The relation of politics to the state care of crippled and deformed / H. Winnett Orr.

  • Orr, H. Winnett (Hiram Winnett), 1877-1956.
Date:
1913
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: The relation of politics to the state care of crippled and deformed / H. Winnett Orr. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    and development of our institution would have been impossible even with the appropriations made for our work. The legislature in 190!) by appropriating $40,000 made adequate provision for the maintenance of the institution for the next two years. No provision was made at that time, however, for any extension of our buildings, so that no considerable amount of expansion was possible. Since 1909, however, when we had an average number of patients of less than fifty, our growth has been very rapid. An appropriation of $90,000 in 1911 for the next two years and a total of $152,000 in 1913 by the legislature which has just adjourned affords some idea of the growing apprecia- tion on the part of the members of the 'legislature of the work already accomplished and of its possibilities for the future. The chairmen of the finance committees in both the senate and the house this year gave especially careful consideration to the requirements of our institution, especially Senator W. H. Reynolds, who made several personal visits to the institution and conducted an investigation into the affairs and requirements of the institution, the results of which were chiefly responsible for the appropriation of $45,000 for a new fire-proof building to be added to our equipment. Mr. G. W. Potts, chairman of the finance committee in the house, was similarly disposed to make adequate provision for our needs and our improvements. One of the principal matters before the legislature during this session was the passage of a law to establish and regulate the affairs of a new board of commission- ers for state institutions. This new board was pro- vided for by a constitutional amendment adopted by the people of the state about two years ago. In the pres- ent legislature legal provision was made for the organiza- tion, powers and duties of this new board. Gov. John PI. Morehead has also carried out the intent of the law by the appointment of Ex-Gov. Silas A. Holcomb. Mr. Howard A. Kennedy and Mr. Henry Gerdes, so that a non-partisan board of commissioners is now at the head and in charge of all state institutions, includ- ing the Nebraska Orthopedic Hospital. We now have at all times more than one hundred patients in the institution (this is the limit of our