The Mena weekly star., 1908-10-22
Will Endeavor to Change Entire Man agement of Penitentiary to Get It
 Out of Politics.
MAY REPEAL AGENT RATE
Author of the Law Defeated for Re Election Statewide Prohibition
 Will Also Be an Issue.
lBy J. l.. Carraway.l

matters whi-h will ccme before the 37th General Assembly of the state of Arkansas, which will meet in this city on the second Monday of January, 1909, are be- ing discussed with care and de- liberation by those who will be in the two houses, and special at tention is being paid to sugges- tions which will be made by Gov ernor George w. Donaghey in his first message 10 the legisla- tnre. Mir. Donaghey has num- Der of suggestions he will make to the lawmakers as a result Of close study of conditions in other states. Following his nomina. tion in March of last year, Mi. Donaghey made tour of num- Der of western states, studied con- ditions obtaining there, and has since been seeking to ascertain { tho best manner in which the best of these ideas may be applied in Arkansas.
 Perhaps the most important change he will suggest in the af- fairs of the state government will be his request for tax commis- sion. At the last session of the state board of railway assessors Mir. Donaghey was an interested spectator. He watched the work of tue board now composed of the governor, the secretary of state, the attorney general and the state auditor. He declared then that these officials have more than they can do in their own offices, aud that the work of assessing the railroads can not be properly done Dy them in addition. He will suggest that tax commis- sion. with one man at the head of the department, be established and that this mans time be taken up entirely by personally visiting every railroad line iu the state and ascertainiug, himself, the value of such property. He de- clares that in this manner an equitable system may be arrived at, that the railroads will not sui. fer and that the state will secure the revenue which justly belongs to it.
 Another matter which will re- ceive attention in the new gov ernor's first message to the legis- lature will be the insurance de- partment of the state. At pres ent the state auditor is also the insurance commissioner. Mir. Donaghey is known to favor di- vorciug ,he insurance department from the auditors office and put ting it under head of its own. He is not quoted as favoring mak- ing another cabinet officer of the insurance commissioner, but be- lieves that the insurance business of the state could be better a6- ministered by having a depart ment exclusively for this.
 Take Penitentiary Out of Politics.
 An effort will also be made, it it learned, to change the entire management of the penitentiary For many years the penal insti- tuition ot Arkansas has been a bone of contention between va rious factions ot the Democratic party, and many efforts have been made to take il out of poli- tics. The purchase of the Cum miugs farm in Lincoln county during Governor Jeff Davis first administration, but against hls will. and the later effort to build a new prison in Little Rock have foi med the basis for a continual scrap between those who would ride into office upon this issue. It the opinion of the incoming governor that the management of the peuitenilary should be passed to a commission elected by the people for this sp, iic parpose,
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