Aberdeen herald. [volume] (Aberdeen, Chehalis County, W.T.) 1886-1917, 1914-05-19
Scattering of State Institutions Breeds Local
Desire for Appropriations and Increases
the Expense
SIXTEEN MILLION SPENT SINCE STATEHOOD
Legislation Regarding Old Soldiers on West Side
Shows One of the Ways Not to Handle
Dependent Wards

E. D. Cowen, in another of his splen.
did articles on the extravaganza of
the state, pays his respects to the sys-
TENS of charity ana reform, in the
following:
approximately halt the appropria.
tions from the general fund are re-
Quired for new construction in the
care of the II charitable, penal and re-
formatory institutions of the state.
Including the large appropriation Of
1913 for the present biennium neces-
stated by new construction, the total
outlay in these institutions for the
entire period of statehood will be $751;
030,727, or little more than third in
excess Of the total expenditure on the
FIVE institutions Of higher education.
Since 1891 the biennial increase Of
appropriations has been about four
and seven-tenths times, while the in
crease Of population is nearly three
and half. She seeming dispropor-
tionate increase of expenditure on the
population basis is accounted for by
the fact that of recent years the state
has been erecting fireproof structures
for the new establishments and wise
ly extending the farming facilities
4 where the inmates can contribute by
field labor to a reduction of the sub.
sistonce costs
School Not Properly Located Owing
to Local Strife
The impossible conditions existing
1t the Chehalis training school, where
incorrigible boys and girls approach
ing maturity formed colony, housed
separately, but under a single man.
agement, has been remedied by pro-
vision for a separate training school
for girls, the initial appropriation for
which is $125,000. The best judgment
was not exercised in locating this in
stitution at Centralia, within q few
miles of the boys school. 1t was the
proprietary interest manifest by Lewis
county in the training school invest
ment of the state that controlled the
legislative mind.
For the starting Of another state in
stitution, a tuberculosis hospital, $780,
900 was appropriated. When the ne>t
legislature meets it will have 13 nee
essitious state institutions under the
administration of thr I'd cf con
troll to provide for, and what with
the needs of new construction and
improvements at the incompleted
northern hospital and the institution
for feeble-minded, it is questionable
whether the three mill Limitation of the
general fund will not crowd these in
stitutions into the special levy list.
Institutions Were Scattered While
They Were Being Located
So far as economy is concerned the
fatal error was made at the organiza'
ton of statehood Of distributing in
stead Of concentrating, the state in
stitutions as much as possible. This
10 b ldulL COlIuOu " AAOoC oSuSS oN'
ernments, growing out of the political
strife for division of spoils, and is
attended by incalculable waste. In
the geographical situation Of Wash
ington an East and West Side coloni-
cation plan of state institutions would
have meant economy and efficiency OF
control for all time. One of the most
apparent and ever present evils OF
the scattering of state institutions is
the provincial contention they en-
gender in legislatures for appropria-
tions. and for the location Of new in
stitutions required by the expansion
Of the state.
It is the disposition Of localities,
even to the boundary lines Of coun-
ties, to regard state institutions with
In their confines as somewhat OF
personal possession, partaking OF the
nature Of money circulating
) medium. More than a necessity OF
government these institutions are
looked upon as an industrial and busi-
ness making asset 1t is the COM
mercial, not the humanitarian or econ
omical point of view, with which they
are considered by the legislators who
represent the counties in which they
are established.
Example Of Soldiers Home Is One OF
the PIainest
: The legislation respecting the old
soldiers affords a striking example OF
moinerence to right policy Pierce
county secured the location Of the
nrst home at Orting, and as the re-
suit OF a real estate job placed 1t IN
marshy site on the bank OF the