SUPER VISION AND CONTROL OF PENAL INSTITUTIONS 339
(d} favor state board of pardons, 4 ; (i) favor trial court (various modifica- tions), i.
12. Favor giving trial judge a hearing in case of paroled men: yes, 17; no, 1 6.
i. Central control of state establishments. While there is appar- ently a very general and increasing tendency to favor some form of central control, the difficulties and dangers may not be overlooked. A few typical expressions on this point may be cited :
"The danger of 'polities' that is, of partisan corruption for selfish ends is frequently expressed as a difficulty in the way of state control."
The trouble in this state as everywhere is spoils politics. Systems and boards can do very little until public opinion will back their measures. Professor Mary Roberts Smith, Leland Stanford Junior University, California.
The great danger of centralization comes from vesting control in a par- tisan board. S. J. Barrows.
It could hardly be seriously affirmed, however, that the evils of partisan politics are escaped under the present decentralized system of local boards.
Our correspondents state the positive argument in several forms, thus :
Local boards strive to expand community \i. e., local town] and institu- tion interests, at the expense of consistent regard for the welfare of the larger community, the state. C. E. Faulkner.
Mr. I. J. Wistar says:
The state board as described would be most desirable, and no uniformity of administration can be obtained without it. The central authority system, vested either in a commission or in an individual, the first being preferable for us, has been adopted in all other civilized countries, and is coeval with the vast improvements there effected in prison systems and methods. 1
Important materials are found in Report to the Twenty-seventh General Assembly of the Investigating Committee, printed for the Iowa legislature, 1898. In the Bulletin of Iowa State Institutions are articles on the subject : numbers for July and October, 1901; January, 1902; October, 1902 (discussion by F. I. HERRIOTT) ; Annals of American Academy of Political and Social Sciences, November, 1901 (L. A. BLUE); Second Biennial Report of Board of Control of Iowa, 1901, p. 655; Report of State Board of Charities of Connecticut, 1901 ; New Jersey Review of Charities and Correc- tions, February, 1903; Charities, March 21, 1903, paper by CHARLTON T. LEWIS; discussion at National Conference of Charities and Correction, 1902.
