Home Demonstration Club Members Inspect County Home, June 28, 1921

County Home Inspected Today. . . Members of Committee Informally Declare Conditions Could Be Worse

The first investigation of the County Home by a committee representing organizations the county authorized to see and report whether conditions at the home were as bad as have been reported, was made Monday afternoon. Some time ago the home demonstration clubs of Sardis and Carmel, two rural communities of the county and members of the county Federation of Rural Clubs, appointed a joint committee to visit the home and see how it was conducted and whether conditions were such as members of the Mecklenburg grand jury have reported once or twice with the last half year.

The joint committee consisted of Mrs. W.S. Pharr, Mrs. John M. Walker, Mrs. A.B. Hood Sr., and Miss Mary Miller. Miss Marion Davis, home demonstration agent of the county, accompanied the committee and one or two others also were members of the party.

The committee was received by Mr. and Mrs. White, who are in charge of the home, and who conducted the visitors over every department of the institutin. The committee visited and talked to the inmates, both white and negro, in the various wards of the main building and then were taken to investigate the smaller buildings where the insane and semi-insane (were housed).

Some of the members of the committee expressed themselves as agreeably surprised to find the institution so well managed, in view of criticisms that have been publicly made. It was the opinion of the committee that there is need for much better and more extensive equipment in several parts of the institution and that it can not be put on the high plane of efficiency worthy of the county without the expenditure of more money on both equipment and employes. The committee expressed entire approval of the efficiency shown by Mr. and Mrs. White in the management of the institution with the facilities at their command. These observations were made by members of the committee privately and were no part of the formal report the members of the committee will make to their organizations.

Several groups of visitors to the Home recently have reported marked improvement in certain details that had been strongly complained of by the Mecklenburg grand jury in a recent report.

From The Charlotte News, Tuesday, June 28, 1921