Several of the recommendations thus made were favorably acted on by the Legislature, and bills to carry all these suggestions into practical effect were introduced. Experience in the duties of the Executive office, and a closer observation of the practical workings of our laws and institutions, and of the needs of the people, have only confirmed and strengthened the opinions I expressed touching all these questions. And if I am reëlected, I shall regard it as a solemn duty to again urge favorable legislative action upon all the interests and subjects I have thus enumerated and discussed. Every recommendation made in either message was, I believe, practical and just, and I am convinced that affirmative action by the Legislature, touching one and all of these questions, would not only promote the best interests of the people, but be earnestly approved by them.
LAWS ENACTED IN 1885 AND 1886.
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.