The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1907-01-08

but Will not make Speclnc recDmIneA-
dations at this time. Bills covering the
subject will be submitted for your APP
prevail having the endorsement or the
administration, and / doubt not VIII
receive your careful consideration
Board of Control.
The subject to which devoted more
attention than to any other in my first
biennial message, two years ago, was
q. change in the method of managing
our state eleemosynary institutions. In
discussing this change said:
Let me call your attention to Whar
seems to be a gigantic defect in the
business management of these institu-
lions. There are nine of them-three
insane asylums, two reformatory
schools, one soldiers orphans nome
and three asylums, respectively, for the
blind, the deaf, and the still more I'M
fortunate, the imbeciles. The manag-
ers of these institutions disburse near
ly one-half of all the ordinary appro-
priations made by the legislature, ag-
grega ting, / believe, about one million
no common place of keeping records.
Its members are not required by law
to give all their time to the state, but
are permitted to divide their time be-
tween their official and private duties.
Is the busin ess of any other corpora
ton done in this way? Do you know
of any firm or corporation that would
hire men to transact a million dollars
WOTIn OF DQS1ll6SS Will no CSblIdA III
fee OF easy access, and with this divi-
sion of time between private and firm,
or corporate, affairs? Is business of
this magnitude transacted in this way
anywhere else on earth?
insist that the state should have great
business office in the statehouse in
which a complete record of all the
business nsactions with all the in
stitutions of this state should be kept.
1 believe that three men deyoting all
OF inns n a business interests 0f
the state, with a few assistants, could
manage the business affairs of all the
institutions in Kansas far better than
they are now managed, and save to the
people a vast sum of money.
The legislature responded nobly to
this suggestion, incorporating every
one of the above suggestions in the
new law, and if that legislature had
done nothing else than adopt this new
board of control method of managing
the nine charitable institutions of the
state 1t would have done enough to win
the everlasting gratitude of the people
of Kansas. In the selection of Messrs.
E. b. Schermerhorn, Sherman G.. Ell
lott and H. c.. Bowman as members
of this board to fnaugurate this great
reform political pulls were entirely
ignored, for which the governor has
paid the usual political penalty, but
from which the state has reaped an
immense benefit.
The institutions have been placed
upon a strictly civil service and bust
ness basis. Many reforms in the man
agement have been inaugurated. The
inmates have Jared better than ever
before; and yet, while the needs of
these Institutions have greatly increas-
ed, owing to the fact that the popula-
ton of the state has increased 1OO,O 900
in the past two years. reports from
each of these nine institutions show a
most gratifying financial exhibit, the
aggregate saving amounting to some
seYenty-odd thousand dollars l COM
mend to your most favorable con-
sideration the recommendation of this
board, and trust you will furnish them
every facility they ask to continue even
more successfully the great work they
have been doing.
State Printing.
Z The last Legislature wisely changed
the whole method of state printing
Previous to that a state printer. was
state in his own plant and at specified
rates. Under this system great abuses
grew up. The trouble was not SO much
in the legal rates charged as in the
vast amount of useless printing done
for which the state was required to pay
and which yielded the printer in the
aggregate an enormous income. Com
menting on this extravaganza, I said
in my message:
ct believe it would be good policy
for the state to purchase a printing
plant and put a manager over 1t upon
a reasonable salary. think the value
of such a plant could be saved in a
short time
The legislature responded to the
suggestion by providing for the cleo
ton of state printer by the people. to
be given a salary of $500, and for the
erection of a printing house to be
owned by the state. 1t also elected
T. A. McNeal state printer, and pro-
vided for the appointment Of a COM
mission by the governor to erect the
proposed building and equip it with
material. In harmony with this statute
I appointed Mr. c. s. Gleed Mr.
George e. Tucker and Mr.. e. P. Har-
ris as such commission. 1t now gives
me great pleasure to report the COM
pletion of a three-story brick printing
office, so by 80 feet in dimension,
handsome in external appearance and
modern in internal arrangement,
equipped with modern material and in
operation, at a total cost of
about $4,000, all of which will be paid
out of the saving of less than three
years operation.
Juvenile Court
No more humane and creditable law
was ever enacted than the one passed
two years ago known as the juvenile
court law. The local authorities charg-
ed with the duty of putting IL in OPP
Grafton have been somewhat slow tc
and appreciate it's benefi-
cence, but. in spite of this fact, it has
already demonstrated it's wisdom and
is working wonders in the reformation
of young offenders. Applicant ons for
to the industrial schools for
boys and girls have largely diminished
since this excellent law was put in op-
Grafton. 1t is saving a great army of
boys and girls from jail stains and
careers. The objections to
this law, upon analysis, / think, will
to a-ferl 70 t. L.
knowledge Of its provisions and pur-
poses, or in narrow selfshness. 1t re-
duces the fees of some officials and
interferes with the business of others,
but this purely personal and selfish
should have no weight /
a los rnriI lnA 70,