The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1930-11-01
C. O.P. REIGN
KILLS HOPE OF
INFIRMARY AID
Neglect of County'S Poor Is
Laid at Door of Coffin
Clique.
WINTER TO BRING CRISIS
Inmates Increase Expected
to Add to Suffering at
Institution.
BY EDWARD C. FULKE

Chaotic state of the county's gov
eminent under Republican rule was
blamed today for the squelching of
any possibilities of relief for the
INDECENT poor at the Marion county
inf1rmary.
To Collins henchmen, who spend
thirty million of dollars of taxpay-
ers' money annually, the poor farm
is just another political plaything-
but to more than 500 helpless, aged
and infirm this chaos means an end
t. hope for spending their declining
years in decent surroundings.
Buffeted between warning fac
lions of Collins puppets for eight
months, the infirmary remains to-
day what is has been for fourteen
years-"a politically managed insti-
tuition"
Ordinance Eliminated
They can sleep in tents for all
I care" an assertion of George
Snider, Republican county commits
sioner, stands as the motto of the
present county administration.
A county council, long subjected
to policies of Boss Coffin, 'yessed"
Snider less than month ago and
eliminated abruptly an ordinance
calling for 100000 relief funds.
The verdict of twenty-eight grand
/ juries, conSecutively branding the
poor farm public disgrace, marks
the past on which two members of
the board of county commissioners
ask to be reelected.
Inmates List Grows
Avowed instruments of the dom
! inant CLIQUE, these candidates are
John E. Shearer and Charles o.
Sutton, the former a one-time night
squad road patroller-the latter, a
lifelong township politician.
Exposed by The Times several
weeks ago to be in a deplorable
condition, the poor farm this winter
faces a crisis.
Every day the list of inmates
swells. In quarters large enough
to hold only $50 persons, the Re-
publican administration has herded
| SOS helple IS, crippled, sick and I'M
fortunate poor.
Slept on Straw Pallets
Five weeks ago a score of male
inmates slept on straw pallets on
the floors of dark, ill-yentilated
Railways. Today those Railways have
been put to heavier service, and
thirty-five more male inmates have
been jammed into other corners.
The Republican administration
including Shearer and Sutton, who
this spring rushed through an
$500 900 road program with their
reelection in view, has replaced
those pallets with metal cots.
"I can't see how we'll accommo-
date any more, but guess We'll
have to- Byron Carter, assistant
superintendent stated.
'We've jammed them in wherever
we can, and all I can do is keep
them warm and fed" he said.
Carter estimated 700 inmates may
be living in these quarters before
another month.
New Cookers Installed
It was learned today, Shearer and
Sutton quietly have attempted to
make several reforms at the in
stitution, following up The Times
disclosures that the monotonous
round of food handed the poor is
causing an illness which attendants
"can not explain"
Three new steam cookers are be-
ing installed, one for preparing "side
Dishes" something hitherto I'M
known at the institution.
Two other cookers far preparing Of
vegetables and meat, bringing the
total to five, have been installed
Two more attendants have been
hired, one as a laundryman and
another as might attendant" it
was learned. No other improve
ments are in sight, Carter admitted
EKnY1rIv TaE,nrsaV-a fTyrac