Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1917-06-18
STATES INSANE
TOBE CARED FOR
Woodward Says $500,0OOWill
Be Allowed For Blairsville;
Torrance Sends Letter

Francis ]. Torrance, of Pittsburgh,
Charities. has written letter in be-
half of the insane of the state and
urging the Western State Hospital
for the Insane to be located near
Blairsville Intersection, which likely
will result in an appropriation of
$500. 900 being made for this insti-
tuition. Chairman James f. Wood
ward, of the House appropriation
committee, said that he thought this
amount of money would be voted.
The letter was sent to Chairman
Woodward and Chairman Clarence
]. Buckman, of the Senate appro-
priations committee following visit
of Mr.. Torrance made here last week
in behalf of the institution. The last
Legislature authorized the asylum
and appropriated $4,000 for the
purchase of a site. Mr.. Torrance
wrote in part as follows:
The appropriation for the hos
pital was a mistake. All appro-
priations of this kind are mistakes.
There is no sense of making an ap-
preparation of a paltry $4,000 for
the purpose of securing land, etc.
because you cannot secure enough to
be of any moment or value. How
ever, l was so desirous and knew so
thoroughly the wants of these in
sane that | took place on the COM
mission to complete the hospital and
have secured as much land as the
appropriation provided for. To buy
a small portion of land and spend
money on it and then buy more land.
or expect to buy more land in the
future. is simply a criminal mistake.
We have such mistakes in a numb ber
OF institutions, notably Polk, Harris
burg, Rittersville and one other, the
name of which l cannot for the mo-
ment recall.
What l want to do is to get suf-
hcient land and begin the work. l
want to put IN shape the buildings
now on the property SO that we can
Il Ike care of a few people and let
them clean up the land; then build
some permanent buildings in the
shape of dormitories, a modest power
house and other necessary buildings.
and to do this l expect to use the
inmate labor. l want to build a very
economical sensible, comprehensive
proposition without an extra dollars
worth of frills. My expectation is to
build these buildings of concrete con-
struCtion, because there has been
less advance in the cost of that ma
terial generally than in any other
building proposition. 1t would be
sad mistake to appropriate anything
less than a half-million dollars.
81 know you gentlemen are busy
and | know you are very much wor-
ried. No more than / am, however,
and know you realize pretty nearly.
ii not quite as well as | do myself,
the necessity for prompt and en-
phatic action. If something has to
wait. don't, for Gods sake, let it be
the insane any longer. l would not
have taken this position on the COM
mission had I not believed that sub
stantial support would have been
given in the matter. l made official
inspections recently at DiXmont, AL
lentown and Norristown. and the
overcrowded condition of these in
stitutions is simply sickening. At
night had to step over the PROSTATE
forms of inmates sleeping on porches
and in corridors and Railways. Let
me again impress you that your in
sane institutions are now 2,O92 be-
yond the rated capacity and there is
demand for space in addition to this.
The matter has been neglected too
long. That's neither your fault nor
mine, but let us get together and
even at this late hour remedy 1t in
50 far as cam