The weekly times-record. (Valley City, N.D.) 1912-1922, 1922-09-21
USING MY INFLUENCE,

HA<D ONDOC VI
: THE HIGHPOWERED HOSPITAL
5 "And, while DR.. Sawyer is using hi:
I influence, in the 10th District we have
5 200 Of these mental and nervous case:
confined in State Insane Asylums
about 100 in government hospitals IL
no way equipped for their care, while
/ many others from this District art
confined in Old Soldiers Homes thou
= sands of miles away. The balance Of
} these many are being kept at home
: because anxious parents will not per
: NIT their sons to be hospitalized ir
: Insane Asylums, and these men are
probably better off, than they would
: be under DR.. Sawyer's adequate pro.
5 gram of disqualification.
81 wonder if you realize what these
mental cases" are? The term "men,
| tai case" is an abstract term, in the
way it is used by statisticians and Dr.
| Sawyer. What is such a case III
; "flesh and blood"?
} "Recently in the South, Legionaires
discovered an ex-soldier who weighed
eighty-seven pounds dragging his wea-
ry limbs down to the river side. In his
} poor, bewildered mind, there was nc
remembrance of associates or friends
not even his name; there was only the
Pickering thought that in the yellow
waters and quicksands of large river
he might find peace. He said he could
not work and no one would feed him.
"Has anyone of you ever seen one
of these mentally disabled soldiers ?
They are not "mental cases" if you
know them. Have you seen any of
these young men, nervous, depressed
disturbed, who are kept in their homes
by anxious relatives, and who are in
danger of crossing the borderline be-
) tween nervousness and insanity, SIM
ply because there is no place for them
in a Government Hospital. In oul
District there are many such men.
"Within the last week l visited a
mental ward in one of the hospitals
l found a North Dakota boy whom
had assisted with his original COM
pensation claim, and although he knew
me we'll when l was a State War Risk
Officer for this State, he hardly re-
called ever having met me. He's not
insane yet, but unless proper facilities
are forthcoming he will be. Perhaps
you will be amazed when | inform you
that new cases Of this class are CON-
ing into the Bureau at the rate of over
two hundred month, and that there
are over four thousand cases of men
tai and nervous disorders in various
; stages in these four states at the pres
ent time. These are the figures OF
the Veterans Bureau and are not ex-
!; aggerated. Recently, there was allo-
Gated to St. Cloud, Minnesota, $50
, bed hospital for these men. 1t is not
large enough, and the Presidents
board of disqualification recommended
500 beds. SAWYER REDUCED IT.
When is this hospital going to be
: built? Gen. Sawyer stated in the
Congressional Record that two years
to complete these hospitals would be
proper. Every day we read in the pa
per Of men committing suicide who
are mentally unbalanced because OF
war service.
"How long must we wait? Many
Of these men, perhaps half, can be
cured if taken in time. All Of them
durable and incurable, are entitled to
the best that the Government can pro-
vide.
"Dr. Thomas w. Salmon, Medical
Director of the Society for Mental
!; Hygiene, one of the foremost author
; tiles on mental disorders, tells of his
visit to hospitals in all parts of the
; country in the past three years. He
says:
"I have never been ashamed of be-
ing an American but when | come out
of some Of these hospitals where
have seen these young men who have
just been admitted, looking around
with apprehension and seeing those
demented faces, many of them perma-
nently insane, and begging me to take
them out, and asking why the Gov
eminent has placed them there, I felt
il ashamed of being a citizen of this
country
"In the Congressional Record you
will find report of committee of
investigation appointed by the Senate
of the United States, June 10th Of
1921, which reads in part:
There is no doubt that there has
been lamentable failure on the part
Of the Government to provide ade=
quate hospital facilities for the wound
ed, sick, and disabled veterans of the
world war. The men have been cared