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Published Daily except Sunday
n» Nome Mine Workers’ Union. No. 240. Western Federation of Miners.
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"To secure to each laborer the whole product of his labor, or as
•early aB possible, Is a worthy object of any good government.’ —
anraham Lincoln
Address all Communications to Dally Nome Industrial Worker,
Box 210 Nome, Alaska. Phone, Black 134
All changes In standing advertisements must reach this office at six
o'clock earn evening to Insure insertion in the following issue.
Advertising rates made known on application.
Entered as second class matter March 1, 1911, a* the post office at
Nome, Alassa, under the Act of March 3, 1879.
Nome. Alaska, .Iannary IK, 1!M(I.
The industrial Worker received a
communication, which is printed be
low, on the last mail. Vyhile the
facts may be over-stated and there
may be exaggeration in detail which
does not do exact justice, yet di- j
etinctly in the interests of human- j
Hy it demands space in this paper:
and attention from its readers, if |
there is oven a scintilla of founda
tion for the remarks contained in |
this letter, then Alaskans should
leave no stone unturned to secure j
redress of a most damnable ana
most scandalous condition.
From Morningside Insane Asy
lum, the reports that have come out
through former inmates have been
terrible and disgraceful almost with
out exception. Few if any ever haa
anything really favorable to say con
cerning the institution. Yet it has
been inspected by Governors, by re
presentatives and others and they
have, it is fair to say, given a most
favorable account of this establish
ment.
Yet. we must remember when
such an inspection is ordered, all
such places are on their good be
havior and like a jail which is to be
inspected, the place is physically an !
spiritually remodelled while those
whose duty it is to inspect give the
place the "once over".
Moreover, it is a scandal that t'.i"
Alaskan insane should be farmed
out. We know that the Morning
side is not a philanthropic but a
strictly business institution which
intends to earn on its contract for
U»e care of the Alaskan insane, so
much per. That's why it contracts
for their keep and why it is reason
ably to bo supposed that there
would be some grounds for the
charges which Frank Litts makes
in this communication.
It took quite a number of years
and quite a number of writers to ef
fect reformative methods in tlio in
sane asylums of the land. A great
novelist once who had inside in
formation in Great Britain on con
ditions in such an institution, wrote
a book which is said to have done
more for reform than anything else
Yet a number of unquestionably sin
cere men who had inspected this in
stitution whereof he wrote, declared
that they had not been able to dis
cover a trace of the disgraceful con
ditions that the novelist hud satiri
zed. None the less they were there:
but they were not there for inspect
ors or for visitors in high standing.
And it is more than possible, it is
quite probable that there is a simi
larity between the facts that we
have referred to and the inspection
of the governors, the representatives
and the statements now and then
made by those who were not at
Morningside as inspectors or visit
ors, but as insane inmates.
This man Litts said that lie broke
away from the asylum; that other
wine he never would have escaped.
That he would soon have been cre
mated there. Yet he does not write
lfko- an insane man. It is certain
that reading the careful description
of life in this horrible place that he
.speaks of, and considering the rea
sons for that treatment, he writes as
much with acute logic as with care
ful observation and does not appear
to be at all of a diseased imagina
tion.
And whether his remarks be In
every particular true, or only in
part true, or whether there is ever,
a shadow of a foundation for his
statements, this much is certain ‘.lie
letter alone is proof in itself that
fits contract system should be abol
ished and that Alaska should take
care ov its own insane. It is a damn
able and a scandalous and a hor
rible pate of affairs that this Ter
ritory must farm out its insane for
the profit of a private institution.
We can think of nothing more sor
•did than the fact that such en in
stitution exists with the sole purpose
«( making money from the unfor
tunate situation in which so many
of the hard working miners in this
country have found themselves.
Jt is a remarkable fact that in
state institutions, the number of
curables is much larger than those
who are finally marked as incurable
while in Morningsido, it is as Litts
says, many go in but very, very few
come out. It is further a fact, that
those who have come out all seem
to unite in describing that institu
tion as a den of terror. It Is
further a fact that not one has
come back to this Division with
kindly memories of a place where
they owed a recovery to patient,
kindly, humane treatment, above all
needed and above all apparently
missing in such institutions.
More often than not the Alaskan
insane are victims of broken nerve.
They are not desperate cases. They
are on the contrary cases which
with tender care and patient solici
tude, with careful nursing and
bright and cheerful surroundings
would be certain to recover.
No such thing is provided at
Morningside. On the contrary men
who have recovered have spoken of it
to the paper from time to time as
they would speak of a veritable holi
where the attendants functioned as
the satellites of Fatan in their
mind: cold, cheerless, disciplined,
rigorous, gloomy, nerve racking
and irksome and dreary beyond
words.
Unreservedly, the Industrial
Worker will say that it would be
hard to imagine a more desperate
situation than a person who' is real
ly sane finds himself when shut in,
as Litts was shut in, without
friends, without counsel, with no
means whatever to recover what is
after all dear even to the least of
lus beyond words: personal freedom.
.This hell in life, this living death
is sufficient in itself to secure the
insanity of the sanest person that
would be confined there. There is
no doubt at all about it. ’ How long
does any person think that a nerv
ous temperament could endure the
terrific condition described by Litts
without himself going insane even
though upon entry they had minds
as vigorous and free and healthy as
it was possible for a vigorous and
free and healthy body to have.
It is a duty that all the people
of Alaska owe to themselves and to
their friends that the hateful
system of farming out the Alaskans
insane to an institution outside
should be abolished. There is no
reason why it should not. Alaska
can well afford to care for its own
enfeebled bodily or mentally. Al
aska can well afford to render this
service to its own, just as it looks
after its physically stricken . or its
maimed.
Ibis i3 a matter which should bo
ettended to. It is .a matter which
can easily receive more attentio 1
than it has received from the vari
ous institutions of Alaska. There is
no organization in this country put
will sooner or later have some of
its members in the same situation
in which Litts found himself. There
is no organization which cares to
think that it is turning over its
brethren to the tender mercies of an
exploiting institution which the
longer it keeps him the more shall
be its profit; that the less expensive
the food, the nursing, the creature
comforts which are afforded, the
more money will the owners have
for themselves. Why, then, should
a single one of them look lightly at
a standing disgrace, a standing re
proach and a standing scandal to
this very Territory. The beef poss
ible institution that could exist un
der such a system would be a scan
dal and a disgrace and a reproach.
And too many, altogether too un
animous have been the complaints
about Morningside from time to
time, to permit the territory look
ing on with unconcern at its taking
charge of the people who are
stricken mentally in their work of
developing this northern country.
on mu raws right, bud
THE WORKBR.
COMMUNICATED.
To the Editor of the Industrial
Worker:
Dear Sir:—1 read an article i.i
your paper saying that very few of
the Alaska insane recover. I was
committed there and I want to tell
you the reason why there dont more
recover.
There are approximately two
hundred and eight patients, or more
correctly prisoners, at Morningside
Hospital divided into two rooms.
The only persons who -have any
chance to go out dcors are perhaps
a dozen that chop wood and work
in the garlen. The most horrible
part of it is the dining room. They
are all herded tHcrc together: In
dians, negroes. Chinamen, Esqu
maux, Japanese, white men and
women, sane and insane, and some
near gone from disoar-s. There is
no sugar, milk or butter on the
table only black molasses. In the
morning there is rolled oats and
potatoes and the petatoes arc near
ly always sour. They never had a
change all the time I was there,
except when there was a few beans
or somct cod fish left from supper
and some kind of stuff they called
coffee. I think it was old coffee
grounds boiled over and over. At
lunch there was the same kind of
stew three times a week, made of
liver, carrots turnips and sometimes
a little meat in it, and bread and
water twice a week, some kinds of
old soft fish, and bread. The other
two days we had beans and cabb
age.
There was a man with his nose
nearly gone from disease at the
table I eat at, and the only way 1
could eat was to turn my back to
him. He was the most terrible
sight 1 ever saw. I made a kick
and they bandaged it up, and he
would come down to the table with
the bandage soaked in blcod and
use the same spoon to dish out the
same food that there was that he
ate and would 3tick hands in the
stew and everything else.
Dinner wasn’t quite so bad.
There was generally beans, a lit
tle dried fruit, bread and tea. The
air on a cloudy night made it worse
than the steerage on a big ship
that is crowded, and it was made
still worse from foul .food and bad
stomachs. The strong room is
worse than any hog pen. There
are bed bugs infest it and it is un
fit for human beings.
It is run by a pair of heartless
seounlrels named Liclce and Coe.
I understand they got $27.50 for
each victim. They are paid the
same for the sane as the insane.
and I dont believe a man Is ever re
leased no matter how sane he is if
he hasn't got friends. They claim
ito hold a person three months and
| if there is no signs of insanity to
! give them their release. It believe
1 there is absolutely no cure to he
got there ar.d it’s a crime against
any person sane or insane—I be
I heve that mm that will ien l men
| and women to an institution con;
l.iucted in tbe way that Monilng
jside Hospital is conducted, knowing
1 conditions as they are, have murder
I in their hearts.
I asked the Marshal to put me in
the hospital where I would have
| been all right in three days. I asked
I to see Judge Tucker and ho never
came near. I was railroaded by a
Kangaroo court without being asked
a single question and I was as sane
as any man had anything to do with
sending me out, from the time i
had my trial. This I can prove at
least when on the boat.
I broke out of Morningcide and
I am now working steadily and if 1
had remained I would have been
cremated.
There were two died while I was
| there and I have got my. opinion
about Ur. Chambers. They got my
! money, watch and clothes, arid l got
an old pair of overalls, a two bit
shirt and an old pair of shoos. They
read your mail and dont send
your letters without they wish to,
and refuse you counsel. You’re com
pletely at their mercy, and there Is
no object in killing the goose that
lays the golden eggs. I swear every
word to be the truth as God is my
witness. I ask you in the name of
Humanity to publish this or any
part you see fit, and to advocate re
form or a thorough investigation so
that sane persons will not be held
for a profit, and proper food, fresh
air and sanitary conditions for the
unfortunate will be provided.
There is no division between the
bad and the mild cases, and the
' women fare as bad as the men in
i the dining room.
Yours Sincerely,
FRANK LITTS.
PROFESSIONAL CARD.
Dr. A. F. Heimlich
PHYSICIAN & SURGEON.
Office & Residence:
OVER HILL’S PHARMACY.
Office Hours: 2—5 and 7—8 p. in.
Phone—Night or day, Main 26. ’
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