Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1908-07-11
Politics and Personal Gain Con-
spicuous in Trustee Manage
ment of Institutions
DIFFERENT UNDER NEW PLAN
State institutions Not Economically
Managed Under Old System
Change in Methods of Buying Sup
plies and in Handling States Wards
Facts for Comparison.
Special to Times Republican.


Des Moines, July 11--For a proper
understanding of the system by which
the state manages the state institu-
lions thru a board of control it is nee
essary to understand something of the
methods by which the institutions were
managed under the old system where
in there was separate board of trus-
tees with secretary and treasurer for
each of the institutions.
Now that the old system has been
abolished there is no denying that
n there were some abuses attached to 1t.
1 There could be real close cooperation
between the numerous old boards. The
old boards oftentimes bought the
greater amount Of the supplies for an
institution at the local town where the
i institution was located Politics To-
Gated the institutions at certain points
! and the people of the locality worked
| politics to get the supplies bought at
i the local groceries at retail prices, not
withstanding the fact that the supplies
were bought in wholesale quantities.
4 Furthermore politics held sway to a
large extent in the selection not only
of the trustees but in the selection by
| the trustees of the superintendent ana
other employees and oftentimes or ar
/ least sometimes politics more than
efficiency ruled in the selections.
But aside from all questions of per-
sonal benefit there is no doubt but
that there We're other abuses of the
system. The institutions were not
economically managed for the most
part and in the buying of supplies
| there was gross lack of economy.
| Furthermore the trustees were busy
men, They met at regular periods or
part of them would and go over the at
| fairs with the superintendent. The SUI
isperintendent was the big man of the
| institution and the trustees being TOO
busy to study into the latest approved
methods of state institution manage
ment2left II to the superintendent and
1.-THE superintendent being too often
political appointment and being bent
| on drawing his salary principally, mad
Ino taste for studying into institutional
lsmanage1nent and confined his time TO
| too great an extent to drawing his
| salary.
| The result of all this was that when
| the state board of control took charge
] of the statey.sin Institutions on July 1,
i1s9S..Eit found that whipping was tie
lone means of discipline at all the state
institutions and abuses not now toler-
ated, had grown up at nearly all the
institutions.
The state board of control has been
in charge of the state institutions just
ten wears. When it took charge team
Of horses was kept harnessed and at
tached to buggy night and day at
Mitchellville with which to chase run
away girls from the industrial school
there. Flogging the girls was the
common rule The state board Of con-
troll abolished that along with some
other abuses and the team OF horses
is not now kept hitched and ready.
girl ran away or attempted 10 run
away some weeks ago. 1t was the nrst
i'm twelve months. The institution is
now run as a school for young ladies'.
They are made to feel that they are
expected to be young ladies and they
do not disappoint their instructors, at
least to anything like the extent that
they did years ago.
When the state board Of control buys
supplies it buys for all the institutions
of the state. Some supplies are bar
gained for once year. Others quar-.
terly. Meat is contracted for quarterly
at a certain price the board being all
! lowed to buy as much or as little as
it likes. Bids on 10000 tons of coal,
the years supply, are opened at one
time and the contracts are awarded to
be delivered at the various institutions
on the best terms possible. Under the
old trustee system the superintendent
and his family and the employees of the
institution ate the best grade of food
that there was. The inmates got a,
second or third grade of food. Under
the state board of control only one
grade is purchased and that is the best
there is on the market. Not the fancf-
est but the best and the superintendent
and the inmates get the same rat1ons.
The board acts on the theory that the
inmates of the insane hospitals for in
stance, are men and women often times
from the best families of the state
The old trustees system used to treat
them much as convicts to be punished
rations. The state board treats them
as patients under the care of physi-
clans. They are given the best phys
icians in the country and every effort
made to cure them The theory as to
the boys and girls industrial schools is
that they are children, who in SO cases
out of 100, are there because of the
lack of training by their parents. That
they need proper training and environ
ment and proper food and that given
these they will most often be formed
into respectable citizens and the ac-
tual records of the institution show that
the theory is right.
STATE BAR ASSOCIATION ELECTS
Next Convention Will Be Held in Mar
ehaIitomp iitne 1910