New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1916-12-11
A Trust Not Kept

A Trust Not Kept
New Workers like to think Of their state
as a progressive and generous common
wealth, giving humane and scientifically
advanced care to its unfortunates and
withal, well governed, in that it handles
these problems with due regard for the
taxpayers money. Undoubtedly that is
what the great general public wants this
state to be. What it actually has been fol-
many years has just been set forth in cold
facts by the State Charities Aid Associa-
ton. The record is such that the asso-
citation declares: Notwithstanding many
promising beginnings, it has steadily lost
ground in the last fifteen years. 1t has
steadily fallen behind as compared with
other states. This was especially true, II
must be said, during the years 1913 and
1914"
In the fifteen years from 1887 through
1901 there were opened four new state
hospitals and seven new charitable insti-
tutions. In the fifteen years from 1902
through 1916 there have been opened three
new charitable institutions, but no addi-
ton has been made to the number of state
hospitals. 1t is. commented on in every
public report that new hospital facilities
are needed, and that conditions in the ex-
listing institutions are lamentable- The
depleted state treasury is always given as
the excuse for failure to better conditions
in other ways than by additions to the old
hospitals. The plain fact is that disgrace
ful maladministration has tied up money
or squandered it in beginnings of improve
ment which have had no end-has given
an appearance of betterment Of conditions
without actual betterment.
The public is tolerably familiar with the
endeavor to abolish the antiquated, unsani-
tary cell-block at Sing Sing and replace it
with a modern prison. In 1906, after long
agitation, a commission was appointed to
purchase a site for the new prison The
following year a site at Bear Mountain
was acquired; this was abandoned in 1910
because Of the creation of Palisades Park
after an expenditure of much money. That
year another site was bought at Wing
dale, and construction work begun, only to
be abandoned as unsuitable, leaving the
state to meet damage claims by con-
tractors. Now, ten years after the be-
ginning Of the attempt to abandon the old
Sing Sing, a new commission Is endeavor-
ing to find site. 1t has new appropria-
ton of 100000 to spend.
This is by no means an extreme exam
pie of what the state has been doing. In
1904 it was decided to build modern re-
formatory for boys, to take the place Of
the old Randall's Island institution. In
1909 a site at Yorktown Heights was pur-
chased. costing about S125,000. Several
hundred thousand dollars were spent on
construction, but now the whole enterprise
has been abandoned, as was that Of the
Mohansic State Hospital, on which also
much money had been spent, in order to
keep New York City's watershed free from
possible contamination.
Then there was the proposal to create a
model farm colony for Migrants, embodied
in legislation adopted in 1911. In 1913 a
site was obtained in Duchess County, but
construction Of buildings has not even
started yet. In 1912 large tract of land
for the new Utica State Hospital was
acquired, at a cost Of more than 100000
but no building has ever been placed there
A state reformatory for male misdemean'
ants, aged from sixteen to twenty-one, who
now must be sent to jails, to be subjected
TO eminently undesirable influences, was
authorized in 1912. Up to date not even
site has been obtained for it. Letchworth
Village. a modern institution intended tc
care for Predetermined, was begun in 1905
by the acquisition of site costing $685.
600. and large enough for an institution
accommodating 5000 inmates. Up to date
although large sums have been spent, there
is accommodation for only $50 inmates
and It is estimated that the state has more
than 10000 feeble-minded who ought 70
be cared for, hundreds Of whom are a posi-
tive menace TO society while at liberty.
Nothing could show more clearly than
these facts, summarized by the State
Charities Aid Association, how recreant
New York State is and how wasteful of
taxpayers money is its policy, or lack of
policy. 1t is idle TO try 70 apportion the
blame. 1t must be divided among the
legislatures, the Governors, the state com