MISSOURI. 



519 



finally passed by a vote of 23 to 4 in the Sen- 

 ate, and 83 to 10 in the House, authorizing the 

 issue of $5,000,000 new five-twenty bonds, to 

 be made payable in gold or currency at the 

 option of the funding commissioners, with in- 

 terest at five per cent, if gold, and six per cent, 

 if currency. These were to be used to take up 

 the maturing bonds, or furnish funds for their 

 payment. An act was passed providing for 

 the appointment of three Railroad Commission- 

 ers, and fixing maximum rates for passenger 

 fares and freight-charges. 



The subject which occupied the largest share 

 of attention related to the State Penitentiary. 

 This institution was in the hands of lessees, and 

 there was a strong opposition to the policy of 

 leasing. A bill in the interest of the lessees 

 was introduced, which authorized them to em- 

 ploy the convicts outside of the prison, in any 

 part of the State not within ten miles of a city 

 of 25,000 inhabitants or more, provided per- 

 mission was first granted by the county court 

 of the county in which it is desired to employ 

 them. This bill passed, but was vetoed by the 

 Governor. His objections were stated as fol- 

 lows : 



1. It ia contrary to popular sense, as may be judged 

 from the expressions already given. The whole 

 framework of the bill furnishes evidence that the 

 Legislature itself doubted the propriety of the act by 

 giving counties, cities, and eorp^orated towns power 

 to exclude convicts from their midst. 



2. Gruel and inhuman treatment would he visited 

 on convicts t not intentionally, perhaps, but incident- 

 ally from the want of permanent structures in which 

 to nouse them. 



3. Large numbers would undoubtedly escape and 

 many perhaps be shot in attempts to gain their lib- 

 erty. 



4. Competition with mining and other labors in 

 districts where the convicts should be carried. 



5. Close confinement within the penitentiary has 

 been observed by the States generally as "being the 

 best system of prison management, and this is con- 

 firmed by our own experience. 



6. The preservation of the present leasing contract 

 no doubt led to the passage of the bill. 



In my judgment, it will not effect the purpose, but 

 prove fatally disastrous to the lessees. The same 

 capital that will enable them to transfer convicts to 

 distant points and provide for their employment and 

 for housing them could be much more profitably 

 used in applying the labor that would be withdrawn 

 from the prison in manufacturing employments there. 

 Such employments have proved lucrative in other 

 States, and could and ought to be made so here. 



An attempt to pass the bill over the veto failed. 

 A bill appropriating $300,000 for the con- 

 struction of a new penitentiary in the vicinity of 

 St. Louis was then introduced, also one provid- 

 ing for the erection of a hospital and workshops 

 in connection with the old institution. It was 

 also provided in the latter that $6,000 a month 

 be appropriated to support the penitentiary in 

 case it reverted to the State. The proposition 

 to provide for a branch institution was defeat- 

 ed after considerable discussion, and nothing 

 had been done on the subject when the date 

 fixed for adjournment was reached. In calling 

 the extra session the Governor stated, as the 

 objects for which it was summoned : 



Providing for the management of the penitentiary 

 and the extension of the system either by establish- 

 ing a branch of the present one or increasing the 

 capacity of both, and making appropriations for pay- 

 ment for the same, and making an appropriation for 

 the support of the Industrial Home of toe Orphans 

 and Indigent Children of Missouri for the next two 

 years and for heating the buildings thereof; and 

 also for the support of the School of Mines and Met- 

 als at Kolla ; and also for publication of the decisions 

 of the Supreme Court, and also appropriations for the 

 contingent expenses of the Superintendent of Public 

 Schools, and also for making appropriations for a 

 suitable representation of the interests of the State 

 at the Centennial at Philadelphia, and amending 

 laws regarding assessment and collecting of tax on 

 railroads and individual property; and also estab- 

 lishing a tariff for services rendered in the office of 

 Adjutant-General and Paymaster-General, and pay- 

 ment of the same. 



The penitentiary question occupied nearly 

 all the time of the extra session, which lasted 

 only three days. A bill was finally agreed to, 

 appropriating $90,000 for the enlargement of 

 the female prison, and the construction of a 

 hospital and such other buildings as the in- 

 spectors might deem necessary. A separate 

 bill allowing $6,000 a month to the Governor 

 to carry on the institution in case the lease 

 was thrown up was defeated, $4,000 a month 

 being already allowed by existing laws. The 

 Governor sent in a message insisting on the 

 $6,000, but the committee to which it was re- 

 ferred reported against the additional allow- 

 ance. A commission, consisting of the Gov- 

 ernor and Inspectors of the Penitentiary, who 

 are the State Treasurer, Auditor, and Attor- 

 ney-General, was authorized to examine into 

 the claims of the lessees for certain work and 

 improvements. This commission made its re- 

 port on the 12th of April, allowing $42,906.50 

 to the original lessees, and to the St. Louis 

 Manufacturing Company, which had been the 

 sub-lessee since April 17, 1874. 



Among the other acts of the Legislature was 

 one prohibiting under penalty of imprisonment 

 not exceeding six months, or fine not less than 

 $10 or more than $100, or both, the carrying 

 of any deadly weapons " into any church or 

 place where people have assembled for relig- 

 ious worship, or into any schoolroom, or into 

 any place where people are assembled for edu- 

 cational, literary, or social purposes, or to any 

 election precinct on any election-day, or into 

 any court-room during the sitting of court, or 

 into any other public assemblage of persons, 

 and for other than militia drill or meetings 

 called under the militia law of this State." 



A bill abolishing the Geological Bureau, and 

 transferring the collection in its possession to 

 the School of Mines at Rolla, became a law 

 without the Governor's approval. 



A bill to repeal the act of the preceding ses- 

 sion renewing the bonds for the Hannibal & 

 St. Joseph Railroad failed to pass. 



The Railroad Commissioners appointed under 

 the new law were Mortimer Mcllhany, John 

 Walker, and John S. Marmaduke. They met 

 on the 8th of June and made the classification 



