Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1907-11-14
MO-. THURSDAY. NOVEMBER 4. 1907

affairs of the public schools of the
city.
Is the conscience, the intelli- !
gence, the moral courage of the
people of Missouri, equal to an
other reform analogous to that
accomplished by the citizens of
st. Louis in their school affairs,
only wider in its'range, deeper in
its reach, concerned with a class
vastly more entitled to public
sympathy than those who were
benefited by the reform of the
Public School Board? If so, then
there is good cause for the exer-
else of heart, brain, and moral
force, in another reform, in behalf
of a class that appeals most strong
ly to human sympathy, and that
should not appeal in vain.
For years in this state, and the
same is true in Illinois, possibly a
little more Extensively true in that
state than in this, with every in
coming administration, there has
been clean sweep of function
aries in every state institution
from superintendent to scullion,
not on account OF change in the
political character of the state ad-
ministration, but simply to make
places for the personal friends,
followers, and henchmen of the
latest incumbent of the guberna-
torial Office. Some years ago, the
writer, at the request of friend,
inquired of a recently elected gov
ernor as to the chance for the
friends appointment to modest
position in a large state institu-
ton. The reply was that this
especial position had been prom
ised friend of the gubernatorial
candidate the summer previous,
when the campaign was hot, as
we'll as the weather, and when
plums could be shaken from the
political tree by the wise ones, as
we'll as from the tree of the rural
voter.
| Possibly the evils of a system
of appointments, based, not on the
fitness of the appointee, but on his
claim to a reward for having been
a personal and political favorite
of the appointing power, are seen
less glaringly in the employees of
the state prison than in any other
state institution. To stand guard
over number of convicts, shot
gun in hand, requires no very high
degree of intelligence, conscien-
tiousness, or fineness of nature. 1t
might interfere very seriously with
good discipline should warden
attempt to secure better service
from a number of employees who
were fully aware of the fact that
their appointments were made
only nominally by the warden,
the real appointing power being
Governor Jones, or Senator This,
or Representative That, as re-
ward for meritorious conduct in
the struggle for Office known as
| the campaign of eighteen hundred
and something. But the evil of
this method of making appoint
ments is infnitesimal as seen in
the penitentiary, compared with
| the direful results that follow
through the appointment of unfit
persons to control absolutely the
persons and conduct of thous-
and helpless people, such as are
found in our hospitals for the in
sane; mentally unbalanced, incap-
liable of protecting themselves, and
utterly at the mercy of the super
intendent and his assistants by
night as we'll as by day. Grant
that the head of the institution has
been selected for his position on
account of his eminent fitness for
the place; that he is an alienist o1
high repute, humane, considerate,
desirous of aiding to the utmost
the restoration Of his patients tc
mental health, or at least of anne
liorating as far as possible theil
unfortunate condition, yet is oblig-
ed to enroll in his corps of assis-
tants only such specimens as are
thrust upon him from without by
politicians claiming appointments
OF their favorites as a reward fol-
party service, and it is easily seen
at what disadvantage the super
intendent is placed in attempting
) to conduct the institution upon
any ideal plan. Concede on the
other hand, that the superinten.
dent, instead of being a humane
and skilled physician, of high and
honorable character, should be 8
coarse. self-indulgent brute, as