For repairs per annum..... And a further sum of $110 per capita per annum for each in mate over 800, as shown by the monthly sworn state- For deficiency for year ending 1901, $110 per capita per annum 5,000 00 for all inmates over 800, as above. For deficiency in repair fund for year ending 1901.. 2,500 00 SPECIFIC APPROPRIATIONS AVAILABLE IN 1901. For east wing and dining-room addition to Colonia; also heating, lighting and plumbing for main building at Colonia.... 25,000 00 For one custodial cottage, adjoining Sunset Cottage on the north, with two dining-rooms and one kitchen.... 45,000 00 For brick dairy and brick slaughter house, at Colonia. 2,700 00 To build six bedrooms, bathroom and sitting-room over cold storage building..... .$1,450 00 For one air compressor, piping for the same, and reservoir to hold 250,000 gallons. 2,840 00 SPECIFIC APPROPRIATIONS AVAILABLE IN 1902. For central building and two cottages for a woman's colony... $52,500 00 (The same to be available in 1902 and continuing in 1903.) For minor improvements at main building, as follows: Brick addition to barn. . . . . . Brick shed for storing lumber and supplies. Brick wagon shed..... Addition to greenhouse. .$2,500 00 1,000 00 2,000 00 1,000 00 6,500 00 MEMORANDUM AS TO ADDITIONAL MAINTENANCE WITH DECREASING PER CAPITA COST. The estimate of the decreasing per capita when the number of 800 shall be exceeded, is based upon the following: 1. Certain items of expense remain unchanged, i. e., salaries of officers and a proportion of the domestic help. 2. Certain other items of expense increase slowly with increasing enrollment, i. e., fuel, light, office expenses of all kinds, amusements, etc. 3. Certain other items of expense, although they increase considerably, yet do not increase quite as rapidly as the number of inmates, i. e., tuition, subsistence, furniture, bedding, etc. 4. The only expenses which increase directly as the number of inmates, are those for clothing, and personal attendance. The following is a dissection of the contemplated increase. The figures given are those for 1899, in which year it will be noticed the per capita cost of clothing was unusually low: This institution is asking for an appropriation of $28,500 with which to purchase 286 acres of land, and for the sum of $52,500 for a central building and two cottages for a woman's colony. These two items are asked for upon the proviso that the bill extending the age limit for admission of females, which was introduced in the Legislative session of 1899, shall be reintroduced and become a law (which was to take in all feeble-minded women of child-bearing age), which would without doubt cause three or four hundred pressing applications for the admission of girls and women. The Board of Trustees of the institution make the following statement in reference to the State making provisions and care for the feeble-minded women: The reports we have made during the years of the institution's life, and especially during the last five or six years, have emphasized and reemphasized the importance of making provisions for the whole class of idiotic and imbecile women of child-bearing age, as a protection to the State against the continual increase of the degenerated and dependent classes. We have demonstrated the fact that it is possible so to train a proportion of the feeble-minded that they shall, approximately, be selfsupporting. We have shown an annually decreasing per capita cost, from $239 in 1889, to about $133 in 1900; a decrease largely due to the profitable employment of our trained inmates, who are, and should be, permanent residents of the institution. We would again respectfully call your attention to the great need of provisions for the class alluded to, and urge that it be supplied by the Legislature of 1901. RECOMMENDATIONS. The following appropriations are recommended for this institution: For maintenance annually. And $110 each for all over a daily average of 800. For repairs annually. .$100,000 00 For east wing, etc., to Colonia. For custodial cottage.... For brick dairy and slaughter house. For building rooms over cold storage. 4,000 00 25,000 00 45,000 00 2,700 00 1,450 00 1,500 00 1,000 00 INDIANA STATE SOLDIERS' HOME. COL. G. R. STORMANT, COMMANDant. This institution is located four miles from the city of Lafayette on a high elevation on the banks of the Wabash River. The home was established under an act of the General Assembly in 1895 for disabled and destitute soldiers, sailors and marines. The general condition of the property is excellent and the buildings, boilers and engines are all in good repair. POPULATION. Number enrolled November 1, 1899. . . . Number received during year ending October 31, 1900.. Discharged, died or withdrawn, same period.... Enrolled November 1, 1900..... Average daily attendance, same period.. PROPERTY. 636 286 279 643 525.25 The following is a statement of the value of the property as estimated by the trustees: Grounds, 200 acres. $16,150 00 State buildings 146,500 00 Forty-two county cottages, G. A. R., W. R. C. and ladies of the The lands were donated by Tippecanoe County and Col. R. P. DeHart, of Lafayette. Tippecanoe County also donated $6,000 in cash. The city of Lafayette donated property valued at $1,300. This institution draws from the State $12.50 per month for each soldier residing at the Home. The United States Government pays to the State $100 per annum for each veteran in the Home and the same goes toward reducing the expenses of the State in maintaining the veterans in the Home, as the money from the government is paid into the State treasury. Hence, the actual cost to the State for the maintenance of each veteran is only $50 per capita per annum. The trustees made a statement in writing to the committee concerning its pension fund, which is herein set out as follows: Under the provisions of the statutes and by the rules of the Home, every applicant for admission to the Indiana State Soldiers' Home fills out a printed form of application for admission. In this application, which is also a formal contract, the applicant covenants and agrees to pay into the Home such portion of his or her pension as the rules of the Home may require. The statute provides that such pensions, so paid over to the Home shall be disposed of in one of three ways. First, if the veteran pensioner have a wife not in the Home, then the amount so paid in by him shall be sent to the wife and duplicate receipts be taken, one receipt to be turned over to the pensioner and one to be kept by the Adjutant; second, if such pensioner has no wife, but has a minor child or children, then the sum paid into the Home shall be sent to said minor child or children and receipts be taken as in the first instance; third, if such pensioner should not have either a wife, or minor child or children, then the amount shall be paid in for the use and maintenance of the Home. The rule governing this payment of pension provides that when the veteran enters the Home unaccompanied by his wife, or if he be a single man or a widower, then all the pension drawn per month in excess of $8 shall be turned into the Home for the maintenance of the Home. In the case of the veteran being accompanied by his wife, she remaining with him as a member of the Home, then such veteran agrees to pay into the Home the excess over $12 per month for the maintenance of the Home. The total amount of the pension paid into the Home under these agreements during the year ending October 31, 1900, was $2,689. This Home Fund has been used for furnishing extras in the matter of comforts to the pensioner when sick or convalescent. In many instances where they were helpless and needed constant personal nurses, these nurses were paid from this fund, and in the payment of funeral expenses this fund was drawn upon. It has been used to purchase books for the Home library, portions of it have been used in improving the cemetery ground and portions in buildings and furniture, and in the general expenses of the Home. In connection with this pension fund we wish to call attention to the act of the Legislature of 1899 (page 187) entitled an act concerning the management of benevolent, penal and reformatory institutions and the Indiana State Soldiers' Home. (H. B. 515, approved February 27, 1899.) By this act, if the letter were strictly followed, then the Board of Trustees of the Indiana State Soldiers' Home would be required to pay into the general fund of the State to be used for any and every purpose for which money might be required instead of being used for the purpose for which it was paid into and received by the Home, this money derived from pensions. There is no objection to reporting to the Governor or to any other State officer the amount received from this as well as from any other source, but this Board of Trustees protests against the payment of this 5-LEG. COM. REP. |