Evening star., 1923-07-19
vETSPLAN INQUIRY
| AT ST. EL|zABETH'S
Move Is Part of Nationwide
Interest in Welfare of
Insane Patients.
BY ROBERT It. SMALL.

Special Dispatcn TO Tie Star.
NEW YORK, July 19.-FollowinG
disclosures here today of the brutal
treatment of patients in the Brooklyn
Hospital for the Insane. a movement
has been set on foot looking to local
and state inquiries into all such in
stitutions throughout the country.
From time to time isolated cases of
mistreatment and cruelty to the in
sane come to the surface. and these
have led at last to well defined
belief that perhaps in many institu-
tions the country over the method
of dealing with the helplessly and
violently insane has not been based
entirely upon feelings of the most
considerate humanity.
Soldier organizations here taking
cognizance of the local inquiry are
contemplating request to Washing
ton for a check-up of the methods
used at the Government Hospital for
the Insane.
Complains OF St. Elizabeth's.
Various officers of the Army and
Navy committed TO st. Elizabeth's
at Washington have complained to
friends and relatives of mistreatment,
but generally speaking these COM
plants have been set down as fig
ment of the disordered brain of the
patient and nothing further has been
done.
The pitiful part of insanity as de-
veloped in the hearings here, IS the
inability of the committed person
to make himself understood or be-
lieved 1t is so easy to cast aside
any charges brought by the patient
and so difficult for the person written
down abnormal to make even his
closest friends believe that his story
is other than some fancied wrong or
deluSion.
Something extraordinary must hap
pen at an asylum to bring conditions
to public or official attention. AL
ways about an. large institutions for
tho insane there are whisperings of
cruelty 10 the patients; even of deaths
due to some form of punishment
meted out.
Want Better Guards.
In the movement started here no
charges are contemplated against the
management Of the various institu-
tons. The effect is rather directed
toward ridding the institutions of
guards or other officials who may
prove to be untitled to the trust and
the task placed before them. 1t is
recognized that a high order of
patience and tolerance necessarily is
required of all who have to deal with
the insane. Their unreasona bleness,
their violence at times. are difficult
TO deal with. and a guard without
the Proper degree of patience may
easily be led into some act of cruelty.
we realize" said Deputy Attorney
General Maurice Gottleb here today,
the difficulty in handling insane persons
Dut we also realize that these people
Fa -. af
no justification for kicking and
knocking down the pitiful patients
who have mental disorders. Shocking
conditions such as have been Substan-
tlated in the hearings here in New
York must stop"
Try to Tell Grievances.
There have been few more pitiful
tempt here of the insane patients to
make themselves understood; to make
theiT stories clear Their stories
never would have been told, perhaps,
but for the fact that a young man
employed rs an attendant at the hos
pitsl threw up his job because he
a9id, he could not stand the scenes of
r:'uslty practiced by some of the at
terdants.
lie told of Il patient marching into
the dining room being kicked so hard
by one of the attendants that he
spraWled six feet along the floor
WI men TINS man could not eat his
meal he was forcibly fed by the at
tendant, with two other attendants
holding him.
\ doctor employed at the hospital said
that out of seventy patients in one ward
he found four who bore marks of mis-
treatment. These patients were brought
before the investigation committee. One
by one they attempted to tell their
stories, but before proceeding very far
with their narratives the poor weak
brains failed and they rambled off into
something entirely foreign to the in
quiry.
Wounds Testify MuteIy.