The evening times. [volume] (Grand Forks, N.D.) 1906-1914, 1912-01-18
lSt. Lnnis Repuhlic.O

Lost. somewhere i'm the stretch of
days hat makes up every year, more
than 0 1000 minds.
Sixty thousand minds that were
sane. strong and normal became weak,
broken and ruined. The preliminary
report on the insane just issued by Di-
rector Durand Of the United States
census. contains the startling infor-
nation that 10000 Americans We're
admitted to the insane asylums of the
country in one year.
East St. Louis is a big city. 1t has
more than $1,000 people. Yet its pop
ulation does not equal the number Of
Americans who so insane annually.
An average of 1870 people become in
sane every day of the year.
If all the insane now confined in
hospitals and asylums were gathered
into one immense and maddcned city
ii would have 81 population greater
than that of Columbus. Ohio. In this
insane town there would he lS7.454
patients. That was the number
counted by the census experts in jan
uary. 1910. Columbus had at that
time a few more than $4,000 souls
within its limits.
1t is a startling increase over $780,
ISL. the number ounte in the spe-
cial census for the insane in 1904.
There are four madmen now where
there We're but three in that year.
There are 100 nov where there was
but - seven years ago.
The actual increase in numbers
amounts to 31.003 insane patients.
The insane death rate is high. With
the breaking of mind comes a gen.
eral weaking of all the organs and
weakens. The whole mechanism. the
brain, the heart. the lungs. the Great
Tripod" of life. is weakened. Sixty
thousand go crazy annually n come
into the hospitals. About $4,000 of
these are discharged. transferred or
carried to the cemetery. The last
place mentioned takes Il vast number.
The census report on the insane
makes no attempt to explain h am
azing increase Of insanity. The fig
ures are left to tell their own story.
The alienists have known for several
years hat the whole nation was tend
ing toward madness and that the
weaker minds were slipping over the
verge. They were not surprised to
know that the ate of madness in the
United States had increased c5 per
cent in the six years that separated
1904 from 1910.
While madness. insanity and plain
lunacy were increasing by this amount
the whole population was gaining but
II per cent. The increase in mad
ness cannot be accounted for by the
old method Of pointing to the increase
in the number of people. 1t will no
longer answer.
The men who deal with the curious
diseases OF the human brain have been
expecting such a report for a long
time. The increase shown in 1900 wa
alarming enough. 1t showed that the
deeper life Of the American was be-
ing broken up by weird mental
cataclysms. The report. the special
one of 1904. threw a menacing fear
into them. The last and most anthem
tic of them all. the one just issued by
Director Durand. shows how near the
great mass Of the population this
spreading wave Of insanity is rising.
Ten years g the various states be-
gan to wake up to the fact that there
was not sufficient room in which 20
tax" care of their mad citizens. They
straightway built more asylums and
hospitals and straightway these. too,
were filled. States and counties be-
San to stick their insane away in iails
and prisons. waiting for the time
when still other bigger and newer
Warehouses; might be built. Try as
they would they were never able To
catch up with the increase. They
have not as yet.
Criminologists and a~lienists know
that many men were sent to the Jail
and to the ~penitentiary who We're no
more sane than the maddest shrieker
in the violent wards. There was sim :
ply no other place to put them. 1t
is known. too. that a large number
of citizens undoubtedly insane are
now going about the streets minglins
with their fellows. buying and selling.
marrying n loving. who are as mad
as mad can De. They are not all in
the hospitals by n means.
The mad ones that were sent to the
pe%nitentiary were sent there because
they were dangerous to the COM
munity at large and had proed 1t by
some insane act. There wal no place
to send them ave to the , prison.
There was no Dor in the state asy-
lums.
Here are the causes that are usual
ly assigned for the amazing. almost
terrifying increase Of insanity.
The stress and strain OF the intense
life We call civilized.
The weakening Of the brain through
modern dissirations. They are more
dangerous than those Of the time OF