Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1914-02-27
THE ASYLUM INVESTIGATION
CONTINUED from Page one).

There should be most skillful phar-
macist at the State Hospital for the
Insane-one who Is licensed by the
pharmaceutical board Of this state, for
many times a prescription filled and
administered means the life or death,
sanity or insanity Of the person to
whom 1t Is administered, and more es-
pecially to the helpless patient, de-
pendant only upon the wisdom Of the
physician and the prescription COM
pounded.
what is said Of the pharmacist may
truly be applied to the dentist; he
should by all means be a licensed one
with some experience.
We find, for many years the duties OF
the chaplain have been faithful
ly performed at salary Of $500
per annum, or $25 per month;
applications were advertised for at
said salary, but when the board
Of regents met in July last to elect a
chaplain at the salary stated, after
electing the chaplain they changed the
salary to 5000 per annum, or SIS per
month. We think this wrong. II a. rise
in salary had been deemed tustifiable
and desirable, notice Of 1t should have
appeared in the advertisement for ap-
plicants. The $500 difference per an
mum would have gone far in the en-
ploymont Of a licensed pharmacist and
a dentist, and we recommend that no
salary be paid greater than the salary
advertised and called for in the adver-
tisement.
There should be a rigid system Of
rules and regulations proposed and
promulgated by the board Of regents,
but there should also be some funda-
mental rules and regulations adopted
and passed by this general assembly to
govern the officers Of the State Hospi-
tai for the Insane in their work and
duties. BY the same authority as in
terpreted by the supreme court in the
case of Pinckney VS.. Henegan, 2 Stro-
bart Law, page 253, and the State ex
rel Hay vs. Farnum, 73 8. c., page ITO.
The general assembly may lay down
rules by resolutions for the guidance
and government Of state officials in the
discharge Of duties, and we recommend
ton that We propose and that will fol-
low this report.
In the judgment Of the committee,
based on the great preponderance of
the evidence adduced during the in
yestigation, the State Park property
Is ideal and admirably adapted to and
for the uses and purposes for which
1t was purchased, and ought to be
and should be developed as rapidly as
the state can afford to do so, to the
end that the great congestion now ex-
listing at the state hospital for the
insane may be gradually and COM
pletely relieved.
1t is our opinion, based upon the
testimony, that all patients of the
classes which will be mostly benefited
by the quiet and pure air Of the coun-
try should be first removed thereto,
and those classes only which can be
most advantageously treated in the
present quarters in this city be re-
tanned.
There is now a modern and splen-
did building completed at the State
Park, "hich should at once be equip
ped and occupied, relieving as much
as possible the distressing congestion
now so universally deplored in the
state hospital in this city-giving
More and better room to those who
are removed and those who are
unfortunately left behind-and acting
as a double blessing.
Your committee went fully and
minutely into the complaints insinu-
alton inuendoes inquiry and charges
against DR.. Eleanor B. Saunders. We
find no evidence to sustain any of
them. She Is not guilty Of any wrong
intention or wrong doing. There is
no breath of even a suspicion as to
her moral character-none against
her professional reputation and con-
duct and career in her ethical de-
partment and in all Of her conduct
in or out of the institution-the state
hospital for the insane. The few and
Cd nafe ,tal. xlafy &c
were based were the direct result of
requests from the superintendent
her superior officer-and were ex-
ecuted in the discharge of duty to
suffering humanity and are to be
commended and praised rather than
condemned.
Her work and labors in the state
hospital for the insane bears eloquent
tribute to the remarkable initiative,
aided by tireless energy and domi-
mated by the womanly woman's over
flowing love for unfortunate human
ity, which love, energy and tireless
devotion Is manifested by her every
movement, of which she has been the
main spring and which Is shown in
the results in every department of
work, which she has touched and
which even her critics in almost every
instance have admitted.
We condemn the method Of trial of
DR.. Saunders. adopted on December
18th, 1913, and hope that the records
Of the state will never show a repeti-
ion of such procedure.
We refer to this merely to call the
attention of the members of the gen.
eral assembly, to the necessity Of pro-
viding against any repetition of such
a proceeding in the future, as under a
proper and logical system Of rules
and regulations no such proceeding
could have obtained. irresponsible
power Is that power which Is exer-
cised without rule or reason and from
which there Is no recognized method
Of appeal. There should be no such
power vested in any person or persons
in the state Of South Carolina, and
there should be rules carefully pre-
pared, adopted and passed to prevent
another such occurrence.
We commend the stand Of the su-
perintendent, DR.. ]. w. Babcock. in
this acute exigency and throughout
the subsequent aftermath, when he
championed the right, not only Of his
loyal and true subordinate and staff
officer, DR.. Eleanor B. Saunders, but
Of woman, whose every instinct Is
shown to be for the right, the inter-
ests Of the unfortunate patients under
her care and the best interests Of the
institution.
We recommend that this report be
printed in the Journal and that the
report and the resolution under which
we acted, the evidence taken and the
concurrent resolution containing the
proposed rules be printed in a sepa-
rate report and at least three hundred
copies, one Of which shall be furnish
ed each member of the general as
sembly and the state officers and re-
gents and officials Of the state hos
pital for the insane.
T. ]. Mauldin,
T. j. Strait.
Macbeth Young.
n. w. Hardin.
w. F. Stevenson,
]. II. Hunter,
Committee to Investigate the State
Hospital for the Insane.
MERE-MENrIoN.
Severely cold weather, with heavy
snow storms and winds that attained a