The people's voice. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1939-1969, 1943-05-28
Mr.. President:

We, your special Joint COMMITTEES
of the House and Senate, appointed
to investigate conditions at the Mon
tana State Hospital at Warm Springs
submit herewith our report on sucf
investigation.
A request has been registered thai
this report be made in considerable
length and detail, and there seen
good reasons for acceding to such
request, namely, (a) because the mem
bers of the legislature and the people
of the state generally wish to have
the full facts with regard to condi
lions at Warm Spring, (b) because
time and distance do not permit many
people to make personal visits to this
hospital and see for themselves just
how things go, and (c) because such
inspection tours are disturbing to the
patients and not to their best inter
ests hence are to be discouraged.
Because of these reasons, we feel the
mmbers of the legislature should be
given the complete story and thus be
in a position to know all details of
our findings.
The responsibility for the welfare
of these patients and the conditions
under which they live, lies after all
with the legislature and the people
of the state and is merely passed
down, through the governor and the
state board of examiners, to the SUI
perintendent of the institution, who
in turn is held accountable. The SUI
perintendent's task has been made diff
ficult lately because of numerous fac
tors, among which may be noted the
following, (a) lack of sufficient ap-
preparation to meet the many needs
of the patients and the institution,
(b) the stoppage, due to the war
emergency, of construction of new
buildings at the institution, for which
bonds were voted by the state in 1910,
which still leaves a badly over
crowded condition there, and (c) an
apparent division of authority at the
institution which has hampered the
Superintendent in his management of
affairs.
Generdl management
This apparent division of authority
resulted from the setting up of three
departments of endeavor at the insti
tuition, each with it's own head, in
keeping with the recommendations of
the reorganization committee. These
three division heads are presumably
answerable to the superintendent.
But, while the medical and nursing
divisions are so closely associated
with the superintendent as naturally
to look to him for guidance, the divi-
sion Of business management has
rather come to regard itself as sep
arate entity And since the head of
this division had his appointment
from Helena, not from the superin-
tendent, he does not feel answerable
to the superintendent to any great de-
gree There seems to be no outright
conflict between the two, but the re-
is strained, and they man.
age to work together in fair degree
of harmony by each keeping off the |
other fellows ground. This situation, |
however,, is GApOCtCQ " w SiOoi Ou up |
legislation now before the as
sembly, which will give the superin-
tendent full authority to chose his
own assistants.
Business Management
In the actual management of affairs
about this institution, some questions
have been raised, your committee
as to the judgment and abil-
ity of the present business manager.
These have to do with the work about
the farm particularly and may in some
cases be justified, while in others it
can be shown that the business man.
ager is not himself to blame if some
have been called into
question. 1t seems a mistake has
been made in combining the two jobs
If hog raising and chicken raising
and placing them both under one
head, with the result that egg produc-
ion fell off badly and some loss was
experienced among the hogs This
was made presumably in
he interests of economy, to save the
wages of one man. But the man now
n charge of these two jobs had had
10 experience with chickens, whereas
le is a good hog man. And the man
n charge of farm operations would
10 much better, it seems, looking aft {
,r the chickens. But, as things have
urned out, the former head of farm {
operations, who was considered an ex- '
,ellent man in that position, had to {
)e dismissed about year ago be-
,ause of drunkenness, and the man
n charge of chickens shifted over to {
hat job So this difficulty in farm {
may be attributed to {
,oor Judgment or necessity, as one |
nay feel inclined to think or as furth- l
r information on the subject may re- |
-eal.
Considerable talk has been occa- {
toned by certain other farm mix-ups {
lso, and should be explained here. |
)ne. of these has to do with the hay i
ontract that was entered into last f
ummer with the owner of a ranch i
ONE miles away. A crew of patient '
elp was taken to this ranch to put q
ID the hay on shares. Bad weather t
ct in; the crew spent several weeks
here; and when the hay was stacked t
he institution could not use it to ad- I
antage, partly because of the poor
uality and partly because it was too f
ar away So the hay was traded to c
he ranchman who owned the place /
Or a price of $3.50 ton, and beef t
attic was taken in pay. Some diff e
ulty arose over this with other stock a