The daily Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1873-1877, 1874-01-19
The Military Prison.

Liz meetlng OF cltlZenS at The mar
per House, Saturday evening, considered
the matter of urging upon Congress the
propriety of carrying out the act locating a
military prison at Rock Island, but it was
concluded to leave the matter to the unbias-
ed action of the peoples representatives
the chief consideration being that any. ex-
troardinary efforts to secure the prison might
endanger the necessary appropriations for
the more important work ofcompleting the
Arsenal buildings.
After this matter was disposed of Mr..
W. III. Gest spoke of the importance Of
making some effort to secure the location
OF the headquarters of the new United Stat
es court district at Rock Island, and men
toned the probability that the building on
the west point of the Island might be used
for court purposes, as it was not adapted to
arsenal uses.
On motion the subject was referred to
Messrs. Gest, Curtis and Jackson.
The meeting then adjourned.
We really do not see what necessity there
was for holding the meeting at all. The
law has located the prison at Rock Island, p"
and the committee recommend the pur-
chase of 20 acres of Sears's ground on the
bluffs near the Watch Tower After this
had been done, and knowing that Mr. Haw-
ley was attending to the matter, to then
hold meeting and adopt a resolution
practically against the location here, Is not
quite the thing for the interests Of Rock
Island, to say the least,
At the Sd session of the AID Congress,
AN act to provide for the establishment
Of military prison, and for its govern
ment, was passed. Pursuant to this act
which was approved on the Sd of last
March, committee, composed of Col Mel
son A. Miles, Major Thomas f. Barr, and
Major George P Andrews, of the United
States Army, was appointed, whose duty
it was to adopt plan for the building of
the prison, frame regulations for the gov
, eminent of the prisoners, and examine the
locality of Rock Island Arsenal and the
neighboring vicinity for suitable location
The bill provided for and expressly specif-
ed the location of the prison at Rock Isl
and y That bill became law, and fixes
Rock Island as the place.
The committee examined the Island, land
other points in this vicinity, and in their re-
port say:
! In the vicinity of Rock Island city and on the
high and desirable land near Rock river site can
be purchased at from four to five hundred dollars
per acre, and As twenty is thought to be all
the ground necessary. the slight saving ba effect
ed by the use of land the Island cannot be held
OF much weight against the attendant probable in
| jury.
We expect the Ordnance officers will OPP
pose the location of the prison here, for
theydon't want anything here which they
can't boss. But Congress, not the Ord
nance Department, controls the matter, land
Congress says Rock Island is the place.
Why. then, should a. dozen or fifteen of
specially invited citizens of Rock Island
take upon themselves to throw cold water
upon what Congress has done? If they
could not favor it, they might. at least, have
said nothing We take it upon ourselves
to say that the dozen citizens, who met at
the Harper Saturday night, did not repre-
sent the people of Rock Island. And we
suggest that they will do we'll not to OPP
pose project for an institution which vii
largely benefit our locality,-and which
the Congress of the nation thinks ought to
be located here.