Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1907-01-09

! interest received thereon shall be PAID
into theNpublic treasury, and also that
provision be made for the procuring
oc bond of the state treasurer at pub
lie expense, when necessary.
Revenue Commission.
| 4 number of states have recently
| revised their revenue laws. others have
| appointed commissions with the same
| purpose in view. There is general
| movement throughout the country to
place revenue systems upon more
| scientific basis, that the burden of tax
alton may he more equitably distrib
uted. The irregularities are radical
under the operation of our present
revenue law. and call for a revision of
| the system. I recommend. therefore.
that n commission be appointed to
study carefully the question of taxa
ton. and to report its finding and its
recommendations to the Forty Sixth
| General Assembly.
Charitable Institutions.
! Because of the great public interest
in the state charitable institutions.
| particularly the insane group, | have
gone somewhat into detail regarding
the present service and the further i'm
| provement thereof. In an endeavor
I to elevate the public charity service of
Illinois to the level of modern efiici-
ency, il was necessary TO proceed along
three lines: First. Improvement in
| the method Of selecting employees.
Second. Improvement in medical adj
| ministratiOn and treatment. Third.
Improvement in the physical condit',u
Of buildings and mechanical equip
| ment.
Civil Service.
Under the new civil service law n
very perceptibIe Improvement i'm the
class of employees is noticeable al
ready. The civil service law passed by
the Forty Fourth General Assembly
became effective Nov. l, 1908. 1t APP
plies to 2.12S positions in the seven
teen state charitable Institutions of the |
state. Since the law went into effect
the civil service commission has ex-
amined 1.625 persons and made 1.46S |
appointments. To Dec 81. 1906. the !
commission had received BIZ applica-
lions. and had conducted $50 eXami- |
nations in thirty-SiX different cities. !
The expenses of the commission from |
fits appointment. Aug. 3. 1908, to Dec. |
81. 1906. were $1303S.12.
Th,N two principal political parties |
in their platform declared in favor of |
an extension of civil service and in |
view of the Improvement Of the public |
service in the state charitable inStitu-
tionS. | recommend such extension. |
and TO that end I commend to your |
careful consideration the recommended !
tons of the state civil service commits |
sion.
Medical Urea tment.
In discussing the Improvement in |
medical administration and treatment
I desire TO call attention to the fact
that medical and nursing science have
advanced by leaps and bounds during
the last twenty five years. Under the |
direction of an excellent state board of !
public charities modern scheme of !
medical administration and nursing
has been put into operation.
BY means OF complete modern and
uniform medical records. which are
the basis of productive research
physicians in the states service will
have vast amount of scientific data
at hand. and this. with modern lab
oratory studies. will be used in an eff
fort TO learn new things about mental
and nervous disorders. and perhaps to
discover new remedies which will
benefit the whole human family.
There are two broad. general classes
of the insane, the acute hopeful and
the chronic incurable cases. For hope
full cases. the water treatment. known
as hydrotherapy. already has been in
stalled in some of the institutions. and
I hope will be extended speedily to
others. BY means of this treatment.
many incipient and acute cases of in
sanity are cured, and the patients. in
stead of becoming lifelong inmates of
hospitals, with the curse of insanity
upon them, and placing burden upon
the state. return to their homes as
productive members of society. The
installation of the bath treatment costs
from $1,000 to $4,000 for each institu-
ton. according 10 the number of acute
durable cases received. l heartily
favor the extension of this system of
treatment to all state hospitals receiv-
ing acute cases.
Industrial re-education is possible for
30 TO 10 per cent. of all insane persons
in the Illinois hospitals. chiefly the
chronic insane. Industrial re-educa-
ton means training to work with the
hands. Because of degenerating brain
power. many insane persons cannot un-
dertake intellectual work, but they are
capable of learning the manual arts.
Many insanepatients alreH" en-
ployed in our institutions. favor the
employment of all insane who are
physically capable of it.
That recreation and amusement are
necessary for the insane is self-evi-
dent fact
Compulsory training schools for at
PENDANTS and nurses have been estab-
Iished at six of the eight hospitals,
classified in the insane group. These