POLITICS IN PUBLIC INSTITUTIONS 219
INDIANA.
Professor Frank A. Fetter gives a summary of the course of legis- lation governing administration :
Almost every possible method of appointment of boards of trustees and directors seems to have been tried. It is probable, almost certain, that political management was the unquestioned rule from the beginning until little more than a decade ago. We surmise, therefore, that many of the changes of directing boards were caused by the desire to get the control of the patronage away from the other party. But the power would be again vested in the governor when he was politically in accord with the legisla- ture.
The first board of managers of the state prison was elected by the legislature in 182 1. In 1824, however, the governor was given the power to appoint or select the managing officers of the prison, there being no board of control ; this policy continuing for eighteen years. From 1842 to 1855 the warden or superintendent was elected on joint ballot of general assembly. From 1855 to 1893 the board of directors appears to have been elected by joint ballot of the general assembly, and it appointed the superintendent and determined the political complexion of the stafif. In 1893 the appoint- ment of this board was vested in the governor. In 1895 a special election board, consisting of the leading state officers, was given the power of selecting the board. In 1897 the appomtment of the managers of the new reformatory (old prison south) and of the state prison (old prison north) was given to the governor, and it was made the duty of these boards to manage the prisons without regard to politics. The former board is now equally divided as to political views ; the latter is all of the party of the governor.
The woman's prison has never been politically managed. An effort was made to drag it into politics in the early days, we are informed, but this was unsuccessful. Since 1877 it has been managed entirely by women, and it is their pride that efficiency and character are the only tests for service there.
In the institutions for the blind, deaf, and insane, respectively, it was successively provided between 1844 and 1853 that trustees should be annually elected by the legislature by ballot, appointed by the governor alone, by the governor with the consent of the senate, by the legislature first, but vacancies as they occur to be filled by the governor, and finally by a viva voce vote of the legislature. It is impossible without further evidence to detect any rea- son or regularity in these changes. In 1853 trustees of the three institutions were made elective by joint ballot of the general assembly. The number of he members of the board changed, but the method of selection remained the same for twenty-six years. In 1879 the appointing power was given to the governor, the consent of the senate being necessary. The two branches of government were then politically in accord. In 1883 the appointing power was reclaimed by the assembly, the bill being passed over the veto of the
