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Indiana University Studies 



tude antagonize the heads of State institutions and the active 

 private workers and organizations they cannot hope to be 

 useful. Where they have established a reputation for fair- 

 mindedness and ability, their opinion has been of great weight, 

 even tho opposed to that of private organizations.^^ Hence 

 in charity boards has come the demand that the powers should 

 be advisory only. If the board has mandatory powers either 

 antagonism results or it loses its fair-mindedness because of 

 its interest in the management of the institutions it super- 

 vises. In many States, however, the supervisory boards have 

 been given executive functions in extra-institutional work 

 such as outdoor poor relief and placing out of children. 



One of the most insistent objections made to the Indiana 

 type of State supervision is that the charities board lacks the 

 power to compel the officials of institutions to follow its 

 recommendations. No matter what conditions exist in the 

 State institutions or how great the need of improvements in 

 methods of treating inmates or otherwise managing the insti- 

 tutions, the superintendent may continue these conditions 

 despite the protest of the board. After all its inspection and 

 investigation, the board can only report the bad conditions to 

 the legislature at its next session and ask for remedial legis- 

 lation. Moreover, the board is usually given little power over 

 the financial side of institutions. It may examine the books 

 and accounts but it has no authority to specify methods or 

 require changes, except in those States where it may stipu- 

 late the form of reports for statistical purposes. This lack 

 of mandatory power has, in the eyes of some, been the chief 

 weakness of the Indiana type of supervision and out of it has 

 sprung the newer board of control. 



Another objection is that the members of a supervisory 

 board cannot effectively supervise the management of State 

 institutions, since they serve without compensation and are 



National Conference of Charities and Corrections Proceedings, 1902, pp. 150, 151. 

 This statement is also based upon letters received from authorities in Illinois. Letters on 

 file at the Rhode Island Legislative Reference Bureau. See also report of committee. 

 National Conference of Charities and Corrections, 1886 : "Yet the great usefulness of a 

 State board . . . resides in the moral powers it exercises rather than in any authority 

 conferred by law." (p. 23) 



Massachusetts is the best example of this. 

 3» This argument is amplified in the following topic. It should be remembered that 

 these arguments are not strictly against the supervisory board as State agents, but against 

 the supervisory board as compared with the administrative board. The importance of this 

 distinction is brought out in the discussion of the "dual system". 



