The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1911-04-01
MONEY COMING IN
State hoard of Control Receives
Pay for Care OF Insane.
Four Thousand Dollars IL the
First Installment.
AHEAD OF WILMARTH.
State House Basement Already
Being Cleared.
Started Two Days Before Order
Was Received.

The state board of control received
four thousand dollars from the es-
tates of two insane patients today. The
estate of Thomas Cooney of Ellsworth
county paid into the state treasury
$2,65S for the care and maintenance
of Cooney from April T. 1898, to the
date of his death, April 90 1910
Cooney had considerable property in
Ellsworth county. The estate of John
:. johnson of Geary county paid in
SLABS. Johnson has been in the hos
pital % years and his estate owes the
state $3,432 for his care and main
tenance up to the present time. He is
still in the hospital. He owned a small
farm in Geary county This has been
sold for fifteen hundred dollars and
all but $40 was paid to the state, this
amount being left with the guardian
to pay the burial expenses when
johnson dies.
These two accounts are the first to
be collected by the board this year.
Under the law the state is pound to
care for and maintain all persons who
are unable to pay for their own care
when confined in any of the state hos
pitfalls. But the law also provides that
the state is not bound to care for
pay for their own maintenance on the
proposition that the state is not re-
quired to care for anyone who is able
to care for himself as it would not be
who have money or property of their
own. The state maintenance charge is
three dollars a week.
The board of control tried to get the
legislature to appoint a claim adjuster
for the board of control to look after
these claims and to Investigate wheth-
er or not patients really had property.
The legislature refused to do this. The
board has so much other work that
none of the members can devote much
time to making up the claims and pre-
senting them to the probate courts in
the various counties so only a COM
paratively small number of the claims
can be collected. 1t is believed that
fully two hundred thousand dollars
could be collected in these old fees if
one could devote his time to making
up the claims and presenting them to
the probate courts.
The executive council read about the
fire in the New. York state house and
went to work cleaning up the subbase-
ment of the Kansas building two days
before G. o. Wilmarth, fire marshal of
Topeka. sent his letter to the secretary
of state and the governor calling at
tention to the danger of fire in the sub
basement. For four days the custodian
of the building has had all of the jani-
tor force at the state house at work
IL the subbasement. All of the old pine
boxes, paper and packing material are
being cleaned up and hauled away. Sew
efdi wagon VI LnAS SCuII nave DeeH
hauled away already. After the larger
pieces are cleaned up it is the inten-
tion of the executive council to have the
floors of the basement raked and every
bit of inf8ammable matter taken out
and hauled away. The departments
which have rooms in the subbasement
for storing supplies and old documents
have been ordered to clean up the
Rooms and put the stuff in good shape
70 prevent any possible danger from
IRE.
1t is not likely that the request of
the fire nershal that the ammunition
be removed from the subbasement viii