for an additional new State hospital. At Kings Park, the Veterans' Memorial Hospital will be opened by me on Saturday. Creedmoor is ready for occupancy about the first of October. Creedmoor will bring relief to the Metropolitan District. These hospitals must be planned to serve the population where they are most needed, and the Metropolitan District is today suffering the greatest overcrowding.. There are altogether too many patients on Ward's Island. Aside from our new institutions, let us think for a moment of the question of the old ones that have outgrown their usefulness. Up in Utica the old Utica State Hospital, the first one owned, and the only one operated by the State prior to 1869, was built in 1843. The administration building on Ward's Island where the fire occurred was used as a home for emigrant girls as far back as 1853. Some of these old hospitals are in very poor condition. On some we are spending more over a period of years for repairs and replacements than the property is worth as it stands today. As a business proposition it would be infinitely better that we get rid of all the old dilapidated fire traps and set up a chain of hospitals befitting the dignity and the power and the wealth of the greatest State in the Union. (Applause.) Commissioner Folks in the course of his remarks gave me altogether too much credit. I will always cherish the trowel and the pictures of the laying of the cornerstone, and in the years to come if the cornerstone is ever disturbed there will be found in it a copy of my message to the Legislature on this bond issue. That is glory enough for me. But I want to say to this assemblage today if it had not been for the assistance of Commissioner Folks and the Citizens Committee that I gathered about, it might not have been so easy to sell to the people of the State the notion that they should approve of a bond issue of $50,000,00 when we were practically without a program except that which was laid down as indicating the existing conditions that we had in our minds to cure. The Legislature and the people have also voted $10,000,000 a year of bond money for other public improvements. It was the hope of the framers of that resolution that a large part of that could go to the State hospitals for the care of the insane. But the needs of the State are so great, there are so many other institutions, like the prisons, like the schools for the mentally deficient, not comprehended to any great extent within the $50,000,000 bond issue, prisons not at all, that it is extremely doubtful whether even with the present appropriation, unless it is supplemented annually by large appropriations from the current revenues of the State, we would be able to keep up with the present growth in the State hospitals. However, that is a matter that we will deal with at later date, after we see the allocations of money over a number of years from the proposed bond issue. I want to express my personal and individual satisfaction at seeing this building going along as fast as it is. It certainly is gratifying to me personally. I congratulate my fellow laborers who have received these wards and the State Architect, the Commissioner of Mental Hygiene and all the men and women that have in any way contributed to what we have come here today to look upon with so much satisfaction, and I cannot let a thought escape me as we leave this building. It is in my mind, I cannot get away from it, and I think you should have it too: Aside from the economic question, aside from the matter of State duty, aside from the matter of constitutional obligation, I regard a building of this kind as an act of Thanksgiving to Almighty God Himself who has been particularly good in His infinite wisdom and His infinite kindness to the people of the State of New York. (Applause.) DEDICATION OF THE VETERANS' MEMORIAL HOSPITAL DIVISION OF THE KINGS PARK STATE HOSPITAL The dedication of the new Veterans' Memorial Hospital which took place at Kings Park, September 24, 1927, constitutes one of the most important events in the history of the State hospital system. Governor Smith had planned to make the dedicatory address but illness prevented his attendance. He, however, sent a letter which was read by the chairman and appears as a part of the ceremonies given below. He also sent Major General William N. Haskell, commander of the New York National Guard, as his representative. The ceremonies were held in the plaza in front of the large medical and surgical building, the heart of the new hospital, and were attended by about 2,000 persons including representatives of many organizations and distinguished guests. Hon. Matthew J. Tobin, chairman of the Board of Visitors of the Kings Park State Hospital, presided. PRAYER BY RABBI LOUIS D. GROSS Lord God of all mankind Thy blessing we invoke, for Thine are the power and the glory and the love; the truth and the beauty, the might and the majesty. For Thine untold bounties we praise Thee with hearts overflowing with gratitude even as we thank Thee for the precious gift of this day dedicated unto Thee in behalf of the weak as well as the strong; in behalf of the noble souls, who struggled and strove and suffered that we might live and find happiness. Preside Thou Oh Father over this assembly that here the spirit of love and harmony and good will may prevail. May Thy blessing abide with us. With all who are here from far and near to participate in this feast of dedication and by their presence to testify to their faith in the spiritual values of life, expressed through works of mercy and justice and fellowship, cause the lesson of this day to sink deeply into our hearts, make us to learn that our prayers and our pieties, our religions and our theologies are futile and of no avail in Thy sight if they be not translated into an exalted, helpful, healing blessedness. Oh God bless the noble Governor of our great State through whose wise and benevolent efforts, through legislation, untold good has been achieved in behalf of humanity. Continue him in the gifts and powers with which Thou has endowed him as the great leader that he may yet go forward in strength and glory to newer and higher conquests. Bless the words spoken here today. May the message brought to us fall |