528 



MASSACHUSETTS. 



TONS CARRIED. 



PASSENGERS CARRIED. 



TOTAL TRANSPORTATION EXPENSES. 



TOTAL TRANSPORTATION EARNINGS. 



The charitable and some of the reformatory 

 institutions of Massachusetts have been for fif- 

 teen years under the charge of a Board of State 

 Charities. The expenses of the commissioned 

 members have been reimbursed by the State, 

 and have averaged $520 per annum ; and the 

 total expense of the Board proper has been 

 less than $1,000 per annum. The expense of 

 the administration of the Board has been for 

 the last five years $45,000 to $50,000 per an- 

 num. In 1863 there were eleven State institu- 

 tions, with 4,106 inmates; in 1878 there were 

 twelve, with 5,422 inmates. The Board has also 

 collected, and thus saved to the State, a large 

 amount of money. From 1864 to 1872 the 

 amount was $315,329, of which $76,697 was 

 on account of pauper support, and $238,632 

 from the head-money tax on immigrants ; from 

 1873 to 1878 the amount was $112,468, of 

 which $82,778 was on account of pauper sup- 

 port, and $29,690 for the support of inmates 

 in the State schools. 



* Including rent of leased roads. 



The Governor (Talbot), in his recent mes- 

 sage to the Legislature, recommends the aboli- 

 tion of this Board, and the establishment of 

 one with more extensive duties. He says : 



I recommend the abolition of the Board of State 

 Charities, with all its bureaus, and of the Board of 

 Health ; and the creation, in place thereof, of a State 

 Board of Health, Lunacy, and Charity, which shall 

 possess all the powers and perform all the functions 

 of the discontinued boards, with such added duties 

 as the Legislature may designate. Included among 

 these should be the special oversight of lunatics, 

 both in regard to their treatment and the legality 

 and propriety of their detention. We should thus 

 have all the advantages which could possibly be de- 

 rived from a Commission on Lunacy, without cre- 

 ating a new Board, or incurring any additional ex- 

 pense. The proposed Board should have full con- 

 trol of all matters relating to charity and reform, 

 save that, in cases of serious difference with the 

 management of the institutions, an appeal might lie 

 to the Governor and Council, and the Legislature. 

 It should assign its own work, select its own offi- 

 cers, and fix their compensation within the limits 

 of the yearly appropriations. It should make but a 

 single annual report, brief, compact, and free from 

 repetitions of facts or duplication of statistics. No 

 officer or employee should be a member of the Board, 

 unless it should be deemed best to make its chair- 

 man its executive officer, with a salary fixed by the 

 Legislature sufficient to secure the services of an 

 able and thoroughly competent man. Such a Board, 

 constituted without reference to sect, party, or sex, 

 and kept free from all political affiliations, would, in 

 my judgment, establish and maintain system and 

 subordination throughout its jurisdiction, and secure 

 and retain the respect and confidence of the people. 

 Its administration would be free from all complex- 

 ity ; and the consolidation should save at least $10,- 

 000 annually. 



During the year the State has occupied and 

 opened five great institutions : the new Lunatic 

 Hospital at Worcester, the Asylum for the 

 Chronic Insane in Worcester, the Prison for 

 Women at Sherborn, the Lunatic Hospital at 

 Danvers, and the new State Prison at Concord. 

 In general the various institutions for the insane 

 were not so crowded in 1878 as in 1877, and 

 there was a slight decrease in the average num- 

 ber of inmates in the establishments at Lancas- 

 ter and Bridgewater; but, for the State as a 

 whole, the average population of the penal es- 

 tablishments was about 310 greater, and that 

 of the charitable and reformatory institutions 

 about 260 greater, in the year ending with Sep- 

 tember, 1878, than in the year immediately pre- 

 ceding; while the penal establishments close 

 the official year with 271 more inmates, and the 

 reformatory and charitable institutions with 

 322 more inmates, than they had at the corre- 

 sponding date in 1877. The number of patients 

 remaining in all the lunatic hospitals and asy- 

 lums of the State on the 30th of September, 

 1877, was 2,539 ; the number of cases admitted 

 to treatment during the past year was 1,754, 

 and the number of persons remaining under 

 treatment on the 30th of September, 1878, was 

 2,824. The 1,754 cases admitted to treatment 

 within the year represented 1,281 persons, the 

 difference between these figures showing the 

 total of duplications. As compared with the 



