The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1906-02-02
1T is TOO SMALL.
Kansas Institute for Feeble
Minded Inadequate.
Sherman Elliott OF Board of
Control Says So.
TO ENLARGE THE SCOPE
Thinks All IdiOtic Persons
Should Be Included.
Also Wants a Place for Diseased
Children.
TO ENLARGE THE SCOPE

Sherman Elliott, treasurer of the state
board of control, in an address delivered
Thursday night before the Mems club
of the Methodist church in Lawrence,
/ announced that it would be necessary
for the state, in order to properly take
care Of the imbeciles and idiots of the
state to double the capacity of the Win
field institution, and change the charac--
ter of that institution so that it shall
not be limited to feeble minded youth"
but shall be a home for all feeble minded
and idiotic persons.
At present, the law requires each
county to take care OF its own adult
/ imbeciles and idiots. 1t can send the
insane and dangerous lunatics TO the
state asylums the epiletics to the Par
sons asylum but the harmless idiots
1 must be taken care of in the county poor
| farms.
Mr.. Elliott said:
THE school for feeble-minded youth
/ at Winfield is a school and an asylum
for the feeble-minded, imbecile and idi-
otlc- 1t really should be called a home
for feeble-minded. The capacity is not
nearly sufficient to take care of the
feeble minded, imbecile and idiotic of
| the state and there Is no other institu-
/ ton in the state for this purpose. The
/ capacity of the institution at Winfield
/ would have to be doubled in order to
take care Of this class.
Under the alws of the state of Kan
sas there are two classes ofinsane. First,
| the lunatics, or insane, who require re-
straint or commitment to some hospital
| for the insane, and, second, idiots, inn
i beetles, persons of unsound mind, or
habitual drunkards and who for either
/ of these reasons are incapable of man
aging their affairs.
| The state provides hospitals for the
first class but not for the second class.
The policy of this state is state hospitals
in which certain persons are eligible and
1 that the counties shall provide asylums
for the reception of all other persons,
and harmless imbecileS and idiots are
not eligible for admission to a state
/ hospital. Habitual drunkards and drug
abitues are not eligible for admission
and insane persons of the first class
afflicted with OntagiOus infectious or
loathsome disease, whose presence might
Ieudanger the health or safety Of inmates
are not eligible for admission.
1.-THE law also provides that the in
sane of the first class who are harmless
and incurable can be returned to the
| counties by the hospital authorities at
the expense of the counties in order to
make room for persons who may be
cura BILE. The three state hospitals at
Topeka, OsawatOmie and Parsons are
of sufficient capacity to take care of
/ the present number of insane of the
| state who are really eligible for admis-
sion but the trouble is that the counties
| have not prepared to take care of the
/ insane who are not eligible for admiS-
| sion, and as a result many have gained
/ admission to the state hospitals who are
| not eligible. 1t is not to the best in
! terests of an insane patient that an i'm
| beetle or idiot be admitted to the insarue
! hospitals and either the counties should
provide for them or the state should in
crease the capacity of the institution at
! Winfield and take away the Is year
lir7it and permit all idiots and all i'm
beetles to be admitted regardless Of
their age"
Wants a Place for Diseased Children.
At present the state law does not al
/ low the admission to the boys or girls
Industrial schools or the orphans.
/ home of children who are of unsound
/ body; that is who are afflicted with
contagious or infectious disease He
saws that facilities should be provided
at each Of these institutions for taking
/ care of the classes mentioned. Speak
I ing of the orphans home, he empha-
sized the fact that the private "chil-
/ dren's home societies are able to take
/ care of all the healthy children who are
! left homeless, but that the ones who
! are in some way diseased are really the
! ones who need the care of the state.
/ Concerning the condition at the
boys industrial school in Topeka, Mr..
Elliott says:
+ bows school with facilities so lat the
! incorrigible or criminal blind or dear
can be received and neither can the
! boys laboring under any infectious or
/ contagious disease be admitted With
/ the location of this school and the pro-
1 visions made for it by the legislature it
/ has been impossible to make this an
ideal institution. AS the counties are
not prepared to take care of the classes
above mentioned the state should in
crease the facilities of the boys school
| so a S to receive them.
The condition at the girls industrial
{ 1-T- ~.
"The institution is not prepared to
receive girls. no matter what Jhelr
/ crime may be, who are bllnd or Gear,
or who have a contagious or infectious
/ disease For such persons the state
has provided no place. The words IN
fectiOus' or contagious disease cover
many different kinds, and as the coun-
/ ties are unable to provide Tor the
classes of girls above mentioned the
girls industrial school at Beloit should
+ be enlarged and new facilities added in
/ order to provide place Ior lne GRASSES
/ herein mentioned
No Place for Helen Keller Glass.
Children who are blind, deaf and
i dumb like Helen Keller, the wonderful
/ girI-student, who is now attending as
i sal college. in spite of her physical IN
/ 6ru7ities have no place to go in kan
/ sas The blind school receives only the
+ blind and the deaf and dumb School
i only the deaf and dumb. Ihe cnlld
who is blind deaf and dumb has no
! place to 60.
Speaking of the work at these two in
stitutions Mr.. Elliott says:
ssThe school for the blind at Kansas
I City is the smallest institution in the
state hut it is of sufficient capacity
to accommodate all the blind children
/ of the state who are capable of being in
structed. It is a strictly up-tc-date in
/ stitution of its kind.
/ 'eThe school for the deaf at Olathe
is also an up-to-date institution and is
doing splendid work and its .capaicty