The San Francisco call., 1910-12-11
ONE BOARD TO
MANAGE STATE
INSTITUTIONS
Legislature May Abolish Local
Trustee System, Except for
Prisons and University
Board of Control Bill Is Product
of the Office of State
Examiners
By GEORGE A. VAN SMITH


The legislature will be asked to abol-
ish the local board system of govern
ment for the states institutions and
substitute therefor state board of
control similar in organization and
powers to the Minnesota and Iowa
boards.
That the board of control question is
to be put up to the legislature is a
matter of painful knowledge to many
of the local board members, and the
more prominent employees at virtually
all the state institutions except the
university and state prisons.
They have been reliably informed
that board of control bill is being
prepared by Clyde L. Seavey, assistant
secretary of the state board of exam
iners. Their information as to the
provisions of the bill is not exact. but
it is painfully comprehensive. They
understand that by the terms of the
bill all the local boards viii be wiped
out except the board of prison di-
rectors and the board of regents of the
state university. The prison board is
a constitutional body. 1t is contended by
NtpNd Oul VI ItOLSdHIZeu DN simple act
OF the legislature. 1t is contended by
some that the constitution does not pro-
tect the regents of the university AS
to that there is serious doubt. And in
any event it is not understood that the
board of control advocates have any
desire to wipe out the regent system
OF conducting the university.
ONE BOARD FOR ALL
The board of control idea. which has
been in practical application for a dec
adeg in Minnesota and Iowa, places the
business of nontechnical control of the
hospitals for insane. state public
schools, training schools, state chari-
table institutions and public buildings
directly in the hands of a single board
OF businessmen chosen by the governor
and responsible to the governor. The
technical management of the institu-
tions is indirectly in the hands of the
same board, since it is responsible for
the appointment of experts to the
berths of superintendents, directors and
managers.
The chief purpose of board to CON
troll it is to stop leaks save the pub
hes money by centralizing the pur-
chasing power and to give the people
through the governor a single check
upon all the institutions supported by
them at an annual expenditure of mil
lions
The California system involves the
appointment by the governor of local
board of managers or trustees for each
state institution, and the creation by
the legislature of almost endless funds.
Each hospital for the insane has its
local board; each normal school. the
home for feeble minded, the homes for
the deaf, dumb and blind. the industrial
school, the state polytechnic school
each has local board of managers.
Each board purchases for its particular
institution independently of all other
institutions under as many separate
contracts and generally at as many
different prices
BITTER FIGHT EXPECTED
The movement for a board of control
will plunge California into the same
kind of bitter fights that characterized
The changes in the eastern states that
have abolished the local board system.
Neither Iowa nor Minnesota went to
the length of providing a separate
board for each institution. Before
those states adopted the board of con-
troll idea they were content to permit
one local board to run all the institu-
t1ons of an identical character. For
instance, Minnesota's three great hos
pltais and two asylums for the insane
were under the control of one board
All the normal schools were under an
other. But with an infinitely smaller
number of local boards Minnesota dis
covered that those boards were enabled
to exert an influence sufficient to make
one of the most stubborn and bitter
fights in the history of the Minnesota
legislature
As economy is the chief argument
for the board of control idea. local and
patriotic interest is the basis of the
chief argument against it. The pro-
ponents of the local board system al
ways insist that the unpaid trustee
ship results in drawin ginto the service
OF the state large number of its best
citizens, who have special interest in
the work of the several institutions
and who as a result Of such snecia1
interest rapidly acquire special and
expert knowledge that more than off
sets any financial losses that NAV re-
suit from local peddling of contracts
for supplies and equipment.
MANY BERTHS WOULD co
Regardless of the merits of tbe
sharply divided arguments, the adon-
tion of the board of control idea in
California would mean the abolition of
something like 100 berths on local
boards. 1T would mean the cnrtajl-
ment of the powers commercial and
agents at the several state institutions
1t might even result in the abolition Of
some salaried jobs. Wherefore it will
be fought bitterly. perhaps effectively
Charles Gregory Yale of the United
States geological survey saws that the
men or interests seeking the scalp of
State Mineralogist Aubury can not use
him as their candidate. In letter to
The Call Yale declares that he will not
be a candidate for Aubury's place:
that he does not expect an offer of the
place and that he will not accept If If
the offer is made. That these declara
tions may not be taken as a personal
Endorsement of Aubury, Yale adds that
it is his opinion that Auburys efforts
to unearth fake mining promoters NAV
be doing more harm than good to the
legitimate mining industry. He also
suggests, in passing as 1t were that
his dismissal by Aubury with only a
days notice and without specified
reason therefor might have been con-