OCR Text |
Show WHERE ARE THE INSANE? Hundreds of Them in the Territory, But Few Show up at the Territorial Ter-ritorial Asylum. Forty patients are now in the Territorial Insane Asylum at Provo, and the institution institu-tion is losing money at the rate of $12 pen day. This is accounted for by the fact that it costs a much larger pro rata for forty inmates than it would for seventy-five seventy-five or eighty the number the building can accommodate the expense of heating, heat-ing, lighting, and attendance being the same with the minimum number as it would be with the maximum. When it is remembered that there are probably 500 insane people in Utah who snouia nave tne care and attention that can only be had in such an institution as the Territory has just provided, it will readily occur that there must be some reason for the very small number at present consigned con-signed there, and the reason is that the officials of the counties of Utah, or at least a number of them, are not doing their duty to the Territory and the tax payers in this matter. The law creating the Territorial Insane In-sane Asylum provides that the county officials shall send their insane patients to the Territorial institution and there can be no alternative to. such language. As the case now stands, mild types of insanity are "farmed out" or lodged in so-called private asylums, while only the chronic and ' hardened cases are Bhipped out of the way, , and so long as the air is quiet and gentle and these county guardians guar-dians can draw their salary,-no remedy for such unlawful and inhuman proceedings, proceed-ings, may be expected. Utah has long enough borne a stigma for the treatment treat-ment of such unfortunate humans, and now that an asylum in accord with civilized civi-lized ideas and decency has been initiated, ini-tiated, i t is time that the shame should be wiped away. - There are probably twenty cases in Salt Lake county to-day which should be tmder Territorial surveillance, sur-veillance, and it is through dereliction of duty on the part of some one that the change has not been made. - The injustice injust-ice to taxpayers is evident, for they will be taxed not only for those cases which may. be "farmed out" by county officials, offi-cials, but alsolo make up the deficiency which will occur to the Territorial Asylum Asy-lum for the lack of number of patients to make it a self-supporting institution. |