The Anderson daily intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson, S.C.) 1914-1915, 1915-02-04
THE APPEAL TO THE PEOPLES HUMANITY.

When knowledge is suddenly brought home to a
man that his daughter is suffering from dangerous
disease and that medical treatment of an expensive
kind Is Immediately necessary to save her life. he
does not count the cost-not IL he is good man.
That is exactly the relation of the State of South
Carolina to the matter of the mentally diseased and
the hospital established for their habtation, their
care and their cure when cure is possible
When in his dispassionate review of the condition
OF the State hospital Dr. Herring declares that it
is what that of similar hospitals in Massachusetts
and New York was fifty years ago. it is polite
though positive and unqualified way of saying that
Il Is not short of barbarous.
The report of DR.. Herring is not an attack ON the
present management or ON any preceding manage
ment On the contrary, the inference is rather that
with the facilities at their command and under the
policies adhered to by the State the results have
beea and are as good as might have been expected
The report concludes In eject. that through years
on years South Carolina has in ignorance and blind
ness failed to provide for the necessity. the COM
fort and the betternent of her unfortunates in the
manner that al enlghted understanding of duty to
them would have con Jelled.
The question and the only question before the
general assembly is whether Il will or will nos
knowingly continue condition that is cruel to the
patients in the hospital and therefore shameful to
the State.
Inc general assembly Is well aware that the peo-
pie OF South Carolina are not cruel and that thew
will not harden their hearts to avoid spending
money to protect their own afflicted from suffering.
To confne an insane person in a hospital un-
equipped for his ccinfortable and without pro-
lection for his safety is to inict punishment up-
on him for his misfortune 1t is to make misfor-
tune with guilt
place Of confinement for the insane that does
not adequately minister to their wants nor contri-
butte to their improvement only to relieve the
public OF the annoyance or danger of their pres
ence. State that knowingly maintains hospital
for that purpose. that confounds the mission of a
hospital with the mission of o prison. Is guilty OF
refinement of criminal selfishness that is un-
known in this age even among the more advanced
pagan peoples. -4f
There is nothing left for the general assembly to
DO but to relieve as soon practicable condition
that ought to be ntoleratle to the people of the
State as to its unhappy and helpless victims.
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In the plan OF reconstruction of the hospital Of
fered by Dr. Herring two features are outstanding:
The first is that the superintendent shall be
chosen by the board Of regents and be responsible
TO them; they In turn, to be appointed by the gov
ernor at successive intervals OF two years. Thus
the ground is prepared fer concentration of
authority essential to efficient administration
The second is that the present city plant should
be retained. that To dismantle 1t would involve
great and needless waste that Ii Is susceptible of
conversion into hospital as good as the best for
active work at relatively small cost and that the
State Park property is required as hospital for
the negro patients for the coIonization aud segrega
ton of white patients suffering from infectious or
possibly infectious diseases ana also sor the relief
of congestion in the city plant by accommodating
patients not demanding the treatment that the city
plan would afford.