USA > Massachusetts > Commonwealth history of Massachusetts, colony, province and state, volume 5 > Part 7
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64 | Part 65 | Part 66 | Part 67 | Part 68 | Part 69 | Part 70 | Part 71 | Part 72 | Part 73 | Part 74 | Part 75
RESPONSIBILITY FOR THE MENTALLY DISEASED (1676-1886)
Massachusetts legislation took notice of the insane as early as 1676, when the duty of caring for dependent lunatics was conferred upon the selectmen. In 1694, overseers of the poor were made to share in this duty, while justices of the peace were empowered to dispose of the property of insane persons. Until the opening of the McLean Asylum in 1818 as a part of the Massachusetts General Hospital (chartered in 1811, a private institution aided by the State), the insane were cared for in almshouses, penal institutions, and private houses.
The question of providing special accommodations at the cost of the Commonwealth for the insane seems to have been first agitated in the legislature in 1829 by the Hon. Horace Mann, then of Dedham; and the result of the discussion that followed was the appointment of a committee, of which Mann was chairman, to make investigations as to the "practicability and expediency of erecting and procuring, at the expense of the Commonwealth, an asylum for the safe keeping of lunatics and persons furiously mad."
The result of the report of this committee was the establish- ment of the State Lunatic Hospital at Worcester, now known as the Worcester State Hospital. "For more than thirty years, the state laws had authorized the confinement in jails
56
STATE GOVERNMENT
and prisons of such lunatics as should, in the opinion of two magistrates, be judged 'dangerous to the peace or safety of the good people.' Such confinement as the laws authorized shut out nearly every chance of improvement." The founda- tion of the Worcester hospital marked the beginning of a group of State hospitals for the insane that have amply justi- fied all the encomiums that have been bestowed upon them and their administrators.
Centralized supervision of the insane and of the four state institutions then existing was provided in 1863, when the Board of State Charity was established. This board was re- placed in 1879 by the Board of Health, Lunacy and Charity. In 1886 the State Board of Health was created as a separate organization, leaving to function until 1898 the State Board of Lunacy and Charity. In that year was established the first State board whose sole concern was to be the care of the mentally afflicted. The board was reorganized in 1914 and its authority over the institutions under its supervision much extended. Two years later it was again reorganized as the Massachusetts Commission on Mental Diseases, to become, under the general departmental reorganization act in 1919, the Department of Mental Diseases, presided over by a skilled specialist known as the Commissioner of Mental Diseases.
Prior to the establishment of the State Board of Insanity, Massachusetts had been a pioneer in enlightened legislation affecting the mentally diseased. In 1881 provision was made for the reception into State institutions of voluntary patients as "boarders." This provision was extended to epileptics in 1895. In 1909 provision was made for the commitment to appropriate institutions of drug addicts. In 1886, provision was made for the segregation of insane criminals at Bridge- water. Massachusetts was the first to adopt, in 1885, the "family care" system of boarding out patients in private families, with adequate provision to secure their proper treat- ment. Provision was made in 1883 for temporary absence on leave of patients in State institutions.
REFORM OF CARE OF THE INSANE (1898-1904)
The year 1898 is a notable one in the history of Massa- chusetts policy toward the care of the insane. Not only was
57
PSYCHOPATHIC PATIENTS
the State Board of Insanity established, but it was directed to report a plan for the State care and support of all the insane poor. There were then under the supervision of the board four general classes of persons: the insane, feeble-minded, epileptic, and inebriated or dipsomaniacs. Drug addicts later became a fifth class. These charges till then were located in State insane hospitals and asylums and other institutions more or less under State control (such as the Boston Insane Hos- pital, private institutions for the insane, city and town alms- houses ) and in private families in care of the State Board of Insanity or local overseers of the poor. Of those cared for at public expense, over 5,000, or 67.5 per cent, were at the charge of cities and towns.
On the recommendation of the board, the State undertook complete responsibility for the support and care of all the in- sane poor, and provided for transfer from local almshouses to the State hospitals and asylums. This policy became ef- fective January 1, 1904, necessitating the purchase by the State of the Boston Insane Hospital.
Another event rendering the year 1898 notable was the founding of the Massachusetts Hospital for Epileptics, now known as the Monson State Hospital. Four years later, the idea of outdoor treatment of patients was given impetus in the establishment of the first State colony for the insane, opened at Gardner in 1902, and has since extended so that most of the State institutions have such colonies.
PSYCHOPATHIC PATIENTS AND FEEBLE-MINDED (1909-1922)
While Massachusetts has always been in the forefront in methods of treatment and cure of mental diseases, its out- standing achievement in the twentieth century has been the development of methods of prevention. In 1909, the legisla- ture made provision for psychopathic service; and in 1912 the psychopathic department of the Boston State Hospital was established for "scientific research as to the nature, causes and results of insanity," to be given over in 1920 entirely to this phase of treatment under the title of Boston Psycho- pathic Hospital.
58
STATE GOVERNMENT
As early as 1889 a clinic was established at the Massa- chusetts School for the Feeble-Minded; and in 1912 out- patient clinics became an important feature of the psycho- pathic service at the Boston State Hospital. In 1914, they were generally established at the various State institutions. Prevention work in the public schools was begun as a result of an act of 1919 (chapter 277) directing school committees to establish special classes for children found, under regula- tions prescribed by the Department of Education and the Commissioner of Mental Diseases, to be three years or more retarded in mental development.
This important work of prevention centers in the Division of Mental Hygiene, established by Chapter 519 of the Acts of 1922. Through this division, the Department of Mental Diseases is required to "take cognizance of all matters affect- ing the mental health of the citizens of the commonwealth," and to make investigations and inquiries relative to all causes and conditions that tend to jeopardize said health and the causes of mental disease, feeble-mindedness and epilepsy with a view to their prevention.
For the support of its Department of Mental Diseases and the institutions under its supervision, the State expends an- nually more than ten million dollars, representing about 18 per cent of the State expenditures for all purposes. But it is an expenditure that the people of Massachusetts are proud to make.
SUMMARY OF STATE INSTITUTIONS FOR THE DEPENDENT (1900-1930)
In his inaugural address in 1900, Governor Crane, refer- ring to the State institutions, was able to say : "The protection which the Commonwealth has ever extended to her unfortu- nate dependents forms a bright chapter in her history. At no time has this careful solicitude been more manifest than in the present hour." And this just pride of the State in prob- ably the most notable group of institutions in the country has been frequently expressed by Governor Crane's successors. In 1900, the institutions comprised the following insane hos- pitals under the supervision of the recently created State
59
STATE INSTITUTIONS
Board of Insanity: Worcester State Hospital (1833), Taun- ton State Hospital (1854), Northampton State Hospital (1858), Worcester State Asylum (1877), Danvers State Hospital (1878), Westborough State Hospital (1886), Fox- borough State Hospital (1893), Medfield State Hospital (1896), and the Monson State Hospital (1898). In addition, the Board of Insanity supervised the asylum department for insane criminals at the State Farm in Bridgewater, established in 1866, and the mental wards at the State hospital in Tewks- bury, established in 1886. It also exercised partial super- vision over the Massachusetts School for the Feeble-Minded at Waltham, established in 1848.
Since 1900, there have been added to this notable list of institutions for the care of the mentally afflicted the Gardner State Colony (1902), the Wrentham State School (1907), the Boston State Hospital, established by the city of Boston in 1839 and acquired by the State in 1908; the Norfolk State Hospital (1912) ; the Belchertown State School (1922) ; and lastly, the Metropolitan State Hospital, authorized to be opened in the tercentenary year of the founding of the Com- monwealth.
Governor Crane's eulogy also had reference to a group of institutions under the supervision of the State Board of Charity, as well as to the Rutland State Sanatorium, opened in 1898 for the care and treatment of persons suffering from pulmonary tuberculosis, then under control of its board of trustees. The former comprised the State Hospital at Tewksbury and the State Farm at Bridgewater. To this group have been added the Massachusetts Hospital School, opened at Canton in 1907 for the care and education of crippled and deformed children, and three additional sana- toria at North Reading, Lakeville, and Westfield, opened in 1909 and 1910 for the same purposes as that at Rutland. These four sanatoria in 1907 were placed under the Board of Trustees of Hospitals for Consumptives, subject to the general supervision of the State Board of Charity.
Not the least notable of the recent additions to the insti- tutions of Massachusetts is the cancer hospital established at Pondville, by Chapter 391 of the Acts of 1926, under the supervision of the Department of Public Health.
60
STATE GOVERNMENT
CONTROL OF MOTOR VEHICLES (1903 - 1929)
The most prolific source of legislation in Massachusetts in recent years is undoubtedly the motor vehicle. A joint special legislative committee, appointed in 1924 to investigate and study the various problems relating to the control, super- vision and regulation of motor vehicles and kindred matters, pointed out that in the fifteen previous years the General Court had ordered no less than eleven special investigations, "each having to do with some particular phase or phases of the problem." To these must now be added seven more, mak- ing a total of eighteen such investigations authorized through the year 1929.
The legislature has been called upon each year to amend or supplement the elaborate code directly regulating the equip- ment, operation and registration of motor vehicles, the exami- nation and licensing of operators, the scale and disposition of fees, while "the problems brought about by the tremendous increase in their use have multiplied very rapidly." The at- tempt to solve these problems has resulted in a multiplicity of enactments in other fields of lawmaking. The problem of the "drunken driver" impelled the legislature to regulate judicial procedure and to control the exercise of judicial discretion in order to insure a jail sentence for second offenders ; a process involving numerous modifications in our criminal laws. The use of the motor vehicle by criminals and the ease of a quick "get away," combined with the fact that "every farmer's house and every crossroads general store . . . is today only about one-eighth as far from the great city as it was twenty or twenty-five years ago," has compelled Massachusetts to estab- lish its very effective motor-cycle constabulary.
The ever-growing volume of accidents caused by operators found to be "execution-proof" led to the establishment in 1925 of the first and only system of compulsory motor-vehicle liability insurance to be adopted : a system that has resulted in almost as much debate as prohibition, and has led to the annual submission to the legislature of scores of petitions and bills seeking its amendment or repeal.
The use of the motor vehicle has led to the establishment of one of the most superb highway systems in the country, and has also provided the means of providing the cost of that
61
STATE HIGHWAYS
system through registration and license fees, fines collected from offending operators, and lastly from the proceeds of the tax on gasoline. Among the State functions set in action by motor traffic are traffic rules and regulations, State and local; signals and warning signs; direction signs on through high- ways; parking problems ; modifications of the law of the road; snow removal from important routes; abolition of railroad grade crossings; regulation of corporations organized to finance the purchase and insurance of automobiles; location and building of garages, filling stations, and oil refining and storage plants, with the accompanying menace of fire and explosion ; the transportation of persons and property by the bus and the truck, acting as common carriers and licensed and supervised as such; necessary changes in the Sunday laws; the rise of the wayside refreshment stand, the roadhouse, the overnight camp, bringing welfare, sanitary and safety prob- lems; the consequent decline of the street railway; and the impairment of railroad revenues. Our motor-vehicle code is chiefly Chapter 90 of the General Laws, but scores of chap- ters relating to other subjects have required amendment because of the motor vehicle.
AUTHORIZATION OF STATE HIGHWAYS (1893)
In 1900, the State highway project was six years old. It is usually associated with the motor vehicle, but the bicycle was its godfather. In 1892, the advocates of good roads secured the passage of Chapter 338 of the Acts of that year, establish- ing a temporary commission "to improve the highways of this commonwealth." Governor Russell appointed to this com- mission George H. Perkins, representing the bicycle enthusi- asts, William E. McClintock, a skilled highway engineer, and Professor Nathaniel S. Shaler of Harvard, an eminent geol- ogist whose expert knowledge of available road material and other scientific data proved of great value to the work of the commission. The act directed the commission to advise as to methods of construction and maintenance of State or county highways, road-building materials, routes, plans, and estimates of costs. The commission's report disclosed that the roads of the State outside municipal centers were in a "de- plorable condition," and that State or county aid was essential
62
STATE GOVERNMENT
to their improvement. It demonstrated that large annual sums could be saved by their improvement.
The legislature responded to this report in 1893 by es- tablishing the Massachusetts Highway Commission, and the three members of the investigating commission were ap- pointed to begin the work of carrying into effect their recom- mendations.
In 1894, the study of road materials obtainable in various parts of the State was continued, and the different sources of supply were indicated on topographical sheets. The tests of the materials then begun have been continued to the present time. The first State appropriation was made in 1894-the sum was $300,000. A maximum limit of about two miles a town was fixed upon, in order that the object lesson of what good roads really meant might be as wide- spread as possible. The first State highway layout was in Ashby. Cities and towns desiring the application of State funds were required to procure waivers of land damages. The commission soon evolved a system of construction de- signed to unite the more important cities by trunk lines of large traffic capacity.
CONSTRUCTION OF STATE HIGHWAYS (1894-1928)
The first appropriation for the work of the Highway Com- mission was made in 1894, the sum of $300,000 enabling actual construction to begin in August of that year. This amount was raised by borrowing on sinking-fund bonds, ma- turing in 20 years, bearing interest at 31/2 per cent. Through the first decade of highway construction, the total bonds issued amounted to $4,525,000, the maturities varying from 25 to 30 years. In 1904, the State abandoned the sinking-fund bond and adopted the policy of issuing serial bonds. In 1916 the practice was discarded of borrowing money for State high- ways. The total amount of money that had been borrowed for the general work of the commission was $11,767,000. At the end of the fiscal year 1928 there were outstanding only $2,850,520 in highway bonds.
As the fees for registering vehicles and licensing operators began to assume large proportions, it was realized that a method of financing highway improvements was at hand
63
HIGHWAY SAFETY
that would dispense with the necessity of drawing on the general revenue. These fees in 1894 amounted to $17,684. In 1908, when they were pledged to disbursement for highway purposes, they had grown to $121,488.50. In 1909 court fines assessed on offending motorists were added to the high- way fund.
Governor Draper in 1909 recommended that the registra- tion fees be graded so that the high-powered, heavy and speedy machines, causing the most damage to the highways, should pay higher registration fees; and on such a basis a scale of fees was established. It has been revised from time to time with a view to adjusting the fees to benefits received and to wear and tear on the roads caused by the vari- ous types of cars. In 1910 (the first year showing combined receipts from fees and fines) the motor-vehicle account was credited with $168,734.50. In 1928, the account had mounted to $13,919,618.24. While the great bulk of these fees and fines have been used, after deducting the expenses of the Highway Commission and later of the Registry of Motor Vehicles, in administering the motor vehicle laws and in the construction and maintenance of State highways, the legisla- ture has authorized their expenditure also on county highways and local ways in conjunction with local appropriations, and on metropolitan parkways and boulevards. Finally, by way of assuring the motorist that the proceeds of the steadily in- creasing charges imposed upon him would be spent for his benefit, the Highway Fund was established in 1925, whereby the proceeds of motor-vehicle fees and fines and of the tax on gasoline are pledged to the expenditure for better roads, both State and local, together with a share in meeting the expenses of the State constabulary in highway patrol.
PROBLEMS OF HIGHWAY SAFETY (1903 -1929)
The outstanding problems in the recent history of the motor vehicle have been those of highway safety and traffic congestion. A large proportion of motor-vehicle legislation looks to the first of these objects. It began with the imposi- tion of speed limits in 1903. In later years, it has centered about the "drunken," "hit-and-run" and "reckless" drivers, proper braking requirements, the elimination of glaring head-
64
STATE GOVERNMENT
lights, the examination of applicants for licenses, and increases in the force of investigators and examiners under the regis- trar of motor vehicles.
The installation of automatic signal systems, the establish- ment of through ways and the "boulevard stop" system, com- bined with changes in the law of the road regulating the movement of vehicles at points of intersection, represent at- tempts to cope with these problems.
The most notable achievement in this class of regulations was the adoption in 1929 by the Department of Public Works, acting under Chapter 357 of the Acts of 1928, of a standard signal code formulated by experts from the Erskine Traffic Bureau of Harvard University. Massachusetts thus became the first State to make official provision for uniformity in traffic devices. The State also turned to Harvard for expert assistance when it laid the foundations for its great system of State highways.
COMPULSORY MOTOR-VEHICLE INSURANCE (1925 - 1929)
In most cases where Massachusetts leads the way in legis- lative pioneering, other States follow. Compulsory liability insurance for motorists is an exception. The Massachusetts idea has been widely debated throughout the country, but other States are hesitant to adopt it. For several years prior to 1917, bills were introduced into the legislature requiring owners or operators of motor vehicles to procure insurance against damage to persons or property that might be caused by negligent operation. Before undertaking to legislate on the subject, the General Court resorted to the time-honored method of ordering a recess investigation by the Highway Commission. Its findings were adverse.
In 1924 a well-drafted bill passed the house of representa- tives, and was referred by the senate to another recess in- vestigating committee, which reported favorably. "We think it not alone the right, but the duty as well, of the common- wealth to insist that those whom it permits to operate on the public ways a machine so dangerous as the self-propelled vehicles of the present day give adequate guarantees that judgments which may be obtained against them shall be col- lectible, at least with respect to those arising from personal injuries."
65
SELECT BIBLIOGRAPHY
The legislature of 1925 responded by enacting the cele- brated Chapter 346 of the Acts of that year, which provided, as conditions for registration of a motor vehicle by its owner : (1) an insurance policy insuring liability to pay a judgment for personal injuries or death up to certain amounts, if caused by the negligent operation of his vehicle; or (2) a surety bond of like import; or (3) a deposit of cash for the same purposes, with the Division of Highways.
Ever since its enactment, this statute has been a storm center in and out of the State House. Under its provisions, the insurance commissioner has classified premium rates based not only on the type and power of vehicles but upon terri- torial zones founded upon loss experience. Motorists in localities like Chelsea and Revere, where accidents have been frequent, have been required to pay higher premium rates than motorists in rural districts where accidents are less fre- quent. This and the feeling that, if the State is to require motor-vehicle liability insurance, it ought to provide ways and means of furnishing it at cost, has resulted in the agitation for insurance by a so-called "State fund," with a monopoly of compulsory insurance. The sponsors of the movement, led by Frank A. Goodwin the first registrar of motor vehicles, filed in 1929 an initiative petition seeking legislation estab- lishing a form of compulsory quasi-public insurance, but the scheme was declared unconstitutional by the justices of the supreme judicial court in an opinion to the senate received April 16, 1930.
SELECT BIBLIOGRAPHY
AMERICAN SOCIETY OF CIVIL ENGINEERS .- Proceedings (N. Y., 1873 and later)-See Volume LV, Part I, pp. 2475-2517 for six articles on the Metropolitan Park District-parks, water supply, and sewerage system. BATES, SANFORD .- The Penal Institutions of Massachusetts (Boston, 1923) -Contains a brief description of each for the information of courts, probation officers, and others interested in correctional matters.
BRIDGEMAN, RAYMOND L .- Massachusetts First .- An unpublished manu- script noting the many fields of achievement in which Massachusetts has led her sister States; in the custody of the Massachusetts De- partment of Education.
DEAN, ARTHUR W .- "Massachusetts Highways" (Boston Society of Civil Engineers, Journal. 1929, Vol. XVI, pp. 493-553)
DODD, WALTER FAIRLEIGH .- State Government (N. Y., Century, 1928). HALE, RICHARD KING .- "A Brief History of the Development of the Di- vision of Waterways and Public Lands of the Massachusetts Depart- ment of Public Works" (Boston Society of Civil Engineers, Journal, 1926, Vol. XIII, pp. 135-149).
66
STATE GOVERNMENT
HOLCOMBE, ARTHUR NORMAN .- State Government in the United States (N. Y., Macmillan, 1928).
KELSO, ROBERT WILSON .- The History of Public Poor Relief in Massa- chusetts, 1620-1690 (Boston, Houghton Mifflin, 1922).
MCCLINTOCK, MILLER, and HALSEY, MAXWELL .- A Standard Code for Traffic Control Signal Installations and Operation. (Mass. Depart- ment of Public Works, Traffic Bulletin No. 2, Boston, 1929.)
MANN, HORACE .- Life and Works (5 vols., Boston, Lee and Shepard, 1891)-See Vol. IV, pp. 105-140 for his tenth annual report (1846) as secretary of the Board of Education, giving a history of the com- mon-school system of Massachusetts.
MASSACHUSETTS-BOARD OF EDUCATION .- Annual Report (Boston, 1837- 1918)-Usually published as Public document 2. Superseded by the Department of Education.
MASSACHUSETTS-BOARD OF PRISON COMMISSIONERS .- Annual Report (Bos- ton, 1902-1916)-Continues the report of the Commissioners of Prisons. Superseded by the Bureau of Prisons.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.