Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1902-05-30
G()NN|[ S||RS EN- UP
defends the Board OF Control
System for State Charity
Institutions.
Says Iowa Board Has Things
Its Own Way and Saves
State Money.
Then Delegates at Charities and
Corrections Conference At.
tack Him Vigorously.

Detroit. Mich, May S0-John Cownie
| of Des Moines, Ia, chairman OF the
Iowa board of control of state institu-
tions, created the first excitement OF
the national conference of CHARITIES
and Correction at yesterdays session
So thoroughly did Mr.. Cownie enliven
the proceedings of this dignified body
| that half a dozen delegates attacked
the Iowa man as rapidly as they could
gain recognition, and the meeting was
carried clear beyond the bounds set
for it by the program. Six hundred
delegates were in attendance.
state Supervision and Administra-
ton of Charities and Correction was
the days subject in the conference.
Jeffry r. Brockett, president OF the
department of Charities and Correc-
tons of Baltimore, was chairman, ana
I set forth in his committees report the
claim that the state should exercise
reasonable supervision over all char
table institutions, state and private,
but that the active control of the
institutions should continue in the
hands of separate boards of directors,
serving voluntarily and without COM
pensation.
DR.. Hastings II. Hart, of Chicago
took similar ground, as did also Amos
W. Butler, of indianapolis and the
Rev. d. j. Mcmahon, general supervisor
of Catholic charities in New York
City.
fnn hn r %
showed that the Iowa board of control
has saved above a million dollars to
the state since its creation four years
ago, and that all the fourteen institu-
lions are better managed than ever be-
fore.
Why said Mr. Cownie, the board
of control has things its own way in
Iowa. We stand on our dignity and
get everything we want from the legis-
lature. Last winter we waited for the
legislators to come to us, and they APP
propriated every cent the board rec
commended, and then added $4,000 fol
a special purpose upon my assurance
that it was all right.
$50 intimate is our connection with
Ethe institutions that we can tell exactly
what any inmate had for dinner on any
day since the board was organized. Be
fore the board took charge the super
intendents had secret meeting and all
agreed to resign at once If the board
should prove tyrannical or detrimental
to the best conduct of the institutions.
Today not one of them would go back
to the old trustee system"
Mrs. Kate Brownlee Sherwood of
Toledo, o., made fun of Mr.. Cownies
claims for the Iowa board. II wish we
had one man like Mr.. Cownie in each of
the forty-seven states" she said.
"Then there would be no need of q leg
islature to appropriate the states
money. Blu. charity workers must
beware the one man power. The board
of control system destroys the personal
initiative and the individual character
of charitable work
DR.. Edward c. Runge, superintendent
of the st. Louis insane asylum, ridiculed
Mr.. CoInie's claim that the Iowa board
is non-partisan because only two of its
three members may be of one political
party. In Missouri we are hearing the
rumblings of this pernicious board of
control system, which brushes out the
individuality of work for the dependent
and defective classes
Ex- Chairman j. B. Head of the Wis
consin state board of control declared
that such boards repress the abilities
and best interests of superintendent.
Il never heard anything so monstrous
as the statement of the chairman of the
Iowa board of control that charity must
be so organized and dispensed as in his
state" said Charlton t. Lewis, of New
York City. The world is supervisor
mad. The board of control system is
narrow. superficial, and political, and
wholly monstrous."
AT the afternoon session of the con-
ference section on Juvenile Delin-
quents," Chairman Cownie, of Iowa,
again became involved in running de-
bate for the abolition of corporal pun
ishment in boys and girls reformator-
ies The section was about equally di-
vided on this subject.
Last night the conference discussed
Needy Families in Their Homes" Rob-
ert w. Hunter, of New York, and C. f.
Weller, of Washington, both formerly
of Chicago, were the principal speakers.