USA > New Hampshire > History of New Hampshire, Volume IV > Part 22
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Go out Pleasant Street about a mile and you may see the State Home for Aged members of the Odd Fellows fraternity, dedicated in 1887. It was built on five acres known as the "President Pierce property." The Masonic fraternity have their home for the aged at Manchester.
The first general hospital of the State was established by Dr. Shadrach C. Morrill in 1884 at Concord. Up to 1890 twelve thousand dollars had been expended and the institution was five thousand dollars in debt. Then Mr. George A. Pillsbury of Minneapolis was on a visit to Concord, where he had formerly lived, and conceived the idea of erecting a memorial hospital and naming it for his wife. A new site was bought and a brick building erected, and since it has been known as the Margaret Pillsbury General Hospital. It was dedicated October 5, 1891.
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It was furnished by the citizens of Concord. A training school for nurses was established in 1889 and up to 1914 had graduated ninety-two nurses. The number of patients treated up to that date was 9,133, besides 1,133 out patients. The institution can accommodate forty patients and it has a permanent fund of $150,000. Of necessity a large part of the work done has been gratuitous. Concord also has a Memorial Hospital for Women and Children, the first one established in New Hampshire, in 1896. It was established "to assist worthy and dependent women and children who wish to be under the care of women physicians and attendants."
We have passed in review the institutions that minister to the sick and afflicted, enough to excite our sympathy and com- passion. At the north end of the city another institution exists, where criminals are confined, the State Prison. Are sympathy and compassion felt for the inmates here? The hospitals are for the benefit of those sent there, and indirectly society is benefitted when the sick and insane are properly cared for and especially when they are restored to health and reason. Every possible effort is made to heal and restore to society the inmates of hospitals. Is the same policy pursued with reference to crim- inals? Are all possible efforts made to restore them to a right mind and to society as helpers? In time long past criminals have been treated as though they had forfeited all the natural rights of man. Those out of prison have cared little for those inside. The feeling has been that lawbreakers deserved to suf- fer and should receive their deserts. We are learning that it is not always just and wise to inflict upon men what they deserve. We are beginning to test the efficacy of forgiveness and love. Formally criminals were punished, made to suffer physical and mental pain, in some sort of proportion to the offenses commit- ted; now we are told that punishment should be remedial and may be remitted altogether, if a better remedy can be found. We are beginning to see that many crimes are the result of heredity, alcohol, bad surroundings and ignorance, the same causes that produce insanity and sickness. The conviction is forced upon us that many criminals are to be pitied as much as blamed, that they should be educated and transformed, that the causes of their sad condition should be removed, and that they should be given another and better chance in life.
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Until 1810 in New Hampshire criminals were confined in county jails, clothed and fed in idleness at the public expense, and nothing was done for their happiness and welfare. Then a prison was built, and the prisoners were given something to do. Some years they paid all expenses and earned a balance for the State. The financial result depended largely upon the business capacity of the warden. The cells were small; the rules were strict ; silence was enforced ; there was little exercise in the open air; striped suits were worn; no athletic games were allowed; the lock-step was hated.
In the year 1880 a new State Prison was completed at a cost of $234,841, built of Concord granite, of which there was an unlimited quantity close at hand. It had two hundred and sixty cells, each eight feet long, six wide, and seven and a quarter high, not spacious and not uncomfortable. I have slept in a man's cell, in a convent of the Greco-Russian Church on Mount Tabor in Palestine, and my apartment was not bigger than a cell in the New Hampshire State Prison. I did not feel cramped nor confined. A room of that size can be made comfortable, if an open or grated door allows circulation of air, and the room and bed are kept clean. Nothing is gained by making prisoners live in filth, and damp, unwholesome dungeons. I have visited the ancient prison of Rome and the dungeon connected with the palace of the Doges of Venice, underground two stories, damp, dark, cold and repulsive. Hopelessness and suffering were the ends sought by the builders of such prisons. Cruelty to prison- ers gave happiness to those who held them in relentless grip. Civilized nations are rising above that spirit and policy. Kind- ness bears good fruit among confined criminals, just as every- where else. Nothing has been lost by discarding the old suits of black and red stripes. A game of baseball on a Saturday after- noon with freedom to converse with one another does not make the prisoners worse. Allowing them to work on the farm or on the public highway is attended with almost no risk and is bene- ficial to health. Giving the prisoners a chance to earn some- thing for themselves and families is wise and just. The aboli- tion of the lock-step has increased self-respect and removed hatred. A band of music and an orchestra composed of pris- oners furnish medicine for minds diseased, both among the
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insane and among criminals. A library of good books is as much needed and appreciated in the institution at the north end of Concord as in that at the south end. Sunday services are observed with decorum, and the truth is listened to quite as well as in fashionable churches. Genuine repentance for sin and transformation of character sometimes are experienced by bad men shut up in prison. The ignorant are taught to read, write and cypher as far as the rule of three, and having learned also to do something useful and having received a new suit of clothes and ten dollars many go forth to a new and better life.
Formerly some were pardoned, and such is the case with a few now, but more are released on parole, put on their good behavior. The sentence is suspended and a parole officer watches the conduct of the trusted probationer and reports from time to time. The results are good. From 1906 to 1914 two hundred and sixty-eight were paroled, and only ten of them were recom- mitted. The term of parole of one hundred and ninety-three has expired, and they are again members of outside society. The New Hampshire State Prison is a very good place to keep out of. Even criminals who are allowed to stay out on parole do better than those who are obliged to remain inside for many years.
The State prison has existed for a little more than a century and 4,105 persons have been confined within its walls. The majority have been under thirty years of age. The average number in prison during recent years is about two hundred and fifty. Some are leased on contract to stone cutters; some work on public roads ; some are engaged in farming. In 1914 the re- ceipts from all sources were $66,182 and the expenditures were $44,755, leaving a balance of $21,410, which was turned into the treasury of the State. A law has been enacted, permitting the governor and council to allow to prisoners and their families some portion of the surplus earned, but the last report states that no distribution has been made and recommends an increase of the warden's salary to $2,500, with free rent, heat and light. It looks to an outsider as though the laborers might more justly and wisely receive something in the way of wages. Even crim- inals ought to be protected from anything that looks like peon- age, which may become worse than slavery. Transgression of
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law does not necessarily entail forfeiture of all rights. Justice tempered with mercy belongs to the evil doer, and when he gets what is due him and what he needs, he is more likely to become a safe and useful citizen. Reform schools have done great good to boys; why not try every possible way of reforming unfor- tunate and even wicked men ?
It is of interest to consider the previous habits of prisoners. Of the ninety-two who were admitted during the year previous to August 31, 1914, only eleven were total abstainers, forty-eight were intemperate and the rest were moderate drinkers. The State is taking care of the products of the licensed saloon. Eighty of the ninety-two were users of tobacco, a habit that tends to benumb the moral powers of the human mind, as scientists tell us, as effectually as intoxicating liquors. There are more single than married men. The majority are natives of the United States, and they come from all ranks of society and occupations. Ordinary laborers are the most numerous. There have been from sixty to ninety United States naval prisoners. The love of money, leading to theft, burglary, forgery, fraud, is the tap- root of much evil. Unbridled passion hurries others to crime. Alcoholic beverages smooth the downhill grade. Since the year 1869 no prisoner has escaped.
The chief attraction of the capital city is the capitol, or State House. The front entrance to the yard is through a massive arch of granite, erected in 1892 at a cost of twenty thousand dollars to commemorate the soldiers of Concord that took part in the Civil War. The original design of having bronze tablets affixed thereto, bearing the names of the soldiers, has not yet been put into effect. The memorial as it is reminds the beholder of great deeds, performed by men unknown. Some future generation may complete the work.
The grounds within the State House yard were put in good order in the year 1915, at an expense of about sixteen thou- sand dollars. Granolithic walks were laid around the entire lot and within the yard. The ground was newly graded and seeded with lawn grass. A heavy inside curbing of granite took the place of the old balustrade, which was erected in 1864. A visitor would first notice the statue of President Franklin Pierce, with an elaborate display of granite about it. It is of bright bronze.
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He is dressed as a civilian, yet what seems to be a military cloak is thrown over his shoulders and reaches to his feet, so that the statue as seen from the rear is shrouded in lifeless mystery. On the granite base are cut the names of the battles in which he took part in the Mexican War, and altogether too much is said about the civil offices he held. It looks like a studied effort to glorify the man. If that cloak had been left off and the statue stood further within the yard on a massive granite pedestal like the other three statues, and the inscription had been just what is on his tombstone, "Franklin Pierce, fourteenth President of the United States," only this and nothing more, it would have impressed the beholder with far more of dignity and power. Some say it is a good likeness, and some say that the statuette of Franklin Pierce in the building of the New Hampshire His- torical Society is much truer to life.
Directly in front of the State House and in the middle of the broad walk leading thereto is the statue of the great states- man, honored by all the country, Daniel Webster. It was dedi- cated June 17, 1886 and was the gift of Benjamin Pierce Cheney of Boston, a native of the Granite State. The sculptor was Thomas Ball, of Florence, Italy. On the front of the granite base in raised letters is simply the name, Daniel Webster. There was no need of saying more in this case. Not to know him argues thyself unknown. On one side of the base is a bronze tablet bearing the coat of arms of New Hampshire with the place and date of Webster's birth; on the other side is the coat of arms of Massachusetts, with the place and date of his death. On the rear is the name of the donor. Webster holds in his left hand a scroll or roll of manuscript, suggesting the Constitution he expounded and defended. At his feet are ponderous books of law. His posture is commanding, expressing dignity and strength, readiness and reserve power. The beholder can easily read into it all the good things he knows about Webster as a statesman and orator. At the dedication addresses were deliv- ered by Judge Nesmith, President Bartlett of Dartmouth Col- lege, Governor Robinson of Massachusetts, Governor Hill of New York, Governor Robie of Maine, Governor Pingree of Ver- mont, and Hon. John A. Bingham of Ohio, one of the most elo- quent speakers of his time. An original poem by William C.
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Sheppard was read, and the Handel society of Dartmouth Col- lege sang the song well known to every collegian, the ode of Horace, Integer Vitae.
The Stark monument was dedicated October 23, 1890. There was no need to recite his life upon the bronze tablets. The words BUNKER HILL and BENNINGTON are enough. This monument was erected at the expense of the State, twelve thousand dollars having been voted for that purpose. The sculptor was Carl Conrads of Hartford, Conn., and he caught the spirit of the great commander and clothed it in the military dress of generals of the American Revolution. The dedicatory address was delivered by Hon. James W. Patterson, and an original poem was read by Allan Eastman Cross of Manchester.
Mention has been made heretofore (Chapter X. of Vol. III) of the statue of Senator John P. Hale and of the part that he took in the movement for the abolition of slavery in the United States. This memorial is a worthy companion of the others in the State House yard. Stark, Webster and Hale were each in their appointed way valiant and mighty defenders of the nation. Their fame belongs not to New Hampshire alone. Let the visitor pause and read upon the Hale monument his imper- ishable words, uttered in one of the crucial moments of his life. The bronze statue was dedicated August 3, 1892. It was cast in Munich after designs of Mr. F. Von Miller, artist and direc- tor of the bronze foundry where also the statue of Webster was cast.
The present State House is the result of a century's growth. It was a comparatively small affair in 1816, but has grown in length, breadth and height by additions made in 1864 and in 1910, and each addition has added to its beauty and utility. The stately Doric and Corinthian columns were set up in 1864. The Mansard roof then added has been replaced by a third story of granite. The addition made to the western end in 1910 is more than double the size of the original capitol. The architectural style of the whole is Grecian, while the arched windows of the second floor suggest the Romanesque. The broad rear of the building is so broken up by two entrances and architectural devices as to make it pleasing to the eye of the inexpert at least. Credit is due to the architects, Peabody & Stearns, of Boston,
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who planned the memorial arch. The statue of Commodore Per- kins is, like that of President Pierce, too elaborate in its accom- paniments and there is not space enough about it. Both of those monuments some distant day will have a better setting. New Hampshire is going to have some more great men who will claim a place in the sun.
The present capitol was built primarily to accommodate the growing business of the State. Instead of hiring offices in neighboring buildings the State now owns its places of busi- ness, so grouped as to assist one another. There are departments that were never dreamed of in 1816 and even in 1864. Let the visitor enter and look around, for every citizen is welcomed to the house that belongs to him and has a right to make inquiries of his elected servants. The oaken doors admit him to the Doric hall with its tesselated pavement of black and white squares of marble. That steel ceiling was perhaps a necessity in the re- construction. Glass cases on either side invite the attention of every lover of his country, for here are the stained and tattered flags that led New Hampshire regiments to battle in the Civil War. They tell their own story better than words can do. For these emblems many have bravely and willingly given their lives. One will have to read much and think long to take in the full meaning of these battle-flags. Their value is in the mem- ories and emotions that cluster about them. Read the long lists of battles that these flags went through and learn how much it costs to be free and honorable.
Broad corridors lead around to the offices. The visitor will not care to enter the hall for the general committee, that never sees the light of day. This is the one unavoidable imperfection of the reconstruction. There is, however, artificial light and ven- tilation, and the room needs to be used only on special occasions. On the walls of the corridors hang hundreds of portraits of governors, military men, congressmen, presidents of the State senate and others whom pride and affection wish to honor. The winnowing process must go on with the accumulations of years. This picture gallery is not big enough for everybody that has held military and civil offices. The next public building of the State may be a Hall of Fame and Art Museum, devoted to por- traits, paintings and statuary. Here is an opportunity for some
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person of great wealth to outshine all others. Make it big enough so that it will not need, as the libraries do, an annex with every generation.
In the northeast corner is the office of the Commissioner of Agriculture, Arthur L. Felker. This department is the out- growth of a century. The first organized agricultural society in the State was in Rockingham county in 1814. The other counties soon followed this example, and the State made small appropriations in aid of these local societies. In 1820 a Board of Agriculture was organized under a law then enacted and a printed report was made in 1822. The county societies became inoperative and disorganized, and so the law remained a dead letter for fifty years. The New Hampshire State Agricultural Society was formed in 1850 as a private corporation and pub- lished reports till 1871, when new legislation created a Board of Agriculture under the control of the State. In 1913 a law was enacted creating a Department of Agriculture to promote agri- culture throughout the State in all its varied branches. The governor, with the approval of council, appoints a Commis- sion of Agriculture who holds office for three years with a salary of $2500. The governor and council appoint ten practical agri- culturists, one from each county, to be an advisory board, paid three dollars a day each and expenses for the time they put into their work. Farmers' Institutes are held in each county and at least one state meeting. There is co-operation with the New Hampshire College of Agriculture and Mechanic Arts. The in- stitutes teach practical farming, domestic science and art, dairy science and practice, how to raise vegetables and flowers (orch- arding, gardening, raising of poultry, care of bees, forestry, com- bating of destructive insects, animal and plant nutrition, soil testing, tillage, the philosophy of crop rotation, and kindred subjects. The commissioner prepares courses of study to be used in week institutes and elementary schools. He has direc- tion of all that was formerly done by the cattle commission, the agent for the suppression of gipsy and browntail moths, and the state board of agriculture. He co-operates with proper officials in the enforcement of laws pertaining to agriculture and dissem- inates agricultural information by biennial reports and other means approved by the governor and council. If information,
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conventions, addresses and schools can make successful farmers on rocky soil, then New Hampshire is in a fair way to keep the boys on the farm.
This department has issued several illustrated publications, advertising farms as summer residences, and it is said that abandoned farms are now scarce in New Hampshire. The move- ment was started by the observance of Old Home Week, first suggested and urged by Governor Rollins. Others besides na- tives have learned to appreciate the beautiful scenery and health- ful air of the New Hampshire hills and mountains. Summer visitors stimulate farming and gardening to some extent. Dairy farms seem to be on the increase, and twenty-one creameries exist in the State, while established milk routes along lines of railroad show how milk is conveyed to the Boston market even from the northern part of the State.
The New Hampshire Department of the Grand Army of the Republic has its office next to that of Agriculture. It is not properly a State office, but the Commander is given certain duties to perform for the State, in addition to his work as the head of the Grand Army of the Republic in this State.
The next office is that of the Editor of State Papers, who has been since 1913 Henry H. Metcalf. He has spent most of his life in journalism and is now editor and proprietor of the Granite Monthly. The duties of his office are to edit the publi- cations of the State. The most recent work is the printing in four volumes of the laws of the Province and of the State down to the year 1792.
The Bureau of Labor was established in the year 1913, thereby abolishing the office of commissioner of labor and put- ting his duties and others added upon the shoulders of a labor commissioner, appointed by the governor and council for three years at a salary of $1600 per annum. A part of his duty is to visit without notice the manufacturing, mechanical and mercan- tile establishments of the State, to learn if the laws pertaining to the employment of help are complied with and if reasonable sanitary and hygienic conditions are maintained. He is the appointed guardian and agent of the workingman, to see that he is protected, not worked too hard, nor too many hours, nor with insufficient remuneration. Any cases of abuse or evasion of law
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he may report to the legislature or may prosecute any offender. His endeavor is to reconcile differences between employer and employees, and if this can not be done, then he urges parties to refer their troubles to a board of conciliation and arbitration, consisting of three persons, whose decision is final. The report for 1915 mentions two cases that have been settled by the board. This is not compulsory arbitration and it is employed only when both parties consent to it in writing. The number of industrial accidents where claims for compensation have to be adjusted is eighteen fatal and 1405 non-fatal during the four years, 1912-16. This was the number reported to the Bureau of Labor. En- deavor has been made to ascertain the number of the unem- ployed, and the result shows that about twelve per cent. of workmen were without work some portion of the year through accidents, sickness, old age, lack of work or material, and un- favorable weather. Strikes and lockouts have not figured of late. This Bureau does an immense amount of correspondence, and all its work is classified and properly arranged, so that any desired information can be produced instantly. The total an- nual cost of the Bureau is only $3,671, which is $978 less than the appropriation.
The office of the Tax Commission should not be avoided by the visitor, for no tax bill will be presented. This commission was created by a law enacted in 1911. The commission consists of three persons appointed by the supreme court and commis- sioned by the governor, to hold office six years. The secretary of the commission has a salary of three thousand dollars and the other two have twenty-five hundred dollars each annually. Their duties are "to assess the taxes upon railroad, railway, telegraph, telephone, express and dining, sleeping and parlor car corporations or companies," or corporations owning cars oper- ated for profit in this State. It is also their duty "to exercise general supervision over the administration of the assessment and taxation laws of the State and over all assessing officers in the performance of their duties, to the end that all assessments on property be made in compliance with the laws of the State." Their report for the year 1915 is a very able one and deserves study. To interpret and apply the tax laws is no easy task; to do so in a manner to satisfy all is impossible. There always
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has been studied evasion of taxes, and there always will be till the law is made such that it can not be evaded. The single tax, or the tax on land alone, is not mentioned in their report, yet single tax leagues are multiplying in the cities of this country and of Europe. The tax on land alone has been put into effect in many cities and towns of western Canada and British Colum- bia. It has been adopted with slight modification in Houston, Texas, and has been under public discussion and voted upon in Seattle and in Missouri. The arguments therefor have great weight with many philosophic thinkers and jurists.4 It would certainly simplify and perhaps render unnecessary the work of the Tax Commission. It now costs too much to assess taxes and to collect them, and the present system does not result in an equitable distribution of public burdens. The report says that "A very large amount of evidence was presented to the commission to prove undervaluation of nearly every class of taxable property in the State. Its collection consumed a long time and large sums of money." "Sworn returns of corporations to the secretary of state bore little resemblance to their corporate worth as determined by assessors." The commissioners found that property as a whole in the State was assessed at sixty-one per cent. of its true value. The law requires that every property owner should deliver to the assessors annually a true and com- plete list of all his taxable property, yet only 14,000 inventory blanks were filled out, although there are 122,000 who pay a poll tax. Property is concealed from taxation, notwithstanding the penalty is that it shall be assessed four times as much, when discovered, as such property would be taxed if truly inventoried. The single taxers assert that when it comes to declaration of taxable property the Psalmist made no mistake, when he said that all men are liars, although he said it in haste. After slow and careful reflection he might repeat it with emphasis. This leads many to think there must be something wrong with the system. Each State has its special laws, not based on natural rights, but on expediency. Many kinds of property taxable in other States are exempt here. It looks reasonable that the law
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