Evening capital journal. (Salem, Or.) 1888-1893, 1891-08-27
ALL ABOUT THE BLIND SCHOOL.
What a Reporter Can Learn AbOut
the Proposed Investigation.


AT some date next month which
is not yet made public the Oregon
State Board of Charities will invesli.
gate the management Of the Oregon
Institute for the bliud at Salem.
The scope OF this overhauling is not
understood by the public, and all
efforts to get at the nature IF the
charges to he investigated are not
fruitful of success 50 far. Superin-
tendeut McElroy was seen this
morning aud said: "As member
of the State Board of Education
have no knowledge Of any charges
of any character and can not under
stand what they haye to investigate.
| have not even seen the law until
now, creating State Board Of Char
tiles. Necessarily, by virtue of my
position as secretary Of the Board, l
have had more to do with the man-
age ment of these institutions than
any other one member of the Board,
but of course all business affecting
them is done by the whole Board,
which keeps a record of its meet
iugs."
The new law creating the State
Board of Charities gives that body
power us follows:
THE LAW.
Sec. 2. "The Board, upon its own
motion, may, or upon the order of
the governor must make at any time
an Investigation of the manage
ment of any penal, reformatory OF
charitable institution in the state,
and said Board, or committee OF
its memhers, in making any such
investigation, shall have power to
send for persons and papers, and to
administer by its president, or by
the chairman of any such commit
tee, oaths and affirnations, aud the
report of such investigation, with
the testimony, shall be made to the
governor" and by him submitted to
The legislature, aud copy of the re-
port filed with the county clerk.
INTERVIEW WITH THE SUPT.
A representative of THE JOURNAL
called on Miss Olive Nj. Capweli and
secured the following statement for
publicity:
"rhe management of the school
covering several administrations, at
least five years, is TO undergo an in
vestigation by the state board of
charities. There has always been
trouble here from tie lack of system
in tie management of the work,
there being nD bS laws or rules de-
fining the rights and duties of officers
and employees. This has resulted in
more or less INSTRUMENTATION among
pupils and employ es, and 50 far no
rules have been adopted by the
board to remedy these evils. Since
my connection and before, three sets
Of rules have been prepared by as
many different superintendents, but
for some reason their adoption could
not be procured. Inasmuch as in
the last year the number of pupils
has risen from to 25, the impor-
tance of having rules is all the more
urgent"
Reporter: "What effect will this
Investigation, if any, have upon
your work here, Miss Capwell?"
$50 far as my work is concerned,
| am willing TO have it Investigated.
The salaries are much higher here
for some GLASSES of employees than in
other states, but for this l am not
responsible. | have but one ambj'
ton in my work here. l would like
to see the school placed on such "a
solid foundation that it will be
credit to Oregon and equal to those
Of other states. The greatest draw
back have met with has been that
l have been obliged to deal with the
board more as individuals than as a
body. In spite OF repeated requests
to meet the whole board to present
the interests of this school [ have
never been able to do SO and have
only once been able to procure a
meeting of two members.
"Regarding details ofthe proposed
investigation L have nothing to
say"