The Mena weekly star., 1909-01-07
PRESIDENT PEN.
 BOARD IS CAUSTlC
Says no Use to Call the Board Togeth- CT Again to Settle Bad Middle Kirby Wants Radical
 Changes.

hastily adjourning yesterday morning without allowing the opinion of Attorney General kir- by to be read, affecting the pro- visions of the Dickinson convict lease, and without reconsiderlug the resolution of Governor Pin dall, as amended, caves the prop osition as to the relation between the state and the convict contrac- tors in very unsettled and thor oughly uncertain condition. The attorney general had prepared a resolution asking that Dickinson be required to agree to pay Sl.l0 per convict per day or else the penitentiary superintendent be instructed to bring the convicts in at once. The abrupt adjourn meut prevented the passage of this motion or the submission of any other, and leaves the question of whether or not the state will get either the money or the con- victs still undetermined. The contract has expired, but there are nearly 400 convlcts now being worked under the Dickinson con- tract. without any absolute status as to the contracting company's liability to the state. Speaking of the matter subsequent to the hurried adjournment, Dr. Avery E. Moore, president of the board, and who voted against adjourn ment, declared that the resolution should have passed. We should know whether or not Dickinson is willing and agrees to pay this Sl. 10 per day for each coayict, or the whole number should be talk ena charge of by the uperintend- eut. 7 said he. "There can be no question about the unwisdom of leaving the matter in tnis unset ' tied condition. As for my part, however, 1 am done. T sua ,ias' !. leave the office about the i4th of this month. and before auother regu ar mee ing of the board IS held. do not see that anything can be accomplished by calling another meeting of the board un- til the situation IS changed by change in the board, and 1 shall, therefore, not call any further meetings of the commissioners. do not concede that the state owes any cont ctor anything, and l have fou Is nt this proposi- ticn along with the others, until do not see any use for further contention before my term of of- flee expires l have voted mo on more propositions, l think, than any man who has ever sat for four years as a member of this board, but l have cast my last 
 vote as commissioner, fer, as l see matters now, 1 shall not call the members together again"
 Attorney General Kirby, Tn discussing the action of the board and the penitentiary manage menl in general, said
 "The present system of man- agement of tbe penitentiary by state ficials. the proper duties of whose offices req ire all of their time, IS distinctly bad. Un- til the convict lease system is abolished or the management of the pen entisry is changed, 1t will, I'll my opinion. be source oi continual strife and contention in the state, If not stencil in the nostrllS o decency. to say noth- ing oi the loss Of revenue to lhe state, to the enrichment of con- tractors, the treatment of the eouvicts and their competition with free labor. U ider the lease system the contractors usually take an interest in tbe selection of snch state officials as will be upon the peuitenliary board, and generally three ard sometimes Ionr of such officers do not make speaking campaign, so that not oue voter ln 500 knows when he votes for these officers that they will constitute the board Of com- mission rs ot the peuiteutiafy. If the state would have the cor ditious improved the sYstem nuat be changed. The penlteniiary. properly managed, should be self sustaining and pay from SIS COO to Sl50,0 000 clear money into the frpaSlrv every year