New Ulm review. (New Ulm, Brown County, Minn.) 1892-1961, 1899-01-04
|8c1AHD q, CON raO,L.
The Plan Now Suggested for this State
Has Worked Successfully in Iowa.

Now that an effort IS being made in
Minnesota to change tlie system Of man
aging our state institutions from that Of
various boards Of directors and trustees
to one board, having charge Of all the
charitable, correctional ana penal insti--
buttons of the state and drawing suff-
Gent salary to reduce the temptation Of
corruption to minimum, it is interest:
ing and profitable tonote with what suc-
cess the experiment has been tried in 9th.
er states.
In Iowa they have such Il aboard of
control" and for the past two years it
has given entire satisfaction.
The board consists Of three members
and has full charge of all state institu-
tions. For each Institution they select
a superintendent for term of four
| years, and he cannot be removed, except
for cause and after judicial hearing, by
the board. The superintendent selects
all of his officers and employees and they
hold only at his pleasure. This provis-
ion insures absolute harmony in the III
stitution, condition which seldom pre-
walls where partisan politics control.
Politics is not considered in the selec.
ton of perintendents. The truthful
ness Of this statement is verified 10y the
recent action of the Iowa board in Sc
Letting Democrat for one of the most
Important asylum uperintendencies, al
though majority of the board are Re-
publicans. But this man was the most
competent applicant for the place, and
at the time of his appointment resided
in another state.
A provision of the law leaves the SUI
perintendent untrammelsd, since it is an
offense for any member of the board to
even recommend to the superintendent
anyone for appointment to place under
him, and he is prohibited from giving
employment to any relative or keeping
in or about the institution, at state ex-.
pense, any person excepthis own family,
and only minor members Of that.
An attempt to collect political assess
ments from either officers or employees is
an offsnse punishable by fine or impris-
onment. .->
The business like methods of the board
have already corrected abuses and abol-
ished every private snal connected with
Iowa institutions, and have won to the
support of the law many who opposed it
when it was bill before the Iowa leg
islature. The net savings for the first
six months of its operation were $685.
900, aud the board hopes to increase
this in the future, without curtailing the
usefulness of the institutions. The spoils
system Of management of these instltu-
tions has not only been a disadvantage
to the unfortunate and helpless inmates,
but places an annually increasing burden
upon the taxpayers of the state. The ap-
polntment, by the governor, of political
ly selected Officer for these institutions,
and in turn the selection of employees by
the political terintendents, is not for
the best interests of either the taxpayers
or the inmates. The study of insanity,
It's causes and treatment, is, as enc of our
medical journals says, too important and
too deep for the ordinary physician to
master, and and as a result there are spe-
cialists in that line as in Others Should
not men who are specialists be given
charge of the lnsaae of the state2 Should
man be turned out who has made him.
self familiar with the management of
these cases every time there is change
in governo Is? #.l
The success Of the experiment. To-
wa warrants Its being given trial in
kl IlnQeS Qua -.- .--.-.
Our state lnstitu tons, as they are con
Quoted today, are little mole or less than
commission Offices for the men; who are
fortunate enough to be appointed Las
trus tees.s 5..s.
Why all this abuse Of Robson, the os-
culator? Doesn't it require just as much
nerve to make a supreme ass of yourself
as it does to be hero; and isn't it quite
likely that he has as many ugly propo
siticns to go up against in his kissing
tour Of the world, as he did when he
sank the Merlimac?
Billy Merriam loses with about as
much regularity now as he Won Whe1
I climbinp towards the Govern rship A