It has also given me sincere satisfaction, since assuming the duties of
the Executive office, to approve a number of measures which mark a
decided reform in the conduct of State affairs and the administration of
justice. Some of these I deem it proper to briefly mention.
_First_—A Bureau of Labor and Industrial Statistics has been
established, charged with the duty of collecting information relating to
the commercial, industrial, social, educational and sanitary condition
of the laboring classes, with a view of furnishing suggestions and facts
for the guidance of the Legislature.
_Second_—An Industrial Reformatory has been established, for the
confinement, instruction and reformation of the large class of lads and
young men whose wrong-doing was the result of bad surroundings or
intoxication rather than of a naturally criminal or vicious disposition.
Not one-half of the prisoners in our penitentiary belong naturally to
the criminal classes, and more than one-half of them are under 25 years
of age. Hundreds of these can, by a course of judicious instruction and
discipline, be reformed and reclaimed, and the new Industrial
Reformatory marks a decided advance in the method of dealing with
law-breakers who are not hardened criminals.
_Third_—A Home for the Orphan Children of loyal soldiers has been
established, and will in a few months be completed. The beneficence of
the State could find no better field for the exercise of its generous
impulses than will be afforded by the establishment of this home for the
care and education of the orphan children of those who periled their own
lives that the country might live.
_Fourth_—The laws of Kansas now provide legal machinery for the
arbitration of differences between employers and their employés. This
law is not, perhaps, perfect, but it is a movement in the right
direction, and I am satisfied that it will in time demonstrate its
usefulness.
_Fifth_—Twelve new counties have been fully organized during the past
twenty months, and seven of these were organized under the law recently
passed, requiring a population of 2,500 and property assessed at
$150,000 as a prerequisite to organization.
_Sixth_—Laws have been enacted providing that preference in public
employment and appointments shall be given to honorably-discharged Union
soldiers, and for the burial of Union soldiers at the public expense.