The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1898-11-15

and good morals in the more RESPONSE
BILE places.
Having appointed my boards shall
shift the responsibility upon them. I
VIII let them know the character and
kind of men I want in the offices, and
that Will end my responsibility. 1t is
not my purpose or desire to be the
whole thing I will have enough to do
without clubbing over every little ap-
polntrnent. My endeavor will be to give
the state good administration; I viii
try to be good governor two years,
without looking ahead to another term.
1 think by the end of one term I will
have had enough of it. Public life is
not to my taste.
'Of course, as have learned in the
campaign, many reforms have come to
my mind. I believe the state board of
pardonS is an evil. 1t should be abolish
ed. 1t has come to be a court of review,
instead of a court of mercy. 1t sets
aside the painstaking work of courts
and juries, and turns loose convicts
without regard to the question of mer-
cy. Pardon means forgiveness, but this
board dnterpretS it to mean justice. l
think the governor aided by clerk
could take the place Of the board of
pardOnS- Then there is the executive
clerk. He is useless ornament. The
state could get along without him. These
are some of the places I would get rid
of, and there are many others.
There is also a chance for reform in
the penitentiary. The removal of the
stripes from the better class of convicts
is a step in the right direction, but I
would go further. l would establish a
graduated merit system, the final re-
ward to be a parole. The way to re-
form men is to give them Christian, hu-
man treatment, and proper beginning
is to place moderate confidence in them.
It inspires a man, no matter how low
he may have fallen, to feel that he is
not wholly unworthy of confidence"
The new governor will recommend to
the legislature that the output of the
penitentiary coal mine be limited to the
uses of the state institutions; that none
can be mined for commercial purposes.
This would take the mine out of compe-
tition with free labor and would re-
move a growing cause of complaint and
often of scandal.
Il don't believe the prison coal should
come in competition with free labor,
the governor-elect said: 1.-THE state
might better afford to pay a deficiency
for the support of the institution; the
convicts might be employed on the pub
lie highways, the better class of con-
victs mean, prisoners who could be
trusted with guards. They might do
work on parks and roads that are now
neglected and so their labor would not
deprive any honest man of his bread.
A method could be devised by which
the counties and cities might take pris-
Oners off the hands of the state and
house and feed them for their labor. In
this way the cOnvicts would be employ
ed to useful purpose and the interest
of no class of society injured thereby"
How will you treat the new laws the
Populists have put on the statute books
the stock yards law, and other meas
ures?"
''They are good laws. I said that in
my speeches. I shall do all in my power
to enforce them. Possibly they may
need improvement, but it should be done
fairly, done really to improve them, to
strengthen weak places, not to cripple
them. All the goodness is not in the
Republican party. I am willing to learn
from our fusion friends. If they have
done good things, it is not for US to des-
troy their work.
How about the metropolitan police
system?'
''That is gone. I will not re-establish
it. 1 mean by that that 1 will not of
my own motion re-establish it. But it is
a remote possibility that the people of a
town may in self defense demand it's re-
esta blishment, and in that event I
would reluctantly restore it. Please do
not understand that I would seek a
chance, under the cover of a local de-