APPENDIX
TO THE
BREVIER LEGISLATIVE
REPORTS.
THIRTEENTH VOLUME.
MESSAGE
OF
GOVERNOR CONRAD BAKER,
TO THE
GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF INDIANA.
TRANSMITTED TO THE SPECIAL SESSION, NOVEMBER 14, 1872.
Indianapolis:
W.H. DRAPIER, PRINTER, JOURNAL OF COMMERCE BUILDING
1872.
page: [2][View Page [2]] page: [3][View Page [3]]MESSAGE.
Gentlemen of the Senate and House of Representatives:The growth of the State in population and wealth, and the consequent increased diversity and importance of the subjects and interests requiring legislative supervision and protection, render it impracticable for the General Assembly to transact all the business demanding its attention during its regular biennial sessions (limited as these are by the Constitution to the term of sixty-one days each), even when nothing extraordinary occurs to impede and prevent legislation. When, however, to these considerations the fact is added, that the last three sessions were all prematurely and abruptly terminated by the resignation of members, and by reason thereof much important and necessary legislation failed to be enacted, no other reason need be offered in explanation of the exercise of the Constitutional power of calling you together at this time in special session.
COMPLETION OF UNFINISHED BUSINESS OF ONE SESSION BY ANOTHER.
The act of March 4, 1865, entitled "An act providing for the completion of the unfinished business of any session of the General Assembly by the next succeeding special session of the same General Assembly," ought to be promptly amended. As it now stands, the unfinished business of any regular or special session which is succeeded by a special session of the same General Assembly may be taken up and completed by such special session; but, when a special session is succeeded by a regular session of the same General
page: 4[View Page 4]Assembly, there is no provision that the latter may take up and complete the business of the former. This amendment is necessary to enable you at your approaching regular session to complete the business which may be left in an unfinished condition at the close of the present special session.
THE GARRETT SUIT AGAINST THE WABASH AND ERIE CANAL.
Those of you who were members of the last General Assembly will remember that in my regular message, delivered at the commencement of that session, I called especial attention to the fact that a suit had been commenced in the Circuit Court of Carroll county, by John W. Garrett, Esq., to enforce against the Wabash and Erie Canal an alleged lien, created by the State prior to 1841, and held by Garrett and others, for whose benefit the suit is brought.
The State, between the years 1834 and 1841, issued a large number of bonds for internal improvement purposes. One hundred and ninety-one of these bonds, or thereabouts, of $1,000 each, exclusive of interest, are still outstanding, the rest having been surrendered under the legislation of 1846 and 1847, commonly called the "Butler Bill."
Mr. Garrett assumes to be, and I suppose is, the holder of forty-one of these one hundred and ninety-one old bonds, and he sues for himself as well as for the holders of the residue, to enforce a lien on the Canal and its revenues, which, it is alleged, was created by the legislation under which the bonds were issued.
Hon. Horace P. Biddle, Judge of the Court, on the hearing of a demurrer in the cause, decided that the bonds were a lien on the Canal paramount to the title of the Trustees, derived from the State in 1847 under the "Butler Bill," and I am fully satisfied that the decision was a correct one. Garrett's action has been removed by a change of venue from the Circuit Court of Carroll county to the Circuit Court of Cass county, where it is now pending. The term of the Cass Circuit Court commenced two days ago, viz., on the 11th instant, and a judgment may be rendered in a very short time, subjecting the Canal or its revenues to the satisfaction of the claim. The State is not a party to the suit and can not, therefore, exercise the right of appeal, nor can she, under existing legislation, insist that the Trustees shall appeal if they do not desire to do so; and if even the Trustees should desire to appeal, they might not be able to stay the execution of the judgment by giving the necessary appeal
page: 5[View Page 5]bond and security in the absence of any provision by the State for indemnifying the sureties in the appeal bond. Under these circumstances, it is of the highest moment that the subject should receive immediate consideration by you.
I quote from my last regular message the following extracts as expressive of my present views on the subject:
"If these bonds are a lien on the Wabash and Erie Canal, as I believe them to be, the State can not afford to permit the title of the Trutsees to be divested or their possession and control of the Canal and its revenues to be interrupted by the judicial enforcement of said lien. To prevent this, provision should be made to pay out of the Treasury of the State such of said one hundred and ninety-one bonds as may be adjudged to be a lien on the Canal and its revenues whenever it may become necessary to make such payment in order to prevent the Canal or its revenues from being subjected to the satisfaction of the lien. Indeed, independently of this lien altogether, I do not see how the State can honorably refuse to redeem these few outstanding Internal Improvement Bonds. They were issued by the State, and the faith of the State was pledged for their redemption, and this pledge can not be disregarded or set aside without the consent of both parties to the contract, if the State has the ability to redeem the pledge, of which there can be no doubt. If the holders of the bonds had surrendered them under the Butler Bill, as other holders surrendered theirs, and agreed to look exclusively to the revenues of the Canal for one-half of their debt, this would have been a new contract, and the State could not be justly complained of for insisting on its execution. But the holders of the bonds now under consideration have continuously refused to surrender them under the adjustment proposed by the Butler Bill, and the State can not compel them to do so, nor can she refuse to pay them without repudiating her plighted faith.
"If the State should stand by and permit the Canal or its revenues to be wrested from the hands of the Canal Trustees, to satisfy a paramount lien created by the State itself prior to the conveyance of the Canal to said Trustees, then, indeed, might the holders of the Canal stocks, with some show of reason, claim that the State should redeem the many millions of dollars of Canal stocks which, under the existing arrangement, are exclusively charged upon the Canal and for which the State is in no way bound.
"I hope that you will promptly adopt such measures as will forever prevent the possibility of the trust being disturbed or impaired by
page: [6][View Page [6]]the enforcement of this lien. It is both right and expedient that the State should thus protect the trust property, and I also recommend that the State relieve the Board of Canal Trustees from all the expenses of the litigation to which they have been or may be subjected to in defending the trust property from the attempt made to subject it to the satisfaction of said lien.
"Sixty-nine of these one hundred and ninety-one old bonds are held by the Interior Department of the General Government, and I herewith respectfully submit to you a copy of an official communication written to me under date March 25, 1872, by Hon. Columbus Delano, Secretary of that Department, in relation to the unpaid interest due on the sixty-nine bonds last mentioned.
CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENT IN RELATION TO CANAL DEBT.
The last General Assembly passed a joint resolution proposing an amendment to the Constitution of this State in relation to the debt charged upon the Wabash and Erie Canal under the adjustment made by the State with her creditors in 1847.
The proposed amendment provides that no law or resolution shall ever be passed by the General Assembly of the State of Indiana that shall recognize any liability of the State to pay or redeem any certificate of stock issued in pursuance of "An act to provide for the funded debt of the State of Indiana, and for the completion of the Wabash and Erie Canal to Evansville," passed January 19th, 1846, and an act supplemental to said act, passed January 29th, 1847, which, by the provisions of the said acts, or either of them, shall be payable exclusively from the proceeds of the Canal lands, and the tolls and revenues of the Canal in said acts mentioned, and no such certificate of stocks shall ever be paid by this State. I earnestly recommend that the amendment, the substance of which I have just stated be promptly agreed to and adopted by the present General Assembly at this session, and that provision be made by law for its speedy submission to the people for ratification. Having heretofore so fully discussed the questions involved in the proposed amendment, I do not deem it expedient or necessary now to reiterate my opinions or the arguments urged in support of them, but content myself by saying, that the views expressed in my last regular message on the subject of the Canal debt, and the necessity and propriety of such an amendment to the Constitution, remain unchanged. To the end that these views may be conveniently accessible to all of
page: 7[View Page 7]you, I will cause a pamphlet copy of the message alluded to, to be addressed and delivered to every member of this General Assembly. The fact was brought to my notice some time since that the printed journals of the Senate and House of Representatives of the last General Assembly do not show that the proposed amendment, with the yeas and nays thereon, was entered on the Journal of either House, and consequently, doubt has been expressed as to the validity of the proceedings connected with its adoption.
The Constitution provides that amendments may be proposed in either branch of the General Assembly, and if the same shall be agreed to by a majority of the members elected to each of the two Houses, such proposed amendment or amendments, shall, with the yeas and nays thereon, be entered on their journals and referred to the General Assembly to be chosen at the next general election; and if in the General Assembly so next chosen, such proposed amendment or amendments shall be agreed to by a majority of all the members elected to each House, then it shall be the duty of the General Assembly to submit such amendment or amendments to the electors, etc. An inspection of the printed journals will show that the yeas and nays were called and recorded on the passage of the joint resolution in both Houses; that it passed the Senate by a vote of forty-five yeas to one nay; that it passed the House by a unanimous vote, ninety-three members voting for, and none against it. The Joint Resolution was duly enrolled, signed by the President of the Senate, and the Speaker of the House of Representatives, and is deposited in the office of the Secretary of State, and was printed and published with the laws passed at the same session, Under these circumstances, I am clear in the opinion that the omission to spread the amendment at large on the journals does not vitiate it. The provision which says that the amendment shall be entered on the journals, if indeed it means that it shall be copied at full length, is at most only directory and not mandatory, and consequently the amendment, if passed by the present General Assembly and ratified by the people, will be valid as a part of the Constitution.
In this connection, I desire to call attention to the fact that the original manuscript journals of the Senate and House of Representatives are not preserved, but are sent to the Public Printer and used as copy from which to print, and then destroyed. The journals are printed after the adjournment of the General Assembly under the supervision of the Secretary of the Senate and the Clerk of the House respectively, and as the original manuscript is destroyed after
page: 8[View Page 8]the proof is read, there is no possible means of detecting or correcting any omission or mistake which might be made in the printed volume. I respectfully suggest that this practice ought to be discontinued and that the original manuscript journals should be bound in permanent form and preserved in the office of the Secretary of State and copies thereof furnished to the printer.
THE LATE NORMAN EDDY.
On the 28th day of January of the present year, Colonel Norman Eddy, Secretary of State, departed this life at his residence in this city, after having faithfully performed the duties of that office for about one year, or half the term for which he was elected. The singular beauty and integrity of Col. Eddy's public and private life, his gallant services as a soldier of the Union in the war to suppress the late rebellion, and the industry, fidelity and skill with which he performed the duties of the many public trusts to which he was called, render it fitting that I should leave on record this brief tribute to his memory. He died in circumstances by no means affluent, and Col. John H. Farquhar, whom I appointed to fill the vacancy, appointed Mr. Owen M. Eddy, son of the deceased Secretary, his deputy, and generously allowed the entire salary and all the perquisites of the office to go to the widow and family of his deceased predecessor. Although the labors of the office have been mainly performed by the deputy, its responsibilities and some of its cares and duties, have necessarily fallen upon Col. Farquhar, and I would consider myself remiss in duty if I did not thus publicly express my grateful appreciation of his conduct. May the bread which he has thus cast upon the waters be found by him or his, though it should be after many days.
FEES AND SALARIES.
The act of February 21, 1871, entitled "An act regulating the fees, salaries and duties of certain officers therein named, and prescribing penalties for the violation of its provisions," has proved to be a very defective and ill considered piece of legislation. Some of the provisions of the act are of such doubtful constitutionality that a portion of the Circuit and Common Pleas Judges have held them to be null and void, while the Judges of other circuits and districts have adjudged the same provisions to be constitutional. The Judges
page: 9[View Page 9]of the Supreme Court itself are equally divided on one or more of these questions, and therefore unable to reverse conflicting and contradictory decisions of the lower courts. The result is not only that we have all the evils of local legislation by having one law or rule of action in one county or circuit and another law or rule of action in the adjoining county or circuit, but diverse rules prevail in the same county where the Judges of the courts thereof differ in opinion as to the constitutionality of certain provisions of the act. This evil is even greater than the extortions that were practiced under the former law, and if a satisfactory fee and salary bill of unquestionable constitutionality can not be perfected and passed at the present session, it would be better to repeal the act alluded to and revive the old law which was supplanted by it, than to suffer longer under existing evils. There can be no question that the former law needed revision, and its revival could only be justified as a temporary expedient, until a just, constitutional and satisfactory measure can be perfected and passed. I respectfully recommend that a commission to consist of five or more experienced and competent persons be appointed with the least practicable delay, to prepare and report a fee and salary bill to the General Assembly for its consideration at the approaching regular session. The fact that the Judges of the Supreme Court are equally divided as to the constitutionality of some of the provisions of the present fee bill shows the necessity of having an odd instead of an even number of Judges on the bench of that Court. I, therefore, for this and other reasons, renew the recommendation made at the last session of the General Assembly, that provision be made for the addition of another Judge to the bench of the Supreme Court, so that the whole number of Judges shall be five instead of four. I also earnestly repeat the recommendation that the Judges of that court be allowed salaries commensurate with the dignity of their positions, and the learning and industry necessary for the performance of the duties of these positions. As I shall never again have a personal interest in the Governor's salary, I may now also be permitted to speak on that subject. For the credit of the State, and in justice to my successors, immediate and remote, I trust you will, before the commencement of the term of the Governor elect, provide a fixed and adequate salary for the office. If this matter is not attended to at this session, or before my successor shall have assumed the duties of the office, it can not be during his incumbency. The sum allowed should be fixed by the law-making power, but should be in the alternative; that is, so
page: 10[View Page 10]much as long as the State does not provide the Governor with a furnished residence, and a less sum if such a furnished residence is provided, and kept furnished and in repair by the State. I do not hesitate, after an experience of nearly six years, to say that if the Governor shall be required to provide his own residence, furnish it, and keep it in repair, eight thousand dollars per annum is as small a sum as should be contemplated; and if a furnished dwelling is provided by the State, the salary ought not to be less than five thousand dollars. I trust that no one upon whom the people may hereafter confer the office will be subjected to the annoyance which I have suffered in this connection.
CONSTITUTIONAL CONVENTION.
It is now more than twenty-one years since the present Constitution became the fundamental law of Indiana, and in my judgment the time has come when the best interests of the State require that provision should be made for calling a convention to be elected by the people, for the purpose of revising and amending that instrument.
The thirteenth article, and all the other provisions of our Constitution which sought to degrade men and put them under the public ban because the complexion of their skins did not happen to conform to the approved Caucasian standard, are a reproach to the State, and ought to be stricken out by command of the sovereign people themselves. It is true that these provisions are now a dead letter, but they are still in the Constitution, and printed with it every time a new edition of that instrument is published, the standing witness of our ignorance of, or indifference to human rights, until God scourged us into their recognition by the dread calamity of civil war. Under the Constitution as it now is, it is impossible to have an election law that will be efficient in preventing fraudulent voting. As long as the Constitution neither prescribes nor allows the Legislature to prescribe some term of previous residence, in the county, township, or precinct, as a pre-requisite to the exercise of the right of suffrage, all efforts to prevent the importation of fraudulent voters must be nugatory. The Constitution itself ought to prescribe some term of residence in the proper locality as a condition precedent to the right to vote.
There is little ground of hope that our judicial system will be reformed and adapted to the wants of the people until the Constitution shall itself have been remodeled, and it would require the exercise of
page: 11[View Page 11]superior ingenuity to devise a worse judicial system than that under which we now suffer. There is at present a great demand for civil service reform in the General Government, and in reference thereto, I join in the hope that the hand of reform may not be stayed until the nearest appoach to perfection possible in human affairs shall have been attained. I think, however, that the civil service of the State is not so perfect as to justify us in giving all our attention to that of the country at large. The management of our Benevolent, Reformatory and Penal Institutions is liable to be revolutionized by the triumph of this party or that at any general election. This ought not so to be, and there can be no effectual remedy without an amendment to the Constitution. The directors or managers of these institutions should hold for longer official terms than the Legislature is permitted to create, and a portion of them should go out every year, or every two years, so that the government thereof would be raised above the mutations of mere party and the requisite experience would always be preserved.
The Judges of the Supreme Court, too, are all elected at the same time and for the same term of years, and always succeed as the nominees of a political party. The tendency of this is to make the judges partisans, and the fact that every sixth year the bench may be politically revolutionized, creates a temptation on the part of the successful candidates to attempt to secure favor with their party by undoing much of what their politically heterodox prodecessors have done. That in point of fact, we have had so little of this to complain of, is greatly to the credit of the judges who have from time to time succeeded to the bench, but the system itself is none the less vicious. If the judiciary ought to be elected by the people at all, a proposition, by the way, which I do not think experience has sanctioned, a portion only of the judges of the Supreme Court should retire and their successors be elected at the same time, so that the probabilities of the existence of a partisan bench would be diminished, and so that the Court would never be without judges of experience and familiar with the duties of the particular position.
If this General Assembly should see proper to provide for calling a Constitutional Convention, I do not think it should, on that account, omit to adopt and submit to the people for ratification, the pending amendment in relation to the canal debt. Let that amendment by all means be adopted, and it can be submitted, without additional expense to the people, for ratification at the same election at which the delegates to the Convention shall be chosen, and if it is
page: 12[View Page 12]ratified, as assuredly it will be, the popular vote ratifying it will be an imperative instruction to the Convention to put a similar provision in the revised Constitution. Besides this, the pending amendment, if thus adopted and ratified, would bind the Legislature until the new Constitution shall have been approved by the people, and also provide against the possible contingency of the Convention framing such a Constitution as the people might reject.
ADDITIONAL PROVISIONS FOR THE INSANE.
The Indiana Hospital for the Insane has a capacity for about 490 patients, although by crowding it 520 patients have been in the institution at the same time. Experience proves that it ought not to be thus crowded. By making the additions and improvements suggested by the Superintendent in his report, the capacity of the institution can be so enlarged as to accommodate 600 patients, that being an addition to the present capacity of the buildings of rooms sufficient for 110 patients. The estimated cost of these additions and improvements is $50,000, a much less sum than would provide for the same number of patients in the erection of a new institution. For this reason, and because of the pressing necessity for increased accommodations for the insane, I urgently recommend that an appropriation of the sum named above be made at the present session, and with as little delay as practicable, so that the capacity of the Hospital may be increased at the earliest possible day. By doing this, however, the State will not have performed her duty to the insane within her borders. When the capacity of the present Hospital shall have been increased so as to accommodate 600 patients, there will undoubtedly be 1,000 insane persons within the State who ought to have the care and treatment afforded by such an institution, still unprovided for. To properly provide for these, the State needs two other Hospitals, each having a capacity for the accommodation of at least 500 patients. The State should be divided into three Hospital districts, viz.: a central, a northern and a southern. One new Hospital should be established as near the center of the northern and another as near the center of the southern district as may be found practicable. The State of Ohio already has five such institutions. To erect, furnish and equip two additional Hospitals for the Insane, each having a capacity for 500 patients, will cost about $1,000,000; but our people can better afford to furnish this amount within the next three years than they can allow the State to fall be-
page: 13[View Page 13]hind her sister States in providing for this unfortunate class of her citizens. The idea that those who are supposed to be incurably insane should be provided for in separate institutions has been exploded by experience, and I trust will find no favor in the action which you may take on the subject. At least one new Hospital should be erected as soon as possible, and provision for all the insane who need care and treatment should be secured at no distant day.
TIPPECANOE BATTLE GROUND.
The Constitution of Indiana declares, that it shall be the duty of the General Assembly to provide for the permanent inclosure and preservation of the Tippecanoe Battle Ground. Allow me to call your attention to the fact that this duty has never been performed by your predecessors. The Battle Ground never was permanently inclosed by the State, and the temporary fence by which it was once surrounded has long since disappeared. It is the property of the State, and full of historic interest, and as the people have enjoined in their Constitution that it shall be permanently inclosed and preserved, I can imagine no valid excuse for a failure to obey this injunction.
TREATY OF WASHINGTON.
By the Twenty-seventh Article of the Treaty of Washington, concluded between the United States and Great Britain, May 8,1871, the Government of Her Britannic Majesty engages to urge upon the Government of the Dominion of Canada to secure to the citizens of the United States the use of the Welland, St. Lawrence and other canals in the Dominion on terms of equality with the inhabitants of the Dominion; and the Government of the United States engages that the subjects of Her Britannic Majesty shall enjoy the use of the St. Clair Flats Canal on terms of equality with the inhabitants of the United States, and further engages to urge upon the State Governments to secure to the subjects of Her Britannic Majesty the use of the several State canals connected with the navigation of the lakes or rivers traversed by or contiguous to the boundary line between the possessions of the high contracting parties on terms of equality with the inhabitants of the United States.
I herewith respectfully submit for your consideration a copy of an official communication from the President of the United States to
page: 14[View Page 14]myself, calling attention to the provisions of the above mentioned article of said Treaty, and urging upon the State Government of this State to secure to the subjects of Her Britannic Majesty the use of the State canals within the State of Indiana connected with the navigation of the lakes or rivers traversed by or contiguous to the boundary line between the possessions of the United States and those of Her Britannic Majesty in North America on terms of equality with the inhabitants of the United States.
I commend the subject to your careful attention, in the hope that it may be found practicable to adopt such legislation as will accomplish the object suggested by the President in said communication.
HOUSE OF REFUGE.
The House of Refuge, near Plainfield, has been very successful in performing the good work for which it was established, although it has had to encounter many obstacles. For some three years it has had two hundred or more inmates, but the appropriations for its current expenses were made upon the basis, and intended for the support of but a few more than half that number. At the commencement of the last session of the Legislature a debt of $10,000 for borrowed money had accrued, owing to the deficiency in the appropriations, and this debt has since been added to until it now amounts to $18,881. Besides this loan, the institution is indebted to supplies to the amout of about $3,500, making a total indebtedness of $22,881. It will require about $4,000 to meet the expenses of the institution up to the first day of April next, the end of its fiscal year. I therefore ask that an appropriation of $26,881 be made to this institution with the least practicable delay, to enable it to discharge the present indebtedness and defray current expenses to the end of the fiscal year. I herewith respectfully submit a special report of the Board of Control of the House of Refuge, in which the foregoing matters are more fully explained. Provision should also be made to enlarge the institution so as to double its present capacity. The eleventh section of the act creating the institution ought to be repealed. That section authorizes the sentencing of boys to the House of Refuge for any determinate period, not extending beyond the time when they shall attain the age of twenty-one years. No one can judge in advance how long it will require to reform any particular juvenile delinquent, and hence the impropriety of a sentence for a definite period. If a boy is thus sentenced he must be
page: 15[View Page 15]discharged at the end of the term for which he was sentenced, although his reformation may have but fairly commenced. Every boy who is thus discharged before his reformation is completed is almost sure to relapse into his former vicious courses, and therefore is not benefited himself, but reflects discredit upon the institution and tends to impair the public confidence in its efficiency. Besides this, any juvenile offender may under other sections of the act be committed to the guardianship of the institution until he attains the age of twenty-one years, unless sooner discharged as reformed, without having a record of conviction of crime made against him, and there is therefore no necessity for the section above mentioned. The law governing the admission of boys to the institution should also be so changed as not to allow those under the age of nine or over the age of sixteen years to be committed to its guardianship. The institution is not a prison, and is not therefore a proper place for the punishment of young men convicted of crimes; nor should it be converted into a nursery for quite small children. If even the maximum age shall be reduced from eighteen to sixteen years, as I have suggested, still it may be expected that, by fraudulent representations as to the age of delinquents, boys will be sent to the institution who have passed the proper age; but as it now is, some young men over the age of twenty-one years are, through false representations as to their ages, committed to the House of Refuge to save them from being sent to the Penitentiary. This is highly injurious to the institution and detrimental to the best interests of its younger inmates. We ought to have a prison intermediate between the House of Refuge and the Penitentiary, but the House of Refuge can not perform the functions of such a prison.
If the House of Refuge should be enlarged so as double its capacity it would still be unable to receive all the boys who require the reforming influence of such an establishment. A few of the larger cities of the State would furnish boys enough to fill such an institution. In view of this, the larger cities of the State should not only be empowered, but encouraged to establish similar institutions. The Board of Commissioners of the counties in which such cities are located might, with propriety, be authorized to join with the city authorities in their establishment, and the State could, in my judgment, well afford to contribute a part of the funds necessary to defray the current expenses of such institutions after they shall have been established by the local authorities.
page: 16[View Page 16]SOLDIERS' HOME.
Since the termination of last session of the General Assembly, the old wooden buildings belonging to the Soldiers' Home near Knightstown, were destroyed by fire. They were at the time of the fire occupied as quarters for disabled soldiers then connected with the institution, the new brick building being then and still occupied by the soldiers' orphans who have been admitted to the Home. In consequence of the fire all the soldiers who were willing to go to the National Soldiers' Home, near Dayton, Ohio, were sent to that institution, and those who were unwilling to go there were, in accordance with their own preferences, discharged. Since then the Home has been exclusively for the care of the orphan children of soldiers. It is inexpedient and unnecessary to rebuild the soldiers' department of the Home, and the act creating the institution should therefore be so far modified as to sanction the change in the character of the institution caused by the destruction of the soldiers' quarters. It would be good policy as well as sound economy in my opinon to provide for increasing the quantity of land connected with the institution and for creating the work shops which may be necessary to utilize the labor of the children and impart to them at the same time industrious habits.
Up to this time the number of soldiers' orphans applying for and entitled to admission, has equalled or exceeded the capacity of the institution, but the probabilities are that the time will soon come when the number of soldiers' orphans entitled to admission will be go reduced as to permit the admission of other indigent children. In anticipation of this, I think provision should be made by law for the admission of children from the county asylums of the several counties wherever such can be admitted without excluding any of the class of orphan children now entitled to its benefits. When the property shall no longer be required as a home for soldiers' orphans, it will be well adapted to and much needed for, an Industrial Reform School, somewhat different in character from the House of Refuge. Such a school, in which the waifs of society should be collected and cared for before they become delinquents, would be a blessing to the State and cut off one of the sources through which the criminal classes of our people are increased.
THE STATE NORMAL SCHOOL.
The State Normal School has been embarrassed for the want of
page: 17[View Page 17]the means necessary to carry on its operations. A loan of $4,000 became an imperative necessity, and was made. I believe there is some other floating debt which ought to be liquidated without delay. I trust the necessary appropriation will be promptly made.
THE INSTITUTION FOR THE EDUCATION OF THE BLIND.
For four years or more, there has been a pressing necessity for the enlargement of the Institution for the Education of the Blind, the increase of this class of our population being such that the present building has become too small to accommodate all who are entitled to the benefits of the institution. The estimates made prior to the meeting of the last Legislature, stated $65,000 as the amount necessary to make this enlargement. I believe these estimates were correct, and earnestly recommend that such an appropriation be made without delay.
THE INDIANA REFORMATORY INSTITUTE FOR WOMEN AND GIRLS.
The building for this much needed institution has remained in an unfinished condition for the last two years, no appropriation having been made to complete it. It is highly important that the building should be speedily completed and furnished, to the end that the female prisoners now in the State Prison at Jeffersonville should be removed thereto, pursuant to the requirements of the act for the establishment of the institution. It is also highly important, that the reformatory department of the institution should be open for the reception of girls at the earliest practicable period.
There is an existing indebtedness of about $20,000, contracted in the erection of the building, and I trust that an appropriation will be made to pay this, and also to complete and furnish the building, fence the grounds, and put the institution in operation.
STATE PRISON SOUTH.
I herewith respectfully submit the annual report of the Directors and Warden of the State Prison South. I hope that the indebtedness of the prison mentioned in this report, which was necessarily and unavoidably incurred, may be speedily provided for. The contracts for the labor of the convicts have four years to run from the 1st day of January next, and in my opinion there should be no extension of these contracts, but steps should be taken looking to the abandonment
page: 18[View Page 18]of this prison by the time the present contracts expire. The prison buildings are old, dilapidated, and not well adapted to the purposes for which they are used. The cells are too small, and to continue the prison will necessitate expenditures for repairs to such an extent as to render it better economy to provide a new prison of a milder grade than the one now under consideration. In my opinion, one prison of this grade is sufficient for the State, and the one at Michigan City, being a new and a good one, should be retained and the one at Jeffersonville abandoned. There should be graded prisons and a classification of prisoners. To effect this there should be substituted for the Prison South, a prison of milder type, intermediate between the House of Refuge and the State Prison at Michigan City. To this milder prison, young men too old for the House of Refuge, and older persons who have been overtaken by a first offense under mitigating circumstances, should be sent, so that such offenders may not be associated or put on an equality with professional criminals. If such a prison should be established, provision should be made for the transfer of incorrigible prisoners, who may evince a determination not to reform, to the State Prison at Michigan City, and power should also be lodged somewhere, to transfer prisoners who give satisfactory evidence of reformation, from the penitentiary to the intermediate prison. Such last mentioned transfers might be probationary in their character, and revocable if the prisoner ceased to deserve the favor shown him. Prisoners even of the worst classes are still human beings, governed by the tame motives which influence others, and with the proper care and proper appliances, I am satisfied that a majority of them, instead of being made worse by their imprisonment, can be restored to their lost manhood.
The Constitution declares that "the penal code shall be founded on the principles of reformation, and not of vindictive justice." In the spirit of this humane provision, I plead for graded prisons and for a classification of prisoners. Prisons are the only schools in which the criminal classes can be reformed and taught, and there is just the same necessity for gradation and classification as there is in other schools. There ought to be also a supervisory board, having control of all prison officers, with power of suspension or removal for cause during the vacations of the General Assembly. Under the the existing arrangement the grossest abuses may exist when the General Assembly is not in session, but there is no power to interfere.
I believe that between now and the expiration of the contracts
page: 19[View Page 19]for the labor of the convicts in the Southern Prison the change in our prison system, which I have so briefly and imperfectly sketched, may be accomplished in accordance with the soundest economy, and in consonance with the latest and best achievements in this particular field of social science.
SOLDIERS' MONUMENT.
I herewith respectfully submit the memorial of the Board of Managers of the Indiana Monumental Association, soliciting State aid to the erection of a monument to the memory of Indiana soldiers who periled their lives in the service of their country. The memorial embodies resolutions in favor of the same object of a large meeting of citizens held at Indianapolis in May last, upon the occasion of the decoration of the soldiers' graves at Crown Hill near that city. I cordially commend the memorial, with the subject to which it relates, to your favorable consideration.
I trust that the session upon which you have just entered will be characterized by perfect harmony and will be fruitful of good legislation, and assure you of my desire to co-operate with you in furthering such results.
CONRAD BAKER.
