Evening capital news. (Boise, Idaho) 1901-1927, 1919-02-16

partment heads who were appointed py
the governor after he came into office
VIII retain their places, but over them
will be u general commissioner. Tne
elective state officials will be given
much more time in which to attend TO
the duties OF their respective offices
instead Of working on boards, for 1t IS
delegated to the new cabinet commits
sioners. There will be complete re-
organization Of the land department.
THREE NEW COUNTIES.
Idaho has now three more counties
than 1t had month ago-Clark,
Jerome and Caribou.-all created by
the legislature and approved by Gov
ernor Davis. But one of them mas
strings attached to it and that one Is
Caribous which is required to hold an
election this spring to determine
whether or not three and one-half
townships shall remain in the old
county of Bannock or come into the
new. Clark was the first county to be
formed and became the forty-second
in the state. 1t comprises territory
in western Fremont county with Du-
bois as the county seat. Jerome is the
Of Lincoln, Gooding and Minidoka
counties with Jerome as the county
seat. Caribou is the forty fourth TAX
ing in the Soda Springs portion Of
Bannock county with Soda Springs
as the county seat. Clark county is
largely comprised of a big dry farm
territory which in the past five years
has experienced wonderful develop
ment. Once this territory Is given
water for irrigation purposes it will
be big farm producing country.
Jerome is carved out of, the heart of
a rich irrigation section rapidly being
brought under cultivation. Jerome is
a modern little city and centrally To-
Gated for the county seat. Caribou's
territory is largely composed of vast
areas of grazing land rapidly becom-
ing valuable as agricultural. 1t is a
somewhat significant fact that all of
the new counties created are located
in southern Idaho. The north so far
has not claimed a single one.
PROPOSES CONVICT LABOR.
1t is being proposed to the legisla-
ture that steps be taken to make use
of convict labor at the state peniten-
tiary and replace that institution
with an entirely new layout. 1t is
proposed that the stone building ma
terial at hand be utilized and that in
stead of the prisoners being allowed to
continue to loaf around that new site
for the penitentiary be selected close
to the present one, and the foundation
for new wall laid out. This wall
can be completed before the balance
of the buildings within. The argument
advanced in favor of q new penal in
stitution is that the present one is
antiquated and unsuited to meet the
needs of the state; that the number
of prisoners is increasing rapidly yet
there is no suitable employment pro-
vided for the majority of them, only q
limited number of TRUSTEES being per-
mitted to work on the outside. The
state affairs committee of the two
houses of the legislature recently
filed a report in which it is shown that
the present prison buildings are in
need of repairs which must be made
If the inmates are to have the proper
sanitary conditions. AS the institu-
ton is now situated there is no pos
sible way by which the youthful
prisoners can be segregated from the
more hardened criminals, while the
women inmates at the prison are
crowded into one room. There are
but three of them. 1t is claimed that
the state would be out very little if
plans were made to rebuild the in
stitution covering a period of years
and using prisoners to do the work.
WANT FORESTRY BUREAU.
Idaho has thirty millions of dollars
or over invested in forest lands and to
protect these holdings the present
legislature has been asked to create
a state forestry bureal. A non salar-
led commission of three members, ap-
pointed by the governor, is provided
for in the bill A state forester Is also
1r31 ~ - l.l lHlluZ - LII