The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1909-08-04
ROOM FOR CRAFT.
State Officials Would Change
Insane Laws.
Asylum Patients Sent From
Counties for Fees.
WATCH THE ESTATES
Grafters GObble Up Property
of the Insane.
Plans to Give State Authority
to Collect.
WATCH THE ESTATES

There is a movement on foot at the
state house to reform the present meth
DDS of caring for the insane of Kansas
in the first place it is planned to make
it possible for the state to collect mon
ey for the keeping of all patients who
are able to pay and who are being swim
died by their relatives; i'll the second
place 1t is thought that a law similar
to the laws of 1874, making the coun-
ties pay for their own insane would
reduce the evils now going on through
out the state.
At the present time the state board
of control has sent out inquiries for
the number of insane patients and when
the names are procured an investigation
of the life history and the present cir
cumstances of each patient will be made.
1t is a well known fact that at the
present time patients in the insane asy
lums of Kansas are being sWindled and
robbed of their belongings by bogus
guardians, money thirsty attorneys and
greedy relatives.
The laws in Kansas at this time re-
quire persons who are able OF pay for
their care and maintenance at the in
sane hospitals but the different sec
tons of the statutes are somewhat IN
definite and it seems to be ones
particular business to see after this.
Harry g. Bowman, a member of the
board of control, has been very con-
SiStent along this line and has collected
thousands of dollars for the state by in
vestigating these petty gratis and pro-
curing the states appropriation but it
is rot Mr.. Rowman's duty to do this
and the state is wholly without pro-
lection of any kind. People have been
sent to the asylum who have big pro-
perty ownings and the state never re-
ceived cent for their care-simply be |
cause there was no provision for the
collection.
Mr.. BOwman'S Plan.
In speaking of the matter to
al Mr. ROWO0a
said this morning:
institutions for the insane are and !
should be built and equipped by tax
alton, and the taxpayers should be |
sane, but the ones who are able, or ,
their families who are abs, should |
pay the per capita current expense of
the maintenance of all others. No
reasonable argument can be advanc-
ed as to why parents, children or es-
tates are not under the same obli-
cation. moral and pecuniary, to meet
the expense incurred in the care of
those dependent upon them for sup
port, who are afflicted with mental
as they are now under to !
care for them on account of physical
The burden of caring for
the insane is becoming enormous
throughout the United States as we'll
as in other countries, and there is a
on throughout the United
States to devise better methods for
the collecting Tor the maintenance or
the insane. Thirty states now have
laws similar to the Kansas law"
The method which has been most
successful in other states has been
that in which each state takes entire
charge and employs its own agents
for getting the information for which
the question of adjustment of private I
support demands. When the insti- i
tutiOns have acted as collecting agen- {
.ies very little has been accomplished.
The present board of control of the +
state has taken in over $4,000 since I
heir administration and $4,000 has I
1een paid during the fiscal year. A I
thorough system will be introduced at t
he next legislature to cover this trou- {
)le and the state will save thousands t
IF dollars a year. The records are full /
If cases where the entire estate of a. {
patient has gone to grafters and slip !
,erv attorneys. The state was then I
eft out in the cold with the bills to I
Jay. c
The new scheme to tax the counties '
themselves for their patients has been
invented by H c. Bowman. He would t
lave the counties pay a certain
mount for the keeping of each patient I
hev send instead of taxing the entire
tate This. he thinks. would do away !
With the large number of patients
ent to the state when they are ad- I
udged insane without any occasion
whatever.
It is a well known graft for a pro-
,ate judge, and a bunch of county Off /
ON an Ancient Play.)