The daily Nome industrial worker., 1916-01-18

The InduStrlal WOfker rGcelVed q communication. which is printed be- low. on the last mail. While the facts may be over-stated and there may be exaggeration in detail which does not do exact justice, yet di- stinctly in the interests of human fly it demands space in this paper and attention from it's readers. If there is even a scintilla of founda- tion for the remarks contained in this letter, then Alaskans should leave no stone unturned to secure redress of most damnable ana most scandaious condition.
 From Morningside Insane Asy- lum, the reports that have come out through former inmates have been terrible and disgraceful almost with out exception. Few if any ever had anything really favorable to say con corning then institution. Yet it has been inspected by Governors, by re- presentatives and others and they have, it is fair to say, given a most favorable account of this establish ment.
 Yet, we must remember when such an inspection is ordered, all such places are on their good be havior and like jail which is to be inspected, the place is physically anl spiritually remodelled while those whose duty it is to inspect give the place the "once over.
 Moreover, it is a scandal that tho Alaskan insane should be farmed out We know that the Morning. side is not philanthropic but a strictly business institution which intends to earn on it's contract for the care of the Alaskan insane, so much per That's why it contracts for their keep and why it is reason ably to be supposed that there would be some grounds for the charges which Frank Lifts makes in this communication.
 1t took quite number of years and quite number of writers to eff feet rcformative methods in the in sane asylums of the land, A great novelist once who had inside in formation in Great Britain on con- ditions in such an institution, wrote d book which is said to have done more for reform than anything else Yet a number of unquestionably sin cere men who had inspected this in : Stitution whereof he wrote, declared that they had not been able to dis cover a trace of the diggraccful con- ditions that the novelist had satiri- zed. None the less they were there; but they were not there for inspect ors or for visitors in high standing. And it is more than possible, it is quite probable that there is a simi- larity between the facts that we have referred to and the inspection of the governors. the representatives and the statements now and then made by those who were not at Morningside as inspectors or visit ors, but as insane inmates.
 This man Lifts said that he broke away from the asylum; that other wise he never would have escaped. . That he would soon have been ere mated there. Yet he does not write Eke. an insane man. It is certain that reading tho careful description |, of life in this horrible place that he speaks of and considering the req sons for that treatment, he writes as much with acute logic as with care ful observation and does not cppear to be at all of a diseased imagina- tion.
 And whether his remarks be in every particular true, or only in rart true, or whether there is ever d shallow of foundation for his statements, this much is certain :he letter alone is proof in itself Ita; 't.ns contract system should be aDol- ished and that Alaska should take care of it's own insane. It is damn alle and a scandalous and hOr- rible srate of affairs that this Ter ritory must farm out it's insane for she l,rofit of a private institution. We can think of nothing more sor. did than the fact that such an in ,stitution exists with the sole purpose of making money from the unfor- ,unate situation in which so many uf the hard working miners in this