USA > Kansas > A standard history of Kansas and Kansans, Volume II > Part 55
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ELIZABETH N. BARR.
BUREAU OF LABOR
A "Bureau of Labor and Industrial Statistics" was established by the legislature of 1881 which defined its purpose as collecting, sys- tematizing and presenting in annual reports details relating to all departments of labor and industrial pursuits in the State, especially in their relation to the commercial, industrial, social, educational and sanitary condition of the laboring classes, and to the prosperity of the industries of the State. The department was put in charge of a com-
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missioner appointed by the Governor, and he was given power to take and preserve testimony, examine witnesses under oath, enter any pub- lic institution of the State and any factory, workshop or mine. The Commissioner also had a right to question employers by printed slips, and a heavy penalty was attached to the failure to answer these ques- tions correctly.
One of the first important results achieved by the Bureau was a law to seeure the payment of wages at regular intervals in the factories and mines in money instead of trade.
In 1898 the legislature authorized the organization of a society of labor and industry to be formed among laborers in small groups over the State. These organizations were allowed to send delegates to an annnal State meeting at which a president, vice-president, secretary and assistant secretary should be elected. These officials constituted the State Bureau of Labor and Industry, the secretary acting as the Commissioner of Labor and State Factory Inspector and the assistant secretary, the assistant Commissioner of Labor and assistant Factory Inspector. In this way it came about that the Labor Bureau fell into the hands of the trades unions. Kansas is the only State where such a condition of affairs ever existed. In 1913 the department was taken from the control of the Society of Labor and Industry and the office of Labor Commissioner was again made appointive. A woman was added to the factory inspector's force to have special charge of matters relating to employed women.
In the thirty years of the existence of the department about seventy- five laws have been passed relating to labor. The most important are : the law governing the arbitration of labor troubles, child labor law, eight hour law, act governing the intimidation of employees in the exercise of the franchise, fire escape law, employer's liability in case of accidents, law against usury, the Sunday labor laws, and certain laws regarding the employment of women. In 1909 a State Free Employment Bureau was established as a branch of the Bureau of Labor.
Since the Bureau was established seven different men have been at the head of the department : Frank H. Betton, 1885 to 1893; John F. Todd, 1893 to 1895: William Bird, 1895 to 1897; William L. A. Johnson, 1897 to July 1, 1911; Owen Doyle, 1911 to 1913; William L. O'Brien, 1913 to 1915. The present inenmbent. P. J. McBride, took the office in 1915.
ELIZABETH N. BARR.
INDUSTRIAL WELFARE COMMISSION
The Industrial Welfare Commission created in 1915 has for its purpose the establishing of "snch standard of wages, hours and con- dition of labor for women earners, apprentices and learners, appren- tices and minors as shall be held to be reasonable and not detrimental
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to health and welfare." The law provides that the Governor shall appoint three commissioners from a different Congressional District, one of whom shall be the Commissioner of Labor, and at least one of the remaining two shall be a woman. The same act that created the Commission makes it unlawful to employ women, learners, apprentices and minors in any occupation detrimental to health or welfare, or to employ these classes at wages not adequate for their maintenance or for hours detrimental to health.
According to the act, Labor Commissioner P. J. McBride became chairman of the new commission, to which the Governor appointed John Craddock and Mrs. Genevieve H. Chalkley. Miss Linna Bresette, deputy factory inspector, became secretary.
The Welfare Commission was empowered to investigate conditions, hold public hearings, and to establish boards to regulate wages, hours, conditions and standards in the various industries employing the class of labor covered by the act. The determinations of these boards shall be laid before the Welfare Commission which either accepts or rejects them. In case the findings of the board is accepted, the employers are notified and the Commission proceeds to enforce these findings as laws. The employers have recourse to the courts in case the findings are objectionable to them. The Commission has appointed a Laundry Board and a Mercantile Board. The Laundry Board so far has accom- plished nothing. The Mercantile Board has made findings to the effect that no woman or girl shall be employed more than nine hours per day in a mercantile establishment, nor later than nine o'clock at night, and requiring employers to fix the hours of beginning and quit- ting work and the meal hours. These findings have been accepted by the Welfare Commission.
ELIZABETH N. BARR.
KANSAS STATE PENITENTIARY
Although repeated efforts were made in territorial days to build a penitentiary, it was not until 1861 that the ground was bought, and the prisoners were not housed by the state until five years later.
For several years the prisoners were kept in the Lecompton jail. The building was insufficient for the purpose and escapes were numerous. The keeper was called Master of Convicts. Captain E. W. B. Newby served in this capacity in 1856, and Levi J. Hampton was appointed November 10, 1856, and served during 1857. In 1857 the legislature passed an act locating the penitentiary at Lecompton with the view of erecting buildings, but made no appropriation for that purpose. The next year the act was repealed and the site relocated at Delaware City, in Leavenworth County, about where the penitentiary now stands. Caleb S. Pratt, Ward S. Lewis and Ashael Hunt were named as a prison com- mission and empowered to draw on the treasury for funds to buy ground and erect buildings. Congress was then asked for $100,000 to pay the
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expense. Nothing came of this effort and in 1859 a similar act was passed naming John Ritehie, S. S. Prentis and Fielding Johnson as commission- ers. In 1861 a new commission was created to which C. L. Lambdin, M. S. Adams and Charles Sterns were appointed. This commission met July 15, 1861, for the first time. After the consideration of several sites they bought a tract of forty aeres about seven miles from Fort Leaven- worth on the Military Road leading from the fort to Westport Landing. For this tract they gave $600, on which 20% interest was paid until an appropriation could be made to cover the purchase.
The prisoners had been removed from Lecompton to the Leaven- worth County jail where, in the year 1861, a total of twenty-one state prisoners were cared for. In 1862 the number had inereased to thirty- two, and the next year some of them were removed to Lawrence and other towns on account of the erowded condition at Leavenworth. Prison labor was eontracted at sixty eents per day and the state paid from sev- enty-five eents to $1.00 for the board and eare of the convicts.
The first building appropriation, a sum of $25,000, was made in 1863, but no work was done. In 1864 an appropriation of $50,000 was voted, and a change in the location of the building was anthorized by the legis- lature, but was not made by the commissioners. Contracts were let for the north wing of the main building, but on account of the unsettled con- dition of the country the work was stopped after completing the founda- tion. Nothing more was done until 1866, when a further appropriation of $100,000 was made. A substantial wooden structure thirty-six by eighty-seven feet was erected providing temporary quarters for one hundred prisoners, together with offices and sleeping rooms for the guards. There were ninety prisoners at that time. The work of com- pleting the north wing then went on with prison labor, using the limestone quarried in the vicinity. Wells were dug and improvements made on the grounds. The direetors in charge at this time were William Dunlap, M. R. Dutton and S. S. Ludlum.
The first warden was George H. Keller, appointed by Governor Craw- ford in 1867. To him fell the task of organization, and of formulating and enforcing of regulations to run the institution. A school was started and the legislature established a library, setting aside $300 per year from the earnings of the convicts to buy books. An appropriation of $100,000 was made to eontinne the building operations, and a legislative investiga- tion was held to determine whether the State had been given eredit by the counties keeping the State's prisoners for the full amount of labor per- formed by the convicts. As is usual in such eases, the State was no farther ahead in the end.
J. L. Philbrick beeame warden in 1868. A final appropriation of $50,000 was made that year for completing the north wing and it was finished two years later. It had three hundred and forty-four cells seven by four by seven. Henry Hopkins beeame warden in 1870, and the main building was barely completed when his administration closed twelve years later. The original plans made by the State Architect called for one thousand eells. Unfortunately the State compelled him to cut the
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number to six hundred and eighty-eight. These were so slow in the building that the prison was always overcrowded, and by the time they were finished, the prison population had grown to eight hundred.
In 1871 the legislature fixed the value of eonviet labor at seventy-five cents per day, and allowed each prisoner five per cent of this amount dur- ing good behavior. The next year a bill was passed allowing time to be deducted from the sentences for good behavior. It was about this time that Mrs. Lydia Sexton, the only woman chaplain in the history of the penitentiary, held office for two years.
From the time the prisoners were moved to the penitentiary the aim had been to furnish employment for them and avoid the necessity of con- traeting their labor to outside parties. Shops incident to furthering the buildings and caring for the needs of the institution were built such as stone sheds, earpenter and blacksmith shops, tailor shop, barber shop, buteher shop, shoe shop and bakery. Briek and lime were manufactured and wagon-making was tried with indifferent sueeess. In 1879 an appro- priation was allowed for sinking a coal shaft. This was contingent upon seeuring the right to mine coal on at least four hundred aeres of land in the vieinity. Some of these rights were seeured upon the payment of $1.00 to each property holder. Needless to say these property holders did not understand the proposition, and a great deal of trouble was en- countered later over these leases. Additional leases have been secured from time to time on which various prices were paid, some of the later leases costing as high as $140 per acre. The State institutions were pro- vided with eoal from the penitentiary mines, and the remaining output sold in the general market. This was the arrangement until 1899, when the output was limited to the needs of the State.
State Architeet Carr, who planned and erected the penitentiary, dis- continued his work about 1880. The building was then praetically fin- ished. In 1885, a sewer was put in at a cost of $25,000, and an electric light plant costing $6,000. The next year $25,000 was appropriated to complete the wall around the coal shaft.
Prior to 1899 the labor of eonviets was sold by the State. In that year an appropriation of $40.000 was made to build a twine plant, and $150,000 on which to operate it. This absorbed the superfluous labor and kept the men employed at the institution. In 1901 the present parole system was instituted and provision made for pardon by the Governer. Two years later the legislature passed a law allowing indeterminate sen- tenees.
For a number of years Kansas had been keeping the Oklahoma prison- ers in her overerowded quarters at a financial loss. The legislature of 1903 forbade the contract to be advaneed for longer than two years, and requested the removal of these convicts which was done about 1909. In 1905 $10,000 was appropriated for additional quarters for convicts. In 1911 the "State Asylum for the Dangerous Insane," was made a depart- ment of the penitentiary.
In Governor Hoch's administration a committee was appointed to visit the penitentiary and make recommendations for improvements. As
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a result the eight-hour day was instituted, inefficient employees were re- moved, the standard of diet was raised, inhuman punishments were for- bidden, and coal mining was carried on with some reference to the health of the workers as well as to the demands of the State. The committee also recommended that as much money be spent on education in the institution as for tobacco.
In 1913, a State Board of Corrections was created to take charge of the management of all the penal institutions in place of the separate boards. Jeremiah Botkin, who was made Warden that year, recom- mended that an appropriation of $70,000 be made to build and equip a modern prison, condemning the present one as out-of-date, inadequate and a breeder of tuberculosis. His ideas were seconded by the prison physician, Dr. Faulkner, and by Professor Blackmar of the State Univer- sity, and other criminologists. The Governor appointed a commission on which Professor F. W. Blackmar, ex-warden H. W. MeClaughry of the Federal penitentiary, and W. II. Haskell, ex-warden of the State penitentiary, and ex-mayor Porter of Kansas City, Kansas, served. The commission recommended an appropriation of $10,000 for a new heating plant, which the legislature failed to provide.
The present prison farm contains twelve hundred acres. The grounds are beautifully laid out, and there is little to suggest a prison in the new buildings which have been added in the past ten years. A separate ward for women has been built apart from the main group of buildings. The cost of the prison, outside of the convict labor. is estimated at $2,000,000.
ELIZABETH N. BARR.
INDUSTRIAL REFORMATORY
Hutchinson, Kansas
The legislature of 1885 provided for a State Reformatory to be located somewhere west of the Sixth Principal Meridian. The purpose of this institution was to separate boys sixteen to twenty-one years of age from hardened criminals, and to educate and return them to society as good citizens, if possible. The project was in the hands of a commission which held its first meeting in Topeka, April 1, 1885. After a visit to the New York Reformatory, the commission made a tour of inspection of the towns which had asked for the institution. Hutchinson was found to be the most advantageous location. The town donated a section of land for a site and a contract was let for the first one hundred cells. The plan of building called for a cell house of four wings to be built in sections as needed, and so arranged as to provide for a classification of prisoners. also to provide a means of going to and from class rooms at night without leaving the building. This building, together with any others that might later be added, excepting the official residence, was to be enclosed within a wall seven hundred and fifty feet by one thousand feet in extent. The original appropriation was $60,000, to which $100.000 was added in 1887.
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and another $100,000 in 1889. In 1895 there was still no Reformatory and the legislature wiped out all the bills that had been passed and began all over again. A new board was appointed by the Governor, and they succeeded in having a building ready by August 25, 1895. J. C. O. Morse was made superintendent.
The Reformatory, like most other institutions, has always been crowded. Within a year there were one hundred and thirty-three in- mates, where but one hundred had been provided for. The cell houses were gradually completed as planned, using prison labor. A manual trades building has been added, also a broom factory, print shop, car- penter shop, stone cutting works. The educational system consists of Academic and Polytechnic courses. The present inmates number about four hundred. The institution is under the management of the Board of Corrections.
ELIZABETH N. BARR.
INDUSTRIAL SCHOOL FOR BOYS
Topeka, Kansas
The idea of an industrial school, was an institution which should be educational rather than penal for children under sixteen years of age who were incorrigible, or who had committed acts to which they should be liable to punishment under the law. The Industrial School for Boys was founded by the legislature, in 1879. A building appropriation of $35,000 was made, and the act specified that the institution should be located not more than five miles from the Capitol building at Topeka, providing that at least one hundred and sixty acres should be donated. The City gave one hundred and seventy acres and since that time seventy acres have been added by purchase.
The school was opened in 1881 under J. G. Eckles, Superintendent. The present head of the institution, W. H. Charles, has held the office since 1902. The parole system was introduced in 1900. In case the boys who are eligible to parole do not have suitable homes to which to return, it is the business of the parole officer to secure homes for them. The group of buildings includes the main building, two cottages, gymnasium, and school building. The education is similar to that offered in the public schools. The number of inmates is about two hundred and fifty.
ELIZABETH N. BARR.
INDUSTRIAL SCHOOL FOR GIRLS
Beloit, Kansas
The Industrial School for Girls under sixteen years of age, was founded at Beloit, by the Women's Christian Temperance Union, in 1888.
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The idea is said to have originated with Miss Olive P. Bray, of Topeka. The organization through the president, Mrs. Fannie Rastall, and other prominent members, brought the matter before the legislature in 1887. That body deelined to even consider it. In order to demonstrate the need of such an institution, the women proceeded to establish it themselves. Through the efforts of Mr. and Mrs. C. H. St. John, the citizens of Beloit were persuaded to co-operate in the project, and the school was opened in that town. Thirty-four girls were received the first year.
In 1889, the legislature took over the institution, appropriating $6,000 for running expenses, and $25,000 for building purposes. The building has been done on the cottage plan, and provides for the elassifi- cation of inmates. The farm of eighty acres was donated by the city of Beloit.
The first superintendent was Miss Mary Marshall, who remained until 1891, when she was succeeded by Martha P. Speneer. Tamsel H. Osborne was superintendent from 1893 to 1895; Mrs. S. V. Leeper, 1895 to 1897; Mrs. Phoebe J. Bare, 1897 to 1899; Mrs. Hester A. Hanback, 1899 to 1901 ; Mrs. Julia B. Perry, 1901 to 1913; Miss Frankie Wilson, 1913 to 1916; when Mrs. Lillian Mitchner, State President of the W. C. T. U., hecame superintendent.
ELIZABETH N. BARR.
STATE HOME FOR THE FEEBLE MINDED
Winfield, Kansas
This institution was originally known as the "State Asylum for Idiotie and Imbeeile Youth." It was opened September Ist, 1881, in the old University building at Lawrence. H. M. Greene was superintendent, and Mrs. M. M. Greene, matron. Twenty pupils were enrolled the first year. Only those under fifteen years of age were admitted. There were probably one hundred feeble minded children under the age of fifteen, in the State at that time, although the agricultural report of March 1, 1881, gives but forty-eight. Applications were received from many not known to the report. The capacity of the school was thirty, and within three years it was overcrowded.
In 1885 an appropriation of $25,000 was made and the institutien located at Winfield. The necessary land was donated, buildings ereeted and the inmates, forty in number, were removed to their new home in March, 1887. Here they were divided into groups according to mental conditions. There were accommodations for one hundred children and the school was soon overcrowded again. The needed buildings were not provided for some years, and in 1895 it was estimated, that there were twenty-five hundred feeble minded children in the state, but not more than one hundred and twelve could be taken at the institution.
New buildings were begun soon after this, and by 1900 a new cottage. custodial building, und hospital, in addition to the main building, had
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been built. At present there are accommodations for more than seven hundred. The value of the property is about half a million.
The course of instruction covers the common school branches, music and manual training.
ELIZABETH N. BARR.
TOPEKA STATE HOSPITAL
The building of a State Hospital for the Insane at Topeka was pro- vided for by the legislature in 1875. The act carried with it an appro- priation of $25,000 and a specification that the asylum should be located within two miles of the capitol building on a site of not less than eighty acres, which should be secured without cost to the State. Three trustees of the State Hospital at Osawatomie acted on the commission: George Wyman, Levi Woodard and William H. Grimes. They chose a tract belonging to Ex-Governor James M. Harvey on the West Sixth street road. It was bonght by the city and county together for the sum of $12,000, and conveyed to the State. In 1881 the State bought one hun- dred acres adjoining the original tract.
The original idea for constructing the buildings was to erect one main building and group smaller ones around it on the cottage plan. This is the modern idea in the building of institutions of all kinds, as it gives opportunity for proper segregation and grouping. But the demand for accommodations was so pressing that for the first twenty years the cottage plan was lost sight of in the attempt to provide quarters as rap- idly as possible. The $25,000 appropriated in 1875 was used to begin the construction of two buildings of the east wing. They were not in condition to receive patients until June 1, 1879. Dr. B. D. Eastman was the first superintendent in charge. It was twenty years from the time the first appropriation was made until the main building was completed. It consists in a central section used as an administration building, on either side of which are three ward buildings. Those on the east are for men and those on the west for women. A detached building with a capacity of two hundred and eighty-nine beds was constructed shortly after the main group and used exclusively for chronic male patients.
The purchase of additional land was authorized in 1903 and the tract was increased to three hundred and fifty acres. A large building was located on the new purchase, and it was remodeled and converted into an open door cottage for males. In 1907 an appropriation was made for a tubereulosis pavilion to accommodate twenty women patients. About the same time two cottages for women were built at a cost of $70,000. A dining hall has been added to this group. In 1910 the tuberculosis pavilion for men was built, and a reception hospital to cost $100,000 was begun on an appropriation of $50,000. In the fall of 1913 a two year training course for nurses was established. A new cottage for women with a capacity of seventy-five beds and with quarters for nurses was
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built in 1914. The daily average of patients that year was one thousand, five hundred and thirty-six.
The superintendents of the institution have been as follows: B. D. Eastman, 1879 to '83; A. P. Tenny, 1883 to '85; B. D. Eastman, 1885 to '94; J. H. McCasey, 1894 to '95; B. D. Eastman, 1895 to '97 : C. H. Wet- more, 1897 to '99; Thomas Coke Biddle, 1899, to the present.
ELIZABETH N. BARR.
OSAWATOMIE STATE HOSPITAL
The Territorial Legislature of 1855 provided for the placing of insane persons in the charge of guardians, and they were cared for in this way until 1866, when the Osawatomie State Hospital was opened. The act providing for this institution was passed in 1863, and the commissioners appointed to locate the site and construct buildings were William Chest- nut, I. Hiner and James Hanway. The act specified that the site should be seenred by donation, that it should contain not less than one hundred and sixty acres located in Osawatomie Township of Miami County, and that it should have an abundance of good water and building stone. A site meeting the requirements was found a mile from the town of Osawat- omie, and was donated by the township. In 1865 the legislature placed the management of the project in the hands of trustees who erected a temporary frame building to which the first patient was admitted late in 1866. The two wards accommodating twelve patients each were soon filled.
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