44 



Indiana University Studies 



purchase and sale thereof, which shall be for cash only; and shall keep 

 accurate accounts thereof. — General Statutes (Rev. 1902), § 2901. 



Indiana. In the purchase of all supplies that enter into the main- 

 tenance of any of the institutions (benevolent), it shall be the duty of 

 the board of trustees to invite competitive bids thru sealed proposals 

 to the president of the board of each institution. — Burns' Annotated Stat- 

 utes, 1914, § 3441. 



In general it is to be noted that the State supervisory- 

 boards exercise no control over the purchase of supplies. 

 Hence there is nothing concerning such purchase in the stat- 

 utes creating those boards. The purchase of supplies is either 

 left to the head of the institution, or is in the hands of the 

 board of trustees. 



In the case of the administrative board of the Iowa type, 

 there are two methods. One is to prescribe in the law definite 

 regulations governing the purchase of supplies thru the board. 

 The other is to give the board full power over such purchase 

 and permit it to adopt such rules and regulations as it sees fit. 



The most encouraging tendency in the purchase of supplies 

 and indeed in the general management of institutions by an 

 administrative board, whether of the Iowa or Illinois type, 

 is that towards holding conferences with the heads of institu- 

 tions at which all matters concerning the administration of 

 the institutions are discussed. The latest development along 

 that line is the Board of Joint Estimate in Illinois. The 

 tendency towards cooperation, as shown in these conferences, 

 as against arbitrary procedure by the central board, promises 

 to be the prominent feature of future action by boards of 

 State administration. It brings into action the heads of the 

 institutions who, as the ones most concerned and usually most 

 fitted by training and experience to advise the board relative 

 to such matters, no longer feel that a board of business men 

 with little real knowledge of the detailed work of the institu- 

 tion is trying to arbitrarily lay down the law to them. As 

 these superintendents are usually men of far greater interest 

 and experience in the charity field and receive larger salaries 

 from the State than members of the controlling board, it has 

 naturally been a source of no little exasperation to them in 

 the past when the central board has arbitrarily dictated to 

 them. An attitude of cooperation can and has changed this. 



81 The following statement is based on personal letters, some of which are on file at 

 the Rhode Island Legislative Reference Bureau. 



