The record-union., 1891-03-04

will give the State an avenue through
which to gain information and make
comparisons that must result in not only
great saving of money, but in the cor
rection of mismanagement, if any there
is. The bill, as a law, will give the State
information that it cannot possibly gain
under its present method, and that will
be worth tenfold the cost of its gathering.
There are other and weighty reasons
for the passage of the bill, but those re-
counted ought to be sufficient to carry it
into the statute books. The measure calls
for some little expenditure of money, it is
true, for no such board as is contemplated
can do its work without cost; but the
outlay, we venture to say, will be re-
turned ten times over TO the State by the
economy that will result. Such has been
the experience in other States where such
boards are established, and they are
erected in nearly all the Northern States
east of the Rocky Mountains, and in some
of the Southern States.
Mr.. Fred. III. Wines, the widely-known
and experienced charity statistician and
student, in his paper read last May before
the National Conference of Charities and
Correction, held at Baltimore, used this
language, which very clearly defines the
office of such a board as that sought to be
created in California:
The relation of a State Board of Public
Charities to the Government in all its branches
legislative, executive, and judicial-iS that
OF II counselor. 1t is the confidential adviser
of the Governor and other State officers who
have TO deal with the State institutions; of the
legislative committees, to which measures al
fecting their usefulness are referred for con-
sideration; of the municipal and county au-
thorities, who often have occasion to consult
with 1t as to the development and improve
Inent of purely local charitable institutions;
and of the officers in charge of the State insti-
tutions, including both the Superintendents
and the Trustees. Its work may be divided,
broadly speaking, into two branches, namely:
first, giving advice; and, secondly, qualifying
itself To give advice. Its functions as an adj
ViSory board will be impaired by comforting
upon it executive power, in the same sense
and to the same extent as an attorney would
be injured in his professional career by requir-
ing him TO perform the work of a book-keeper.
Like the Attorney-General, it cannot, as a rule,
Volunteer its counsel; it waits to give il until
it is asked. But it must always be ready to
give it. 1t must have an opinion and il must
know upon what foundation that opinion
| rests. 1t must know the institutions under
its jurisdiction and the officers in charge of
them, not supertcially, but thoroughly, so as
TO be able to form a correct judgment of them
in all particulars. 1t must know the classes
for whose benefit these institutions are created
what can be done for them, what has been
done for them, elsewhere as well as within the
State, and what ought to be done for them. 1t
must know enough of law, medicine, morals,
finance, education, the arts and Sciences and
of theoretical and practical politics. to be pre-
pared to express a sound Judgment upon any
ton which implies such knowledge, SO far rs
relates to the treatment of the unfortunate or
of criminals.