The resolution was adopted. Senator Sheldon offered Senate concurrent resolution No. 1, and moved its adoption. The resolution was read, and is as follows: Resolved by the Senate, the House concurring therein, That a committee of three members of the House and two from the Senate be appointed to wait upon the governor and inform him that the two houses of the legislature are duly organized and ready to receive any communication which he may have to make. The resolution was adopted. Senator Forney offered Senate resolution No. 14, and moved its adoption. The resolution was read, and is as follows: WHEREAS, The honorable members of the Senate extended the courtesy to the old members of the Senate the privilege of selecting their seats before the drawing commenced: therefore, be it Resolved, That we, the members of 1893 and 1895, hereby extend our thanks for said courtesy. (Signed) A. G. Forney, Anson Cooke, Jason Helmick, John Armstrong, C. F. Johnson, H. G. Jumper, L. P. King, M. A. Householder, W. B. Helm, W. E. Sterne. Unanimous consent was given the above members to place the resolution on the Journal. Officers and employees were sworn in, as follows: Solon Gray took and subscribed to the oath of office as sergeant-at-arms. W. P. Webb was sworn in as postmaster of the Senate, and L. C. Wooster as assistant postmaster of the Senate. The other officers and employees of the Senate then came forward, and took and subscribed to the oath of office as prescribed by law: F. J. Fritch, assistant secretary. Frank R. Forest, first assistant sergeant-at-arms. D. M. Ferguson, reading clerk. Rev. W. K. Loofbourrow, chaplain. R. R. Beam, docket clerk. L. Shamleffer, assistant docket clerk. S. E. Robertson, journal clerk. W. H. Stewart, first assistant journal clerk. Lincoln Porter, second assistant journal clerk. T. H. Gallagher, first assistant doorkeeper. Dave Oliphant, second assistant doorkeeper. N. B. Crawford, fourth assistant doorkeeper. Miss Lillian Lemon, assistant document clerk. S. B. Fulton, night watch. F. P. Strickland, jr., Carl Henderson, Russel Helm, Willie Reynolds, and Harry Arnold, as pages. Chas. Ernst and Percy Daniels, jr., guards to cloak room. H. H. Bolson, James Cotter, John Holcomb, James Mitchell, and Peter Rucker, janitors. A. A. George, stenographer for the Senate at large. Senator Ryan moved that the Senate adjourn till 9 o'clock, January 13. Senator King moved, as a substitute, that Senate adjourn till 2:30 P. M., January 12. The substitute carried. Senate adjourned till 2:30 P. M., January 12. AFTERNOON SESSION. SENATE CHAMBER, Topeka, Kas., January 12, 1897-2:30 o'clock P. M. The Senate met pursuant to adjournment; the president in the chair. The roll was called; 38 members present, being a quorum of the Senate. Absent: Senators Coleman and Lupfer. The president announced the Committee on Rules as follows: Senators Field, Householder. King, Lamb, and Sterne. A recess was taken until 3:30 P. M. Senate called to order. The sergeant-at-arms announced a 3:30 o'clock P. M. MESSAGE FROM THE HOUSE. MR. PRESIDENT: I am directed by the House to inform the Senate that the House of Representatives has organized by the election of W. D. Street, speaker, E. C. Weilep, speaker pro tem., A. D. Gilpin, chief clerk, L. McKenzie, assistant chief clerk, J. M. Duns more, sergeant-at-arms, and is ready to receive any communication from the Senate. I am also directed by the House to inform the Senate that the House has passed House resolution No. 1. The resolution is herewith transmitted. A. D. GILPIN, Chief Clerk. House concurrent resolution No. 1 was read, and is as follows: Resolved by the House of Representatives of the State of Kansas, the Senate concurring therein, That a committee of three on the part of the House and two on the part of the Senate be appointed by the presiding officers of their respective bodies, whose duty it shall be to at once call upon his excellency, the governor, and notify him that the legislature of the state of Kansas is now fully organized and ready for business, and that they are now ready to receive any communication he may see fit to submit to the Legislature. Senator King moved that the Senate concur in House concurrent resolution No. 1, and the motion was adopted. The president appointed as Senate members of the committee Senators Harris and Hessin. Senator Harris, from the joint committee to wait upon the governor, reported as follows: MR. PRESIDENT: Your committee appointed under House concurrent resolution No. 1 beg leave to report that, with Representatives Jackson, Simmons, and Smith, committee on the part of the House, they have waited upon the governor, and he desires your committee to present his respects to their respective bodies, and to say that he will communicate to them his recommendations in writing at the hour of 4 o'clock P. M. W. A. HARRIS, JOHN E. HESSIN, Committee on the part of the Senate. The sergeant-at-arms announced the governor's private secretary, with a message from the governor. Senator King moved that the message of the governor be now read, which motion prevailed. GOVERNOR LEEDY'S MESSAGE. To the Legislature: With profound regret for the misfortunes of our more pretentious sisters of the east, I congratulate the state of Kansas upon the many simple blessings that have fallen to us in these adverse times. While those who clamor for alms in the streets of the crowded cities are many, those who seek assistance from our ready public bounty are few. While the failure of great commercial institutions brings sad calamity to the chief capitals where fortunes accumulate, the less imposing, but quite useful, depositories of Kan sas savings are giving gratifying evidences of stability. While, according to the press of the nation's most populous metropolis, her children linger in the streets untaught, except in the lore of the pavement; unfed, except at the hand of charity; unhoused, except in the kennels they dispute with creatures scarcely less miserable, the commonwealth of Kansas, rejoicing in a public-school system which is the most grateful heritage we receive from our fathers, and the best legacy we can leave to our children, finds ample house room and school room for every Kansas child and for such straggling waifs as come to us from where penury and parsimony stalk side by side. There are no tramps in Kansas, except those birds of paasage who flit by us, grim reminders of the conditions in older communities. With a cheerful audacity that almost challenges admiration, Grub street scribblers on a venal press, which panders to the most vicious instincts of semi-civilized foreign colonies like New York city and Chicago, with semi-barbaric squalor at the apex and semi-barbaric squalor at the base of their social life, have offered their puny and presumptious criticism of those whose shoestrings they are not worthy to unloose. The dogs of Egypt have barked at the pyramids unanswered for 50 centuries. Let Grub street rail on. When the accused Doge stood before the Venetian council, he said: "My defense is your accusation." They well know that Kansas was a pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night before an oppressed people in the nation's darkest hour. We shall keep those fires alight in our camps and that smoke ascending from our hilltops till this is indeed a government of the people, and for the people, and by the people. For "She failed you not in the early day, and she failed you not in the late, Nor forget you how the balance was poised on our youngest state, And how with the fate of Kansas was linked the nation's fate." Financial Condition. In a full and exhaustive report the state treasurer sets forth our financial condition, which shows that at the beginning of the fiscal year, July 1, 1894, there were $842,326.23 on hand, and that the receipts during the fiscal years ending June 30, 1895, and 1896, were $4,898,092.83, making a total of $5,740,419.06. The disbursements for the two years named above were $5,135,889.96, leaving a balance in the treasury June 30, 1896, of $604,529.10. The report for the year ending December 31, 1896, shows that the balance on hand was $363,338.38, and that the permanent school fund amounts to $7,016,993.10. January 1, 1895, our state bonded indebtedness was $788,500. On March 15, 1895, $36,500 was paid, and on July 1, 1896, $70,000, which leaves at present a bonded indebtedness $682,000. Of these bonds, $449,000 are owned by the permanent school fund, $9,000 by the permanent university fund, and the balance, $224,000, by individuals and corporations. On July 1, 1897, and July 1, 1898, $420,000 in 7 per-cent. bonds become due. The state treasurer in his report recommands that the whole amount be refunded in 4-per-cent. bonds, and sold to the permanent school fund. The suggestion meets my approval, for the reason that any increase of our state levy at this time to meet these bonds would work a hardship on our taxpayers, and the further fact that, in these days when many unsafe and questionable bonds are being hawked around, an investment of this kind will protect this fund that has been set aside for the educational purposes of the state. Charitable Institutions. No class of people should receive the pity of their fellowman more than the inmates of our charitable institutions. Many of them have been reared in luxury. Some of them are waifs of the streets and the harvest of our present economic conditions; yet all of them are human, and born in the likeness of their Maker. Their care and comfort are a sacred duty imposed upon us by humanity and all the better elements of our nature. Some of these institutions are filled with those to whom the sunlight of noonday and the darkness of midnight are the same. Others are unable to enjoy conversation with their fellow-beings, and nothing takes the place of the senses which are most gratifying to humanity. Some of them, bereft of reason, struggle through hallucinations against imaginary evils. Some are born into the world bereft of reason or sense, and are thrown upon our pity and charity from the beginning. I consider it one of the most essential duties of the executive and coordinate branches of the government to see that the best treatment be accorded them; that those who care for them should be kind, attentive, and take an interest in their work; that their food should be clean, wholesome, and plentiful: that the sanitary conditions of the buildings where they are confined are conducive to their health; that the professional duties be administered by as good talent as the state possesses: in short, that the gravest duty we have to discharge is in the care of those who are unable to care for themselves and are placed in the institutions of our state as wards of the state. A visting board for all the charitable, educational and penal institutions of the state, with power to come and go, and report abuses to the governor, would be a good thing. Several states have adopted this system of the supervision of the different institutions, in order to guard against the treatment often accorded inmates by the negligence of the officials in charge. I would be pleased to cooperate with you along these lines, in order to more fully protect our unfortunates than under the present law, where the board of charities goes on a specified date to visit these institutions, and has no chance to obtain knowledge as to the exact condition of the inmates when not present and the treatment accorded them by the employees of the institution. |