The Breckenridge news. (Cloverport, Ky.) 1876-1955, 1910-02-09

lions unless some way is provided to
get the money to pay them. He says
he is not antagonistic to the majority
in the legislature and will gladly ap-
prove any reasonable appropriation
for things needed by the state insti-
buttons At some method to pay them
Is adopted.
He urges the legislature not to
abolish the board of control, and to
let 1t remain bipartisan as it now is,
as 1t has accomplished a great work.
He says the reports show that the
board has saved $4,000 in two years
out of the per capita income, which
sum they applied to buildings and i'm
proved machinery at the asylums.
| He recommends that the peniten-
tiaries and house of reform be put
under the board of control, which
means he wants the prison commits
sion abolished.
He says the present governors
mansion is practically unfit to live in
and urges the legislature to appropri-
ate 100000 to erect a suitable man.
sion for his successor near the new
capitol and that the present mansion
and square of ground be turned over
to the penitentiary for hospital pur-
poses.
He recommends that the buildings
and grounds of the old capitol be sold
to the highest bidder, and estimates
that it will bring 100000 He says
to sell 1t would do away with con-
stantly recurring schemes to use 1t
for some expensive and unnecessary
institution to be created by the legis-
lature.
The fact that several state banks
have failed and lost all the money of
hundreds of widows and orphans In
the past two years has created a
strong sentiment in favor of having a
system by which state banks can be
examined every few months, as ma
tional banks are now examined, by
expert accountants. Several bills
looking to this end have been intro
duced, and it is likely that one OF
them will be passed. The bill offered
by Senator Arnett of Jessamine, who
is a banker himself, provides for the
establishment of a banking depart
ment with a bank commissioner at
the head of it, with an assistant COM
missioner and three bank examiners
to do the real work. This bill is ia
vored by the bankers generally, and
as it will cost the state nothing to
| fcfO ic
with much favor
The increased cost Of living in the
past 10 years has induced the senate
to pass a bill that in roundabout
way increases the salaries of circuit
| Judges from $4,000 year to $4,000 a
year. The constitution provides that
the salary of any officer can not be
changed after he has entered upon
his duties, and as all the circuit
judges entered upon their six-year
terms on the first of this year 1t seem
ed as though they would be unable to
get any increase for six years at
least. A bill was introduced, how
ever providing that regular circuit
| Judges should serve as special judges
| in other districts than their own when
no court was in session in their own
| districts, and for this extra work they
are to be paid an additional $1,000 a
year OF course this plan will serve
to reduce materially the amount paid
out each year for special judges and
will not work any great hardship on
! the regular judges. The bill passed
the senate by vote of 20 to and it
| is almost assured Of passage in the
| house.
! The members of this legislature
seem to be more philanthropically in
clined than most legislatures have
| been heretofore, for they are showing
a keen desire to put the prisons and
convicts on better basis than they
have ever been before. Senator Thorn
as of Bourbon has introduced three
companion bills on this subject and
| they have already passed the senate
! The first bill passed is known as the
| indeterminate sentence law, and pro-
! the sentence of the convicted man af-
| ter the jury has pronounced him gull
ty, and says further that the judge
shall not fix a sentence for a shorter
period than the minimum penalty nor
one longer than the maximum pen
atty. The second bill provides for
more comprehensive system of grant
| ing paroles to convicts who have
obeyed the rules and shown indica-
lions of penitence and reformation.
1t further provides that no convict
shall be paroled who has not served
as long as the minimum penalty term
for the crime for which he was con-
victed, and that, when he is paroled,
the agent of the state Crowded for
in the law shall secure him some
employment before he is released. 1t
will be the duty of this agent - keep
track OF each paroled man and have
him bought back If he misbehaves
| I.t,,colf