Proceedings of Sixth Annual Meeting 



133 



The Attitude and Part of the Department of Charities and 



Corrections. 



BY BURDETTE J. LEWIS, COMMISSIONER OF CHARITIES AND 



CORRECTIONS. 



If the Legislature appropriates $100,000 for mosquito exter- 

 mination we will furnish from the correctional institutions the 

 nXaximum number of prisoners this appropriation will permit the 

 State to employ to help rid this State of mosquitoes which have 

 held back the State's economic and agricultural development, have 

 spread disease and have cast aspersion upon the attractiveness of 

 this State as a residence. Successful mosquito extermination will 

 help develop the 2,000,000 acres of the State's under-developed 

 land, will greatly increase the attractiveness of accessible unde- 

 veloped sites for manufacturing purposes, will greatly increase the 

 supply and consequently reduce the cost of food supplies for our 

 State, and will, according to the Conservation Department's es- 

 timate, increase property values by over five hundred millions of 

 dollars, and will greatly reduce the local taxes throughout the State. 

 This increase of ratables would provide the necessary funds to 

 build more than twice the number of charitable and correctional 

 institutions which this State would require in the next twenty years. 



The State Board concurs with the Governor's recommendation 

 that funds should be provided, first, for highways ; second, for the 

 ship canal ; and third, for the conservation of the State's water sup- 

 ply, but it believes this State cannot afford to delay this mosquito 

 extermination program. It would pay, if the reported experiences of 

 the counties mean half what is claim'ed for them, for the State to 

 spend even $500,000 a year in order to complete this program in 

 the earliest possible period of time. This is a serious scientifically 

 conceived program based upon several years of accumulated ex- 

 perience in different sections of this State, and is not a plan to fur- 

 nish office jobs for political chairwarmers. 



I urge full speed ahead upon the Governor's program for public 

 improvements, with the addition of an increase in the State's invest- 

 ment in mosquito extermination, utilizing prison man power to the 

 fullest extent 



President Engle: The next paper is by Mr. S. P. Leeds. 



