The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1914-04-29

committed under the influence of s<5rir,1x 1 or brain destroyed by repeated in 1 ooigence in alcohol necessitates his commitment to another institution. of ten as permanent guest of the tax payer. That is what Connecticut is doing for the drunkard in 1914
 am not criticizing Connecticcut's county jaiIs. I believe that 1nder the prevailing system with his facil- ities that are furnished for employ ment, the results are all that could bo reasonably expected, but am critf- cizing Connecticuts treatment of the drunkard.
 MASS VERSUS CLASS.
 As long ago as 1876 Connecticut passed a law authorizing the commit ment by a judge of probate of al drunkard or inebriate to a suitable institution for a, term of from one to three years The afluent citizen un- der this statute could be detained suf- hciently long to derive decided bene- fit but the impecunious individual no institution was provided for his re- ception.
 There was little probability of the rich man or his progeny ever becom- ing a burden to the community, never theless it was deemed wise to provide every facility for his reform, but the poor man and his offspring could con- tinue to work out their own salvation at the expense of society, and yet it is said we have no class laws in Con- necticut.
 Year after year an earnest endeavor has been made to establish an insti- tuition where the indigent inebriate might be restrained and given appro- priate treatment, but each successive | General Assembly has denied this re- \ quest.
 That the Connecticut citizen physi- Io1 s,.z ,s.-J.4 have placed at his disposal the highest medical and surgrica1 skill, trained nurses and the best of care, the 1913 session of the General Assembly gave to Connecticut's general hospitals two | hundred and thirty-six thousand do1- I lars that the victims of the great white plague might be restored to useful l citizenship, four hundred and sixty 1 thousand dollars was placed at the disposal of the tubercular sanator- iums and that the insane, the epflep- | tic and the feeble minded might while apart from society receive medical 1 care adequate nursing, humane treat Is1nent and all things needful for phy- | sical comfort more than seven hum l dred thousand dollars were appro- 1 priated. Approximately one million, four hundred thousand was granted
 merely for the maintenance of those 1 institutions where these inmates were + confined. let fifty thousand dollars l was refused for a state farm to re- I4deem the drunkard, while more than I two hundred and ninety thousand dol
 lars was appropriated to continue the 1 present county jaai1 system.
 WHAT MASSACHUSETTS, HAS DONE
 Superintendent Erskine of Massa- l chusetts in his excellent paper on l tate Farms has shown what he has | been able to accomplish on state | farm disadvantageously located and
 serving the dual purpose of a farm I and tubercular hospital, and has made
 the significant Statement endorsed by l every one who has had an opportunity 1 for study and observation that there can be no moral regeneration without 1 physical upbui1ding.
 How can this physical upbuilding be accomplished better than by labor on farm in Gods pure sunshine and | fresh air. There, as has been re- I marked, will be found no competition
 with skilled labor. there in cultivataing the soil will be lost that unsuitable I craving for alcohol, and there will l grow with the fruit and over regen- erated man.
 Must the drunkard in Connecticut 1 always say with Sophocles:
 Mot to be born surpassess ever lot: And the next best lot, when one is born,
 Is to go whence he came as soon as | possible
 which is the more expensive, mans
 rected charity The county jail or
 a state farm for the inebriate?
 Henry T. Willis, tariff expert, died 1 at Southampton, l.. l.
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