USA > Kansas > A standard history of Kansas and Kansans, Volume II > Part 56
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The main building was begun in 1868 and finished in 1886 at an esti- mated cost of $450,000. It was planned in the times when very little at- tention was given to the treatment of insanity as a disease, and the prin- cipal idea in mind was to keep the insane in custody for the protection of society. The Knapp and Adair buildings, one for men and one for women, and accommodating three hundred patients each, have since been added. Two tuberculosis pavilions are recent additions and the treat- ment of this disease has been attended by a large degree of success. The infirmary was built by an appropriation made in 1901. A nurses' cottage was completed in 1913 at a cost of $25,000. The original building of 1866 has been moved and remodeled and is now occupied by the head farmer. The farm now contains seven hundred and twenty acres and is fully equipped with machinery and live-stock. The value of the property is estimated to be over a million dollars.
The number of patients accommodated at the institution average at least thirteen hundred, and the buildings are all overcrowded. Prior to 1874 each county was compelled to pay for the care of their own patients unless relatives assumed the expense. In that year the state took over the burden and two years later placed the asylum, along with other state charitable institutions, under a common board of trustees.
The superintendents from 1866 to the present have been as follows : C. O. Gauze, 1866 to 1872; C. P. Lee, 1872 to 1873: L. W. Jacobs, 1873 to
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1874; A. H. Knapp, 1874 to 1877; West T. Bailey, March to October, 1877; A. P. Tenny, 1877 to 1879; A. H. Knapp, 1879 to 1892; Lowell F. Wentworth, 1892 to 1895; Thomas Coke Biddle, 1895 to 1898; E. W. Hinton, for a few months in 1898; Thomas Kirk, Jr., 1898 to 1899; Lyman L. Uhls, 1899 to 1913; F. A. Carmichael, 1913 to -
ELIZABETH N. BARR.
LARNED STATE HOSPITAL
Agitation for a third asylum in Kansas was begun by J. H. MeCasey, Superintendent of the Topeka State Hospital, in his report in 1894, twenty years before it became a reality. In 1911, with the combined capacity of the State hospitals at Osawatomie and Topeka approximately twenty-seven hundred, there were still hundreds of insane being cared for by counties at the expense of the State and others at private asy- lums, and in their own homes.
The legislature of 1911 provided for a new State Hospital to be located west of the 98th meridian of longitude and within five miles of some town. A tract of not less than three hundred and twenty acres was to be secured by donation or purchase, and $100,000 was voted for buildings. The site was located at Larned, where one thou- sand acres of some of the best farming land in the State was acquired by purchase. Buildings were erected and the institution opened in 1914, with Dr. B. F. Hawks, of Anthony, as Superintendent. Twenty patients were removed from the hospital at Topeka. Dr. L. R. Sellers succeeded Dr. Hawks in January, 1915, and in November of that year was succeeded by Sherman Elliott. A new cottage was built in 1915, and there are now accommodations for one hundred and twenty patients at Larned. The farm is under irrigation, and in time will maintain the institution.
ELIZABETH N. BARR.
STATE ORPHANS' HOME
Atchison
The State Orphans' Home at Atchison was founded by the legis- lature of 1885, as a home for the orphaned children of Union soldiers and sailors. An appropriation of $10,000 for the year 1886, and a like amount for 1887 was made, and trustees were appointed to take charge of locating a site and constructing the buildings. The home was opened July 1, 1887. It had facilities for caring for but one hun- dred and fifteen children, and only those under five years of age were admitted. It was found impossible to follow the cottage plan of divid. ing the children into small family groups on account of the expense,
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and they were all put together in a large building, which plan is in operation to the present time, to the detriment of the institution.
The home began to fill up as soon as it was opened, and by January 1, 1888, there were ninety-one ehildren. In 1889 the regulations were so altered as to admit all children between the ages of two and four- teen, who were dependent, negleeted or abused. This necessitated further buildings. An addition to the main building was added, and a hospital erected.
In 1895 the sum of $91,800 was appropriated for building purposes, and a number of buildings were ereeted. A cottage for crippled chil- dren was built in 1907. The original cost of the land was $16,000, which, together with the building appropriations made from time to time, brings the cost of the Home to about $300,000.
In 1908 a State agent was appointed to look after the children who had been placed in homes. The State agent makes investigations of private homes where an application is made for a child, and visits the ehild and foster parents at intervals.
In 1909 the name of the institution was changed from the Soldiers' Orphans' Home to the State Orphans' Home, to conform to the fune- tion it had been filling for twenty years. The management was under a board of trustees until 1905 when with other State institutions it was put under the Board of Control.
ELIZABETH N. BARR.
STATE TUBERCULOSIS SANITARIUM
In view of the fact that there is an annual loss to the people of the United States of $1,000,000,000 on account of tuberculosis, and in view of other facts brought out by the State Board of Health, concerning the disease, the legislature of 1909 declared it communicable, danger- ous to the public, and reportable to the State Board of Health. In 1911 an aet was passed creating a State Sanitarium for treating pul- monary tuberculosis and appropriating $50,000 to locate a site, erect buildings and pay running expenses for two years. An Advisory Board of physicians was appointed by the Governor to select a site. They chose a two hundred and forty aere tract three miles west of Newton, but owing to difficulties eoneerning the title, nothing definite had been accomplished when the legislature met in 1913. What was left of the funds was reappropriated, and a new law was made requir- ing that the Sanitarium be located in some county that would donate a suitable site of one hundred and sixty acres for the purpose. The offer of Norton county was accepted and the Board of Control pur- chased an additional eighty acres adjoining the site. The work of moving and remodeling the buildings already there was begun at once. In Mareh, 1914, a contract for a boiler house, laundry, dining room and kitchen, and for pavilion No. 1 was let. These were finished by September 1, and the institution was opened with Dr. C. S. Kenney in
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charge as Superintendent. Sixteen patients, the full capacity of the buildings, were admitted at once.
The site is admirably located for the purpose of treating tubereu- losis. The altitude is two thousand and sixty feet, there is good water and good drainage, pleasant surroundings, good shade, a south slope and a maximum of sunshiny days. The legislature of 1915, besides giving a liberal amount for running expenses, appropriated $12,500 for a new cottage, and $22,750 for a hospital and other improvements, such as sewer, farm implements, horses, dairy herd, tents and improve- ments of the grounds. However, there is still a great need for more accommodations for patients, as there are hundreds that might be helped if they could be admitted. Originally it was intended to admit all classes of people, whether they could pay or not, just so they had a good chance of recovery and a physician's certificate to that effect. The law was amended in 1915 requiring patients who could not pay to be admitted through the recommendation of the authorities of the county where they have their residence, and requiring the county giv- ing such recommendation to pay the patient's way. This complicates matters for the charity patient and lessens his chanees of receiving treatment.
ELIZABETH N. BARR.
STATE HOSPITAL FOR EPILEPTICS
Parsons
Kansas was the first State to remove her epileptie patients from the insane hospitals, and segregate the different grades of epileptics. By legislative enactment in 1899 an appropriation of $100,000 was made to build a hospital for this purpose on the cottage plan. The law- makers of those days ealled it an insane asylum. The site was to eon- tain six hundred and forty aeres and a committee was created to locate such a tract. Owing to the struggle between Clay Center and Parsons to secure the institution, the actual building was delayed until 1902, when the matter was finally settled in favor of Parsons, and a building contraet was awarded by the State Board of Charities and Corrections. The plans anticipated an ultimate eapaeity of eight hun- dred patients, and three types of buildings were designed :
(1) One large custodial building for the insane patients.
(2) Open door cottages for ehronics, each cottage with a capacity of thirty-six patients.
(3) Small cottages for epilepties otherwise of normal mentality, each with a capacity of eighteen to twenty patients.
In accordance with these plans the legislature in 1903 opened the institution to all classes of epilepties. In the fall of that year five buildings of the men's department were ready for occupancy and on October 19th, one hundred and ten men were received by Superintendent
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Dr. M. L. Perry. The following year a duplicate group of buildings for the women were completed. Improvements have been added from time to time until there are now twenty-one buildings.
In 1905, the institution was placed under the management of the Board of Control. A school was opened where children receive instruc- tion in the ordinary branches, and adults in manual training. In 1909 an administration building was erected at a cost of $70,000, and in 1915 an appropriation of $50,000 was made for a fire-proof hospital. Since the opening of the institution, fourteen hundred patients have been cared for. Inmates at the present time number more than five hundred. The patients are employed in healthful activities, such as farming and gardening. The cost of maintenance after deducting from the appropriations, the fees of pay-patients, and the money received by the sale of products, is about $200 per capita.
The following are the men who have been connected with the man- agement of the institution : Henry J. Allen, F. B. Denman, R. Vincent, G. W. Kanavel, C. A. McNeill, from 1903 to 1905; E. B. Schermerhorn and S. G. Elliott from 1905 to 1912 and 1913, respectively; C. D. Shukers, from 1912 to 1913; HI. C. Bowman, appointed in 1905, and W. E. Brooks and Stance Myers, appointed in 1913, comprise the present board.
ELIZABETH N. BARR.
THE GREAT SEAL OF THE STATE OF KANSAS
The Great Seal of the State of Kansas, procured by the Secretary of State as required by the joint resolution approved May 25, 1861, is described in said joint resolution as follows: The East is represented by a rising run, in the right-hand corner of the seal; to the left of it Commerce is represented by a river and a steamboat; in the foreground Agriculture is represented as the basis of the future prosperity of the State, by the settler's cabin and a man plowing with a pair of horses; beyond this is a train of ox wagons going west; in the background is seen a herd of buffalo, retreating, pur- sued by two Indians on horseback; around the top is the motto: "Ad Astra per Aspera," and beneath, a cluster of thirty-four stars. The circle is surrounded by the words : "Great Seal of the State of Kansas. January 29, 1861."
Under the new constitution, the first Legislature of the State of Kansas met at Topeka on Tuesday, March 26, 1861. On Saturday morning following, the House and Senate received the first message from Charles Robinson, the first Governor. In this message the Gov- ernor called attention to the requirement of the constitution about a seal, and recommended the Legislature to take necessary steps to pro- cure one. On the 3d of April, the State Senate, considering the Gov- ernor's message, referred that part which mentioned the Great Seal to the Committee on Ways and Means. Five days afterward, on Mon-
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day, April 8th, the following resolution was submitted to the Senate: "Resolved, That a committee of three be appointed on behalf of the Senate to act with a like committee on the part of the House, to draw and recommend a design for the Great Seal of the State of Kansas." This resolution was referred to the Committee on Ways and Means. Similar resolutions were considered by the House, and the two com- mittees got to work. But this did not produce a seal very soon. There were designs, designs, and designs, mottoes and mottoes. Scholars suggested and Western men insisted.
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,1351.
GREAT SEAL OF THE STATE OF KANSAS [From Photograph by Willard, Topeka]
Mr. MeDowell, of the State Library Committee, suggested a design with a landscape, something like that afterward adopted, and the empha- tie motto: "We will." Mr. Denman proposed to change the motto to, "We won't." Backward and forward the thing was bandied about. The House Journal for Friday, May 17th, records the fact that the Senate sent a message on "House Joint Resolution on State Seal," say- ing they had amended, and desired concurrence. This message was discussed next day by the House, which did not concur. Then a com- mittee was appointed for conference. The Senate appointed a con- ferenee committee on Monday, and at the meeting of the two committees the same day the matter was substantially settled. Of that date, May 20th, a letter in the Conservative (Leavenworth) contains the following passage :
"The vexed question of a State seal has at last received its quietus
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at the hands of the conference committee. The new design embraces a prairie landscape, with buffalo pursued by Indian hunters, a settler's cabin, a river with a steamboat, a cluster of thirty-four stars sur- rounding the legend. 'Ad Astra per Aspera,' the whole encircled by the words, 'Great Seal of the State of Kansas, 1861.' "
The Senate accepted the report of the conference committee on Wednesday, the 22d of May, 1861, and the House concurred on the same day, and so the design was decided.
D. W. Wilder, in his "Annals of Kansas," says the writer of the letter in the Conservative was John J. Ingalls, and as Wilder was editor of that paper, he ought to know. The same John J. Ingalls was Secretary of the State Senate, and had, therefore, means of obtaining accurate information. John A. Martin, of Atchison, was a member of the conference committee referred to above, and a letter of inquiry addressed to him by the writer brought back for answer the statement that John J. Ingalls had submitted to the committee the design that was finally adopted. Why then, did not the letter in the Conservative state that fact ? Undoubtedly, mainly because Mr. Ingalls was 100 modest to claim the honor of having "settled the vexed question," for modesty belongs to youth, and John J. Ingalls was a young man then. Besides being too modest, Mr. Ingalls had another motive for not claiming it. The design as adopted, is not his alone, and though he may fairly claim credit for some of it, yet of other parts he is by no means proud. The design as submitted to the committee by Mr. Ingalls consisted "of a blue shield at the base of a cloud, out of which was emerging one silver star to join the constellation in the firmament, com- prising the thirty-four then in the Union, with the motto: 'Ad Astra per Aspera.' " The cloud symbolized the struggles through which we have passed, the star the State, the constellation the Union. The motto was both descriptive and suggestive, and the entire design sim- ple, unique, and satisfactory. It was so satisfactory to the committee that they adopted it entire. But after that some of the "wild heralds of the frontier" altered it by mixing a steamboat and plowing, with buffalo hunting, etc., till really nothing but the motto is Mr. Ingalls', and the landscape is, probably, substantially the one submitted by Mr. MeDowell.
All the seal is historic: the motto, the date, the bison hunt, the log cabin. But the motto is not only historie but suggestive of a fact that will be true forever, that the conquest of difficulties is the way to moral as well as political success.
The foregoing was prepared by the Department of State of the State of Kansas, and is an official statement.
Many of the pioneers of Kansas affirmed that Josiah Miller, founder of The Free State, at Lawrence, suggested the legend, Ad Astra per Aspera, for the Great Seal. John Speer said he did not hear that any other person claimed the honor until about the year 1899. The legend is cut on the monument at the grave of Mr. Miller.
ELIZABETH N. BARR.
THE POPULIST UPRISING By ELIZABETH N. BARR
I
INTRODUCTION
It has been a quarter of a century since the high tide of Populism swept over the country. We are now able to see the events of those times in the perspective, and in their proper relation not only to similar preceding movements, but to the underlying economie causes which occasioned the general unrest subsequent to 1870. We cannot attribute this unrest to a spirit of anarchy, as did the old party speakers and writers of that time. It was not confined to a few individuals or local- ities. It was widespread and deep seated, affecting the general masses of normally industrious and contented people. It had both cause and purpose, the former an untenable economie condition, the latter the overthrow of monopolistic oppression of all kinds.
The genesis of the movement which culminated in the People's Party, goes back to the year 1862. It was in this period that the sys- tem was inaugurated which gave rise to two classes of citizens hitherto unknown in this country-millionaires and tramps. The larger the fortunes of the rich became, the more widespread the poverty of the producing classes. They felt it and rebelled, fixing the responsibility on the financial policy of the government, on the unwarranted advan- tages taken by the railroads and other corporations. particularly those controlling public service, natural resources, and the great labor sav- ing inventions of the day; on the policy of protecting the manufactur- ers and leaving the producers without means of safeguarding their interests ; on the swindling of stock gamblers, banks and boards of trade; and on the various forms of usury, rent, profits and dividends.
With these things in mind organizations began to be formed among laborers and farmers. These societies grew rapidly in strength and soon entered upon political action in the hope of correcting existing evils. This political action was invariably the downfall of the particu- lar organization back of it, but a new movement would spring up in its place which followed the same course, until several distinct third parties had their successive rise and fall, before the whole effect cul- minated in the People's party, which had its birth in Kansas in 1890.
Some of the more sentimental writers of a later date have hailed the Populist movement of Kansas as a distinct departure in political life, as a hitherto unheard of phenomenon. A comparative study of the platform of the third parties subsequent to the Civil War shows the Populist doctrine to be essentially the same as the Liberal, Inde
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pendent Reform, Greenback, Anti-Monopoly, and other parties pre- ceding it. In fact, it was but a part of a great world movement-a movement in progress at that time in every civilized country on the globe, in the interests of the producing masses against organized and privileged wealth. It was not Populism that distinguished Kansas, but Kansas that distinguished Populism. Neither the conditions nor the proposed remedy was new, but the Kansas method of handling them
SENATOR W. A. PEFFER [From Photograph Owned by William E. Connelley]
was novel. It was the Kansas manner of reacting upon the situation that makes the story worth telling.
The spectacular character of some of the Kansas leaders gave ample opportunity for the opposition press to ridicule the whole Populist cause-an opportunity which they hastened to improve in every way possible. The motives of all the leaders were called in question, and they were denounced as demagogues and anarchists. Their personal character was often maliciously assailed in an effort to discredit the party. On the other hand the leaders of the old parties and the Con- gresses and publie officials of the two decades just passed, were denounced by the Populist writers as grafters and traitors. The whole era of
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upheaval was marked by the inability of either side to discuss the problems of the day without recourse to abuse and vilification.
It may fairly be taken for granted that aside from the usual num- ber of self-seeking politicians, both sides were honestly striving to put into effect those policies which they believed to be best for the country, although aeting in accordance with widely differing viewpoints. It seems that the statesmen of the old school considered the bankers, manufacturers, and corporate interests of all kinds, to be the coun- try, and thought that any legislation in their interests must of neces- sity be the very best thing for the people at large. On the other hand the farmers considered themselves to be a part of the country, and began demanding laws which would enable them to retain their homes, to market their produee at a profit and pay their debts and live.
Corporate interests were surprised and alarmed at this audacity on the part of the farmers, and every means was taken to bluff and shame them out of it. In no other nation had there ever been any such thing as individual ownership of land to the extent that it then existed in this country, and the money power did not intend that there should be. The farmers were told that the people had never made a success of owning land of their own, and articles appeared in the papers to prepare the minds of the people for the landlord system. The farm- ers were desperate, and out of this desperation came the Populist Uprising. As a political movement it is vindicated, not so much by what it accomplished in the way of legislation at the time, but by the way in which its doctrines have permeated the whole mechanism of politics. Its edneational value can hardly be overestimated. Many of the measures advanced in the Populist propaganda have one by one been enaeted into law, while others are still live issues, which indicates that whatever the weakness of the movement may have been, it was not in the justice of the eanse or the merit of the program.
II
CAUSES OF ECONOMIC UNREST
The underlying causes of the unrest pervading the industrial and agricultural elasses in the two decades leading up to the Populist Upris- ing may be summed up in one word, INTEREST. At the time of the Civil War, and for ten years after it elosed, the government was involved in a financial poliey in the stress and urgency of a national erisis, that gnawed at the vitals of the people long after the rebellion had heen sue cessfully quelled. The producing classes yielded up their substance year after year to the financiers in payment of interest on public and private debts at ruinous rates, and under such eireumstanees and restrictions as made it practically out of the question to pay the principal and free themselves of debt. For from the standpoint of the money power a heavy indebtedness on the part of the people is the ideal condition, and
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no pains is spared to perpetuate it, and to create a market for money at good prices.
The loss of economic equality in this country and growth of extreme wealth and poverty began when the government drafted men to the de- fense of the country and failed to draft money in the same cause. The men were not only compelled to fight the nation's battles and give their lives comparatively without recompense, but those that were left were compelled to spend the remainder of their lives in paying tribute to the money power for a little temporary accommodation, leaving the debt itself to be paid by their children. In justice, there should be no obliga- tion to those who furnish the money, any more than to those who fur- nished their lives. In a national crisis, money and men should both be drafted into the service and both take their chances. If a poor man gives up his job and his living, a rich man should give up his bonds and his bank, without any obligation on the part of the government to return either investment. A system of this kind would not only do away with the slavery of interest, but might put a stop to civilized warfare, for under our present system, war is a thing to be devoutly hoped for on the part of the financiers, as it furnishes a market for money at a high rate of interest and is a potent agency in the concentration of wealth.
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