32 



Indiana University Studies 



to every $46.30 supervised ; in Iowa $1.00 to $54.80 supervised ; 

 and in Indiana $1.00 to $78.80 supervised.^' 



In answer to this, however, boards of control have merely 

 pointed to results obtained by them. In Iowa the State audit- 

 or held that the first year under the board of control there 

 resulted a saving of $379,490.73 or 26.9 per cent of the expen- 

 diture of the year previous.^- In Wisconsin the adminis- 

 trative board figured that there was an average saving of 

 $78,868.57 per year for the first seven years of its administra- 

 tion.^^ Ohio saved $567,000 the first year, and the Illinois Com- 

 mittee on Efficiency and Economy figured an average saving 

 of $100,000 annually in the charitable institutions alone, un- 

 der the Board of Administration.^* 



The main objection to the board of control has been based, 

 however, on the fact that as the only existing State agency 

 it must supervise its own acts.^^ As early as 1893 a committee 

 reporting at the National Conference of Charities and Cor- 

 rections and speaking of the administrative board declared: 

 "Such entire departure from the standard of advisory au- 

 thority has been taken in Rhode Island, Kansas, South Dakota, 

 and Wisconsin, in none of which is there any remnant or 

 vestige of supervision left, unless an officer can oversee him- 

 self. The boards of these States are in direct control, as 

 trustees of the institutions within their respective jurisdic- 

 tions, and can inspect and advise, only as they can inspect and 

 advise themselves. In 1894 a man of wide reputation and 

 active experience in State supervision declared: ''With my 

 views and experience as a member of the Board of State 

 Charities of Ohio for the past sixteen years and my under- 



51 See tables on pp. 247, 338 of report. 



52 See claims of advocates of administrative board, National Conference of Charities 

 and Corrections Proceedings, 1900, pp. 179, 180. 



"■^ National Conference of Charities and Corrections Proceedings, 1895, pp. 40, 41. 



54 Message of Gov. Harmon to Ohio legislature 1913. Illinois Report of Efficiency and 

 Economy Committee, 1915, p. 41. The report shows a net reduction in four years of 

 $418,450.33, despite the fact that the expenditures of the new board of administration for 

 1910 added $58,400.68 to the gross cost. 



55 The full force of this argument does not seem to have been realized by many of 

 the supporters of the administrative board. The recent situation in Rhode Island would 

 seem to show that the objection is a very pertinent one. There the State Board of Chari- 

 ties and Corrections in the past few years has been attacked, largely by rumor and innu- 

 endo, as inefficient, grafting, etc., but there was no other body familiar with the situa- 

 tion, for that board itself was the only one possessing the facts and could not be expected 

 to inform against itself. 



56 See report of Committee on State Supervision and Administration, National Con- 

 ference of Charities and Corrections Proceedings, 1893. 



