The Yale expositor. (Yale, St. Clair County, Mich.) 1894-current, 1912-10-31
MUSSELMAN DENIES
OSBORN'S CHARGES.

| note that Lansing dispatch of
October 10 quotes GOV. Osborn rs crti-
Ching Amos =. MuSselman for neglect
of duty as member of the Board of
Control of Michigan Reformatory, say
ing he did not attend the meetings with
anything like regularity To this
| the Governor adds: "l}ccause of this
neglect the state lost So, 600 through a
lawsuit against it,
| ! have no quarrel with Gov. Osborn.
| | consider him the most brilliant gov
| crnOr Michigan has ever had, ms Gov.
| Rich was the most wise, conservative
and economical one, but | cannot let
| GOV. Osborn s alleged statement go I'M
challenged just because he happens to
! be governor
Amos =. Mussclman was q member of
| our board Of control twelve years and
| during that time attended lOl meetings
in lonia besides many Joint board meet
| in9s, and whenever We failed 10 get Il
quorum here Mr.. MusSclman carefully
inspected the vouchers and records of
! the Rcformarory ut his Clicc in Grand
| Rapids Mr. Nusselman gave his ser
vices To the state without money and
without price, and has lttended more
board meetings in Ionia than any man
who ever served or CHS board, with the
single exception of Alfred Il. Locke,
the Ionia member. | think this record
has no parallel in Michigan for IL non
resident board member and yet this
splendid service to the state is reward
ed by charges Of neglect of duty
During the Wnaus administration
Michigan had a salaricd board to look
after it's prisons and our records show
that from August, 1892, TO August,
1898. when the salaried board was
abolished, only two meetings were held
at lonia. Please contrast this with
more than one hundred official trips
made by Mr.. Mussclman to Ionia with
out cent of pay for his time, and
then turn again to Gov. Osborn S
charges of "neglect of duty
Second, Michigan has not lost 5000
or any other sum through Mr. Mussel-
man S neglect of his duties as Re-
formatory Board member. A suit is
now pending before the supreme Court
i'm which an effort is being made to re-
cover that sum of money from the state
because of the cancellation of Il con
tract held by firm after it had gone
into bankruptcy and could not, or did
not, employ the prisoners and pay for
them under the terms of the contract.
Mr.. MuSSeman gave the matter of can
collation. most careful and painstaking
consideration before the final action
and concurrcd i'm the opinion of Mr..
Locke and myself that the Board was
performing it's plain duty to the state.
| have not changed my opinion about
this. | have never heard that Mr.. Mus
sclman or Mr.. Locke have changed
theirs. II is not fair to say the state
has lost %22 900 when suit to deter
mine the merits of the controversy is
now pending before Michigan 5 highest
tribunal. | do not believe that either
Mr. Mussclman or Mr.. Locke will fol-
low the example Of Il certain spectacle
lar candidate for president and vote to
recall the court or it's decision if the
court shall fail to agree with the
board s construction of its legal and
moral obligations to the state. The
ease has been submitted to ''pcaccful
arbitration - and the injunction ''Thou
shalt not soucal' will be Of binding
force with the Rcformatory manage
mcnt.
During the twelve years Of Mr.. Mus
selman s service on the Board of Con
troll of Michigan Reformatory the per
capita cost to the taxpayers of main
tanning it's inmates was reduced more
than onc-half At the close of his adj
ministration it was the least costly re-
formatory in America, and the per CAPT
Ia cost was less than one.third of the
average cost in the refromatories Of
New York, Pennsylvania and Massa-
chusetts and its parole reports showed
it was reforming Il larger percentage of
prisoners than famous Elmira.
OTIS FULLER,
Warden Michigan Reformatory.