The Citizens Action committee and the Central Club council of Portland and local representatives of the American Equity association have made some sensational charges of brutality and neglect in Oregon state hospital for the mentally ill.

They told the state board of control Tuesday that they have information indicating that several “murders” had been committed in recent years, that patients were kicked and beaten and that patients were forced to work in violation of the 13th amendment.

The admitted weakness of their case, of course, is that it is based primarily upon the testimony of patients and former patients, some of whom are credible witnesses and some of whom are not, with only partial corroboration by former employes.  In the words of one spokesman, “it is mighty hard to prove.” That is unfortunate.

As for working patients in violation of their constitutional rights, there is a fine line between work that has definite physiotherapeutic value and what the Citizens Action committee calls forced labor.  In broad terms productive work inside our stat institutions is a blessing, not a curse.  It is the lack of diverting activity that becomes refined cruelty.

The Journal will go along with requests for a full-time business manager and a full-time chaplain at Oregon state hospital–at Oregon state penitentiary also.  It is in complete disagreement with the Citizens Action committee, however, in the latter’s advocacy of compulsory jury trials for all allegedly mentally ill persons.  Nor does The Journal agree with the committee that the superintendent of Oregon State hospital is not responsible for conditions in that institution, good or bad.  His is the credit, his the blame.

Be that as it may, the charges of these citizen groups cannot be ignored and must not be whitewashed, poorly documented though they be.  It is to their credit that they have interested themselves in the welfare of the more than 5000 patients in Oregon’s three institutions for the mentally retarded and the mentally ill.  If more Oregon citizens interested themselves directly in these hapless state wards, the conditions about which complaint is made would not and could not exist.

Dr. R.E. Lee Steiner was born in 1870, at Bluffton, Ohio.  When he was 12 years old he began work as an apprentice druggist at Lima, Ohio.  He came to Salem with his parents in 1887.  He soon went to work in the drug store of Geo. E. Good, in the the Moores building that stood where the present United States National Bank building now stands.  After Mr. Good sold out to Gibson & Singleton, he continued to work for the new firm.  When he was 19, he went into business for himself, in partnership with Hon. J.C. Smith, now of Grants Pass. They had bought the drug store in which young Steiner was working.  The firm name was Smith & Steiner.  The telephone office was in their building — the first telephone office in Salem, excepting for a few phones that had been in the Western Union telegraph office.  In 1892, Dr. Steiner married Belle Golden of Salem.  After his marriage he attended the Willamette university and graduated from the medical department of that institution.

He practiced in Dallas, and then at Lakeview, and after that had charge of the reclamation service work of the United States government at Klamath Falls, the hospital for tat service being there.  He served a term in the legislature while residing at Lakeview in 1905.

In 1907 he came from the reclamation work to be superintendent of the state hospital (asylum), and has been at the head of that institution ever since — for nineteen years.  That is the longest time ever served by a superintendent there.  Dr. Calbreath served eight years, most of the other heads of the institution four years; one five years.

Under Dr. Steiner, the state hospital has become one of the leading institutions of its kind in the United States, or in the world, in point of modern improvements, success in curing patients, and in economical administration.  It is a model institution.  It is wonderfully well kept in all the vast number of details of its work.  Dr. Steiner has become a leader in the country in his chosen line.

Mrs. Dan J. Fry Jr. of Salem and Mrs. E.C. Flegel of Honolulu are daughters of Dr. and Mrs. Steiner, Mr. Flegel is a captain in the United States Army, Milton Steiner, their son, is a junior in the University of Oregon medical school, Portland.

One of the most vocal proponents of women’s suffrage in

In submitting this little publication to the public, it is with the desire, the hope and belief, that the ever watchful eye of our great commonwealth, will appreciate the immence [sic.] value of this process for preventing disease and crime through propagation.  Since 1883 when I said to the physician who was in charge of the Oregon Insane Asylum, that if the time ever came, that I might be permitted, I would then use my pen and my brain along these lines.  Since then I have used my tongue many, many times, in season and out of season, and I have received in return many rebukes and much good advice, as to modesty, being a priceless gem which every woman should wear.   But not until 1904 did the first opportunity come, when I could use my pen and I assure you I lost no time in sending off the following communication to the Oregonian, and my delight at seeing it in print was beyond expression, to say that this publication shocked my family and many of my friends would be putting it mildly, I am older now and my tears do not lie so shallow (as mother said) as in my childhood days, and there is something in getting used to unpleasant things and yet, I am not innured, but I can go right on smiling just the same.  To illustrate the trend of thought, only 7 years ago when I wrote my first communication to the Oregonian I received four letters all eulogizing and congratulating me on my bravery, etc., but the interesting part was, that those letters were all nameless, who would think of addressing me to-day on this subject without signing his or her name; not one, no not one.  The world is being educated along these lines and is seeking for the purification and betterment of humanity, which in time will be found and vertified [sic.] in the yet unborn children whose parents blood shall be free from disease and crime.  Through this publication I shall try to prove what I have been preaching for 30 years, that the power of transmission from parent to child, is a law which holds good through all life and dates back from the beginning of time,  “Like begets like” from which there is no escaping.  I shall produce statistics and quote from some of the great thinkers of the age especially from Judge Warren Foster, the Superior Judge and the highest and greatest criminal court in America.  I advise all who can read “Hereditary criminality and its certain cure” by Judge Foster in Pearsons November 1909.  He advocetes [sic.] sterilization as the “certain,” and only cure.

My first article on this subject published in the Oregonian was as follows:  This is a deep and serious subject, and one far too great to cope with in its entirety, yet I repeat, much can and should be taken.  Some of the worst ills to which humanity is heir, such as insanity, epilepsy, and cancer, are almost certainly transmitted by the immediate progenitors.  The greatest curse of the race comes through our vicious criminal and insane classes, and to my mind this is the lement that should be dealt with, not by chloroform or strangulation, but by the science of surgery, for if their power to reproduce themselves were rendered null a tremendous important step in advance would have been taken, not only without injury to life, but often with positive benefit to the victims themselves.

Over 20 years ago I visited our State Insane Asylum at Salem.  My friend Dr. H., then in charge, received me graciously, and conducted me through the various wards.  On our way from the wards back to luncheon I said: “Doctor, this is a horrible phase of life; and when is it to end?”  “I do not know.  It is hard to tell,” he replied.  “If I had the power,” I continued, “I would curtail it, for I would see it it that not one of this class should ever be permitted to curse the world with offspring,”  He stared at me and finally said: “Would you advocate that method?”  “I certainly would, if I were not a woman, and a woman M.D., to whom, I know too well that at this day and age it would simply mean ostracism,” I answered.  “Well,” he rejoined, “I beg you not to mention this subject to my wife, for she would be shocked and horrified.”  “I shall not mention it to your wife, but I want to tell you right here that if I were in control of this institution, as you are, I would at least give many of these pitiable unfortunates the one chance of recovery, which might restore their reason.  You know, doctor, as well as I do that hysteria and insanity are often due to diseased reproductive organs.  Think of those loathsome victims of an unnameable vice under your charge.  It would be nothing less than common humanity to relive them of the source of their curse and destruction by a simple surgical method that might give them a chance to recover their reason.”

Eight or ten years since, in a conversation with an eminent attorney concerning a mutual friend and near neighbor, whose wife had recently called upon this attorney at dead of night to protect her and her children from her husband, who had for the second time become suddenly insane, he said to me.  “This is terrible.  But who would have thought of this level-headed business man going insane?”  I responded, “Remember, we know it is in his blood by family inheritance.  And now I am going to say what will shock you, which is that every person admitted into an insane asylum should be so dealt with as to preclude reproduction.” Instantly and warmly he exclaimed, “I sanction that, and I will go farther by including every criminal that goes through the penitentiary doors.” Thereupon we shook hands on it then and there, feeling sure that the time would come when the commonwealth forced to grapple with this vital subject, would be able to adopt these measure with the full assent of a majority of its citizens.

DR. OWENS ADAIR, M.D.

The following report of the Florist Department at the Oregon State Hospital was taken from the 22nd Biennial Report of the Oregon State Hospital for the biennium ending September 30, 1926.

The work of this department has been taken control of by one employe and six patients.  They are planting and caring for many beds of flowers on the hospital grounds, this department has furnished cut flowers and potted plants for use on the various wards.

Flowers, shrubs, plants and bulbs have been furnished without charge to the following institutions and departments:

Chemawa Indian School……………………………….160
Deaconess Hospital……………………………………..1382
Eastern Oregon State Hospital……………………….2633
Oregon State Industrial School for Girls…………..951
Oregon State Institution for the Feeble Minded…587
Oregon State Penitentiary……………………………..3267
Oregon State School for Blind…………………………418
Oregon State School for Deaf………………………….200
Oregon State Tuberculosis Hospital…………………143
Public schools and colleges in the state……………1126

Total………………………………………………………….10867