Bismarck daily tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, Dakota [N.D.]) 1881-1916, 1909-01-13
INVESTIGATION ! y II.
t.. PENI7EN1lARY
IS WANTED
CORRESPONDENT
THINKS INVESTIGATION OF
INSTITUTION SHOULD
BE HAD.
WANTS IMPARTIAL AND THOR
OUCH SITTING OF ALL THE
CHARGES OF MteMAN-
AGEMENT.

Mr. Editor, Tribune: The writer
has noted with about every change
of the moon, some Democratic news
paper, prints an announcement with
bold headlines that another great
scandel has been unearthed in the
state penitentiary when it was un-
der the management of Warden
Boucher, then intimates that an in
vestigation will soon be made, which
will surely enlighten the dear public
as to the details of great crimes and
graft that occurred during the Bouch-
er regime.
It was common rumor, as far back
as two years ago and just prior to the
expiration of Warden Bouchers term,
that Governor Burke had promised
fair and impartial investigation, that
would give Justice to all and malice
to none, and the chips should lie
where they fell. Warden Boucher
and the old board of trustees then
desired such an investigation, and ]
am Informed they requested the gov
ernor to cause the same to be made
prior to the change of management.
It, like all later rumors which have
been current since Warden He'll
strom took charge, failed to material
ize, except perhaps the personal in
vestigations made by Warden He'll
strom, if the intimations and insin-
uations given out by the Democratic
press can be directly attributed to the
present warden.
The writer does not defend the
past Republican management by
painting the present management
black; but if an investigation is to
be made upon rumors, insinuations,
and glaring headlines, would it not
be just to also investigate the pres
ent administration of the peniten-
tiary on the following rumors: In
situations and differences, which the
Republican press up to date has sup
pressed.
Has there been undue extravaganza
in the construction of the new cell
house? Have large amounts of mater
ial been purchased without receiving
competitive bids on the same? Was
the large traction engine purchased
to pay a political debt or make cam
paign medicine and after running for
a short time by high priced experts,
practically consigned to the scrap
pile?
Were the large purchases of ma
terial made to build up strong Dem
dcratic machine, or were some Of the
officers, trustees or employees directly
or indirectly interested in the fat of
these transactions?
When competitive bills we're re-
ceived why was it the local mer-
chants received no notice of the same
until q few hours before such pro-
posals were to be opened? Did any
of the officers or employees assist or
aid any of the many inmates that
have escaped from the institution un-
der the present management? Why
were so many of the beautiful shade
trees, which were set out by the old
management, permitted to die for the
want Of proper attention when all
facilities were at hand to properly
care for them? Why were crops
permitted to be crowded out by weeds
and the farm lands Of the institution
to disgrace the state and become not
ed as the poorest farmed lands on
the line of the N. p. railroad, when
four trancontinental trains pass the
same daily?
According to recent statements,
published in Democratic papers the
total earnings for 1907 and 1908 were
only $4O,0S0.76, while it is matter
of public record that on March 9Th,
1907, the date Warden Hellstrom as
sumed charge of the Irvine plant, that
an inventory of that date shows the
earnings from the first of January,
1907, the last four months of Warden
Boucher's administration, to have
been $35,362.52, which would leave
only $4,71S.44 for the earnings during
twenty months OF Warden He'll
strom's management?
If it was wrong to inventory the
Irvine in the inventory of May 9Th,
1907, at the wholesale or car lot
price as fixed by the board of trustees
for that season and the fibre at net
cost, was 1t right to inventory the
same eight months later at from one
and one-half to two cents per pound
less than actual value of market
quotations! Can It be possible that
the present management is trying to
convince the present legislature that