Daily globe. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1878-1884, 1880-01-15

| missioners. and most cordially indUrse thei
recommendations.
THE NEW CAPITOL.
There has been appropriated for the cou-
struction of this building the sum Of 81. $50, 600
all of which has been expended except S..
| 59l. so which remains undrawn in the Stat
treasury A detailed statement Of the receipts
| and disbursements will be found on examlna
ton Of the financial portion of the report
II tits intended TO have the building read,
for occupancy by the next General Assembly
| 1t will require an appropriation of at leas
S30O,0C0 That amount OF money, in connection
with the regular appropriation, can be expended
to the advantage of the work and make q grea
saving in the cost of construction, az will sp
pear by reference to the report of the Com
missioners. II the General Assembly conclud,
to make the appropriation it should be mad,
as early in the session as possible, as no time
should be lost in making contracts for mate
rial and arrangements for the heating al,
ventilation OF the building.
The work on the building, 80 far as it ha'
! progressed Is of the first order. No eXpend
| lture that would render it better or more per
manent has been spared in the construction
and 1t seems important that the interior finish
both in work and material, should maintair
tho character established for the structure
thus far. This will require, il the halls, Ii
piui diiu CVuulitiee rOOlliS Oh tle Seuate aIlt
House floor are finished, the amount above
suggested, and all the time between now ane
Jan. l, 1882.
| REPAIRS OF PUBLIC BUILDINGS
Chapter 81, acts of the Seventeenth Genera
Assembly forbds the officers or Trustees OF
any OF the State institutions from diverting the
| funds appropriated for any institution to any
use other han the specific purpose named il
the act appropriating the funds. This law i.
| practically dead letter. At nearly all the
! State institutions the expenses of the curren
repairs are paid out of the support funds, con-
sequently the annual reports do not show ex
actly, as they should, the cost of supporting
the inmates. These small repairs are un-
avoiiable, and, having no special funds for re-
pairs. the Trustees have, of necessity, used the
! support funds for this purpose. / recommend
that the General Assembly make special ap.
preparation to each institution, to be designated
as repair fund" the disbursements of which
should be kept separate from the disburse
ments of the support funds. If this were done
| an evil would be checked, which is rapidly
| growing into an abuse.
| REDUCTION OF SUPPORT FUNDS
| The Seventeenth General Assembly reduced
| the allowance for the support of the inmates
of nearly all the State institutions, on aver
age nearly % per cent, saving thereby to the
tax payers over S12, 600 annually. AS the re-
duction did not in all cases take effe.t until
were greater for that year than for 1879.
The support of the College for the Blind ie
$50 per quarter When it is taken into con-
! sideration that this lns tuition has an annual
allowance of 5000 per year for salaries, etc,
| l am of the opinion that it's support fund
should be reduced from $50 to $50 per quarter.
The allowance for the support of the Insti-
| tuition for the Deaf and Dumb is $50 per quar-
/ ter. In view of the fact that this institution
| has only nine months instruction, and also has
an allowance Of SIS, 900 year for salaries, etc.
recommend reduction Of the amount now
allowed to s27 quarter, which am satisfied
| will be ample.
1t will be seen that the cost of maintaining
| the He ,pital for the Insane at Mt Pleasant for
the Ii st half of the biennial period was $40. 70
per inmate per month, while the cost at indie
pendsnCe wss s14.96. being $1.S3 per inmate
per month less than at Mt. Pleasant. The cost
for the second year at Mt Pleasant was SIG Il
per inmate per month, while the cost at indie
pendence was SIS IL, being So SO per inmate
per month less than at Mt Pleasant. The Mt
Pleasant institut on has drawn Oh the State
treasury, during the whole biennial period, for
the maximum amount allowed by law, while
the institution at Independence, finding that
the maximum allowed by law-to-w:t:
SIG per month-was not necessary
for the support of the inmates, has
drawn on the Slate treasury for only its actual
drawn what the law allows them on support
funds they would have drawn for SIS, $50.
moro than they have done. AS it is, with a
commendable consideration for the interests Of
the State, they have left this amount in the
State treasury, and the expenses of this lnstl-
tuition to the taxpayers are thereby lessened to
that extent. If 1t be true that large number
of persons can be supported at q less cost per
capita than can smaller number, the natural
deduction Is that the expenses of maintaining
the inmates of the Mount Pleasant Hospital are
too high, inasmuch as this hospital has a much
larger number of inmates than has the indie
pendence Hospital In view of the foregoing
recommend that the allowance for the support
Of the insane be reduced from SIG per month
to $l4, as l am satisfied that this amount will
be ample, as evidenced by the results at indie
pendence
The trustees of the Soldiers Orphans Home
and Home for INDECENT Children have evidenced
their ability to support the inmates for IS Is
a month, while they are entitled to draw on the
State treasury for $40 per month. l, therefore,
recommend that the allowance to this iRstltu-
ton be reduced to IS 1-3 per month.
If these recommendations be adopted, the
direct saving to the State for the remainder of
the current biennial period-assuming that the
law would 60 into operation March l, 1880
would, on the present number of inmates in
the respective institutions, be as follows
Insane, 1872, at 80 per month, for seven
teen months. S31 800. w
Blind al. at So per month. ........... 4,74.O0
Deaf and Dumb, 10, at 81 per month";. 2,s9O.o0
Orphans Home inmates, 100, at 81. per
MONTH. Observation-Disclosures, 3,60u.VU
Estimate OF reduction for guards peni-
Tertiary of the State. twelve guards, at
s45 ler month elsewhere proposed... 9,1SO.OO
Aggregate saving. ..................s5 $50, 24a. 10
SURPLUS OF SUPPORT FUNDS.
An examination OF the following table will
show that the different State institutions had,
on Sept 80, 1879 in the hands of their local
Treasurers, the sum of s53, 230 9S, the same be-
ing mostly surplus of support funds:
Soldiers Orphans Home. ..........,S d OO3 II
Penitentiary at Fort Madison. ......... 1.76s. 70
PenitAntiary at Anamcsa. 43C5.75
Asylum for Insane at Mt. Pleasant 10 sos 90
Asylum for insane at Independence. 9 1874 SIS
Institution for the Deaf and Dumb. ... II ,159 25
College for the Blind. NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS.. 6396 80
Reform School NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS.. 2,066 "a
Asylum for Feeble MinIed Children..... 1l.U7
lotoi 900, <~1V 40
On this large sum Of money the State has
paid during the past biennial period, assuming
the amount constantly on hand to be one-half
this sum, over 81, 600 interest on warrants, be-
cause the State treasury was not i'll funds to
pay the same, and for the reason that the local
institutions had drawn more money out of the
treasury than they actually needed.
While the saving Of support funds is credit
able to the general economy shown by the
boards OF trustees of the State institutions, yet
some remedial action on this subject should be
had, to prevent the accumulation of funds in
the hands of local Treasurers, whereby the
State might be relieved from paying interest on
the surplus.
The law for drawing support funds for the
eleemosynary institutions should be amended
so that the funds should be drawn from month
to month, as needed. The Executive is ex-
pected to exercise supervisory care over the
State institutions. To do this in an intelligent
manner, the acquisitions for support funds and
the vouchers for the expenditures of the same
| should go through the executive Office. The
law shonld be framed 80 as to require the dis
bursing officers of the institutions to file with
the Executive, on or before the 10th day of each
mouth, detailed list of the expense bills of