_Washington Strives for Inebriates Hospital._--The various citizens’
associations of Washington, D. C., will be asked to make a concerted
effort to induce Congress to establish a hospital for inebriates and
victims of the drug habit, to which persons can be sent for treatment
or be lawfully committed, so that they can be restrained from access to
either intoxicating liquors or injurious drugs. The board of trade and
chamber of commerce also will be urged to take up the matter.
The Washington Evening Star says editorially: “The need of a local
hospital as a place of special treatment for inebriates has long been
known and admitted in Washington. The present practice of confining
dipsomaniacs and drug victims in a penal institution is suggestive of a
bygone age. These unfortunates need treatment, judicious encouragement
and some measure of restraint. But what they do not need is punishment.
The workhouse is not the best place for alcoholic slaves, but the
District is under the necessity of sending them there.”
The Iowa legislature is considering a bill which provides that while
the inmates of the state prison and reformatory are at hard labor and
on good behavior, their wives and children under sixteen years of age
shall be paid fifty cents a day by the state.