The Mitchell capital. (Mitchell, Dakota [S.D.]) 1879-1918, 1909-03-04
DISCUSS InEBRIATE ASYLUM
Senate Members Had a Warm Time
When the lncbriate Asylum Bill
Came Up.

lIiC clIo III wv VI IN AApSas-
sion which was held in the senate
when the inebriate asylum bill came
up as an amendment to a house bill:
Then came that dear Highmore in
ebriate asylum bill, gently led into
the arena by the president, who had
carefully disguised his pet in the
Wolzmuth house bill, No. IA. Only
a blind man could have failed to see
the purport OF the amendment which
had been made. Consequently it was
not read out in open meeting, which
neglect was probably due to an here
tofore undiscovered small amount of
conscience. OF course, we may be
mistaken as to this, and would hard
ly care to go on record as having
made the accusation a positive one.
Ewert who sits on the right hand of
the boss in everything and certainly
does good work as errand boy and
general f1unky, rose to explain that
the proposed amendment placing the
entire matter in the hands of and
at the discretion of the state board
of charities and corrections, was
merely in an effort to do away with
the log rolling" employed in the
location of state institutions. 1t was
a splendid joke at the expense OF
Mr.. Shober, but no one of the sena-
tors was brave enough to laugh. The
Dean. fearless in every phase of
any question which presents itself to
him as wrong, moved to strike out
the senate amendment, and a
nearly assissinated by the look which
came at him from the chair. But
the senator from Yankton has long
since passed beyond that stage where
the wishes of any other person count
in an affair Of this kind. Mr.. Dill
Ion expressed himself as of the opin-
ion that the state should have some
fixed policy as to the location Of her
institutions, and that he was OPP
posed to new institutions as much as
ever. AS the state had purchased
kIOuuOS " LAC VI
another asylum at Watertown, and
as it was evident that another Of
these institutions would be neces-
sary when next the legislature con-
vened (nothing personally he thought
1t we'll to wait until the next session
before authorizing any new institu-
lions of this kind. He put himself
on record as not advocating putting
inebriates with the insane, but that
he wanted to see the state have a
fixed policy as regards its institutions.
closing by saying that the state did
not need too many OF them.
Norbeck arose and made an earn
est plea for his crew of ten or Twelve
employees, who had fallen from the
water wager on several occasions,
and he didn't think they would go
to an insane asylum for cure, be-
cause the associations are wrong
at Yankton.'' He talked-and that's
all. He received a smile of approval
from the chair, which made it quite
evident that the string was pulled.
Dillon asked the gentleman from
Spink why he didn't put his men in
the Redfeld asylum? Norbeck re-
piled that they had no room. Meth
,er have we,' retorted the Dean"
Then arose Henchman Ewert, for
the second time, with the report of
the superintendent of the Iowa asy-
lum. The report is evidently adverse
in it's nature Eve have IT'D and the
member from Hughes wisely re-
trained from quoting anything other
than the attendance from 1t. The
attendance for the last year was 1S1,
and there is nothing said about cures.
1t was a second brilliant effort at
saying something, and 1T proved a
most successful failure.
Another pull on the String and
-By.ne! He stated that he had been
in sympathy with the amendment for
some time, because he had taken oc-
casion to s'observe the Iowa insti-
iJuLS. me ODScINdl1On u
been made telescopically, as the SEN
ator has been a resident of this state
since long before the Iowa %institu-
ton was established. He wound ur
with a plea that the poor drunkard
be not sent to the insane asylum
The chair smiled again.
But Bates threw a bombshell into
the senate by clearly proving that
the amendment made to tax sellers
of liquors for the support of the in
stitution was unconstitutional. Fol
a moment everybody was stunned
while Bates smiled in triumph. Ever
finally recovered sufficiently to move
for. an amendment to the OBJ
lection made by the senator from
Minnehaha. The Dillon motion te
amend was perhaps lost. A short
conference between the boss, his
right hand and Senator Bates result
ed in Ewert's stating that he would
stand Oh the language in the bill ant
he withdrew his motion to amend