Daily picayune., 1921-01-21
TO ABOLISH PEN
 COMMISSION
HOUSE APPROVES BILL ENDORS- ED BY GOVERNOR MRAE,
 92 TO 1.

JS lO |.
 Representative Wood, veteran House member from Lee county, cast the only vote yesterday against the Gates bill for the abolition of the Penitentiary honorary commission of five members to be named by the governor. There were % votes in favor of it.
 The expected fight over the bill did not develop, the only speech in opposi tion being made by Mir. Wood. The House had been devoting its attention to passing emergency appropriation bills, when MT Hoover, chairman of the Budget Committee, announced that Governor McRae had made special re- quest that further consideration of these bills be suspended until the Gates bill could be considered The sugges- ton was enthusiastically received, and the bill was placed upon third reading.
 Mir. Gates made the principal speech in support of his bill He said that his bill has the endorsement of the ad- ministration. and that the people of the state demand change. Any thing would be better than the manage ment we now have" he said. He said that. with the rich lands of the Cum mins and Tucker farms, and with ann pie labor that costs nothing but food and clotheing, the management has run the institution into debt to the extent of half million dollars, although planters who pay for their labor, have bought and paid for their lands. pro vided a livelihood for their tenants and have good bank balances.
 DenOunces Pen Commission. Governor McRae is the Moses who will lead us out of the wilderness into which we have wandered" said Mir Gates. and we can well afford to let the future welfare of the institution rest upon him. A proposed new plan | may be as rotten as hell itself, but it is 99 per cent better than the present management. It is either a question of incompetency or dishonesty. If the big planters had shown the same in telligence in the management of their business, we would all be bankrupt It is not true that the Penitentiary Com mission had no fair chance, or that they failed only in the crop of 1920. There has been only one year during the entire time of their management whe nthey have shown profit. u is imperative that immediate action be taken, as the farms must be put in readiness for the 1921 crop"
 MT. Wood spoke against the bill de- claring that the system of honorary | commissions is failure, as people are not working for nothing. He said he was not defending the Penitentiary Commission, but he was opposed to dispossessing the commissioner arbi- 1 trarily ito gratify the whims of any person." He said the fact that the | commission failed to make money out of the farms last year is no criterion | of mismanagement, as many farmers | throughout the state failed to make a profit He said if there had been de | reflection on the part of the commis- sioners they should be called upon to | answer before the courts or other au- thority and not summarily dismissed
 Mir. Gregory of Prarie county said | the Democratic state convention had demanded a change, and that the mem- bers of the legislature and the gover- nor were elected upon a platform de- manding the abolition of the Peniten- tiary Commission. "The penitentiary management" said Mir. Gregory, has been farce, almost a scandal and q disgrace upon the state of Arkansas. Mississippi has made million dollars out of it's convict farms, and there is
 no good reason why the Arkansas insti-
 tuition should be half million dollars in debt"
 Mir. Cardwell of Washington said '"The House will keep it's pledge, and
 abolish commission that has violat; ed the spirit of the raw against the leasing of carelessness and gross negli-
 gence if not criminal dishonesty in the
 management of the institution"
 | Mir. Alexander Is Sarcastic. MT. Alexander of Pulaski said