Little Falls herald. [volume] (Little Falls, Morrison County, Minn.) 1889-1950, 1916-04-14
TALKS on STATES WARDS

oHAs. E. vAsA1:Y OF BOARD OF
CONTROL GIVES INTEREST,"
81: ING ADDRESS
"a. good sized crowd greeted Hon.
lChss: E. .Vasaly Of the state. board Of
control at the high school auditorium
Tuesday evening, when he gave !.
mom antereshng md instructive talk
Ion The States Ward, = under Tie
lApsRices sef the lit5 5iasliIs4 section: of the
flAuaacal aArt Club. u yeryonss was
tghN pleased with the talk andssmapy
fetsted that the speaker brought to
ttnenn- -sinfeFmation in regard to institn.
Itions and conditions in this state Of
which they had previously known ab-
solutely nothing. Mrs. Jenny Lind
tBlsnehard introduced the speaker. +
First Of all Mr.. Vasaly stated that
he liked to speak in Little Falls 5prin.
Icipa1E because he knew the people
here; and knew their great capacity
Ifor, endurance he had tested It out
Fin the past. He then went on. to say
tthat he was bringing information that
hs OF interest to citizens on what
Eis being done with the wards of the
tstate.> t'The state is the living units
re which It is composed, it is you, and
E1ts problems are your. Problems" he
Mr.. Vasaly said that out of ffty.six
tHnlllion dollars spent since 1861, in
ts1Pporting4 the state institutions in
Minnesota In the past, fifteen millions
Ihave been for the state university,
-four or FIVE millions for the normals,
land about thirty millions for the
wards of the state Years ago, very
little money was spent for the last
Enamed, showing what an immense
amount of money has been spent for
THAT purpose in late years. This fact
alone should interest the citizens
enough to encourage them to keep in
formed on matters of this kind.
Il Three boards, the board of control,
the board Of pardons and board of pa
role, have to do with state penal, char
itable and correctional institutions
The board of pardons consists of. the
governor, the chief justice and the at
torney general and this body has full
pardoning power. It's primary pur-
pose at first was and still is that sof
correcting excessive sentences, by
committing them, or pardoning the
prisoners in cases Of innocence prov.
ed.
The board Of parole consists of one
member Of the state board Of control,
! being the one longest in service on
that board, also one citizen member,
the warden of the state prison and the
superintendent Of the state reforma-
tory. This board can parole anyone
who is serving an indeterminate SEN
tence, anyone who was sentenced un-
der the old law aft~r they have served
y$sDne-h half Of the sentence, and life
prisoners after they have served
twenty-three years, Z months and a
few days.
| The board Of control has direct con-
troll 1Over thirteen state institutions
and has financial control over three.
It erects all buildings for the state
except those at the state fair grounds,
and buys the fuel for all except for
the state fair and for the soldiers ,
home. It settles the residence Of pau
pers in case of dispute between two
counties, and has many other duties.
It was instituted in 1901 and succeed
ed multiplication of other boards
and was intended to centralize the
work and to reduce the expenses of
the state government. Since the Min
nesOta board was instituted many 9TH
er states have adopted the same plan.
At the present time the state is
caring for about 5000 insane persons
in institutions. This state is one of
six in the union where there is no
charge for the care of the insane. Mr..
Vasaly stated, however, that he did
not believe that the state should as
sumo the entire burden of the care
OF insane patients. A bill was intro
duced in the state legislature propos-
ing charge for the care of patients
but it did not get through. Mr.. Vas
! ally said that he believed that the un-
fortunate in this state are given
equally as good care as in any other
state and as good as in the sanitar
iums. The state seeks to keep the
best employees at all times but Of
course cannot afford to pay very high
salaries, and even if it could, probably
very little would be gained. Investi-
cation of the institutions will show
that there is everything to commend
and little to condemn.
In the past it has been found that
great number OF old people who
could easily be cared for bv relatives,
have been sent to the institutions
simply to get rid Of them. They be-
come nuisance in the home of the
relatives because Of the need Of ex-
ira care and at the first opportunity
are sent to the insane hospital Mr..
Vasaly was of the opinion that if a
charge Of $15 per month be made in
such cases the relatives would hesi-
tate to send them there.
There are three detention hospitals
in this state, to which all insane per-
sons are taken to first. They then
pass on to the main hospital. The
splendid thing about the detention
! hospitals is that it provides for a