the insane, and the general
result was not in the highest public
interest.
The State Lunacy. Commission,
30 apparent did this finally become,
that the legislature enacted, and
Governor James H. Budd approved.
March 81, 1897, the Lunacy Commas
ion law. Tbs law established
general supervisory board, and COM
missioned general superintendent of
all the hospitals for the purpose of
keeping tab on all that the institu
lions were doing and securing better
team work from Rthem. The Iunacy
commission has secured these highly
desirable ends with a fair degree of
efficiency. 1t was not at first well
coined with outstretched arms by
local boards of managers, who pre-
ferred to be held accountable only to
their God for the wisdom and single
mindedness of their actions. How
ever, tactful work on the part of the
commission and the general supe1in-
tendent has gone far toward allaying
this feeling and there is now whole
some degree of reciprocity and CO.
operation all along the line.
How the Board is Constituted.
The State Lunacy Commission is
composed of the governor of the state,
the secretary of state, attorney gene
raj, the secretary OF the State Board
OF Health, and the general superIn-
tendent of all the state hospitals. AS
substitutes, when certain of the above
mentioned members cannot act, the
assistant attorney general serves in
the place of the attorney general and
secretary of the State Boald of Elk.
aminers acts as chairman when the
governor is not present.
Tremendously Busy Men.
These are all tremendously busy
men. The business of the state of
California is becoming so enormous
in volumne, and so important in de-
tail that the governor thereof, though
he were able to work twenty hours
out of twenty four instead of ten or
twelve hours, as the present
governor has done, could not keep in
close touch with the interests of hos
pItal management. The business of
the office of the secretary of state has,
in recent years, not only increased in
volumne but has broadened into a
sphere of utility only less wide in
scope than that of the office of the
Chief executive. Likewise, the legal
business of the commonwealth has
increased in volumne until it demands
the entire energies of the attorney
general and his corps of able assist
ants. Only the general superinten-
dent, and the several local superin-
tendents of hospitals, can Keep in
close touch with hospital manage
ment. Under the present system the
general uperintendent has not only
to agree with the local superinten-
dents and their stewards as to what it
we're we'll to undertake to do, but
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