tied up the collection of the taxes for an indefinite period, and the general revenue fund of the State would have been inadequate to meet the levy of the General Assembly in the way of appropriations upon that fund. The compromise compelled the railroads to pay taxes upon an assessment far in excess of that of previous years and took the matter out of the Federal courts. In two years the total assessments upon the railroads in this State have been increased from $44,065,766 to $48,729,919, being due to increase in assessments and increased mileage since the compromise was ratified by the board. The total railroad assessment in 1900-six years ago -was $21,878,817. It is now $48,729,919, which gives an increase of $27,000,000 on the values of the railroad property. No man can now say the railroads are not paying a fair proportion of the taxes of the State, nor that the assessment board has been negligent of the duties imposed upon it to honestly and impartially assess railroad property.

The Act requiring the board to assess private cars is not drawn with that clearness as to the duties of the board that it should be. Under the first assessment made the companies instituted injunction proceedings and the collection of taxes was held up until a compromise could be effected by the Attorney General. The board did the best it could with the lights before it in construing the Act, and its method of arriving at the assessment was approved by the chancellor of Pulaski county. In my opinion the Legislature should pass an Act requiring the board to make an assessment upon each car owned by private companies, and used in this State, fixing a minimum valuation, and then let the companies pay the taxes into the State treasury in bulk, to the use of the general revenue fund, if it is possible under the Constitution for this to be done. Some companies operate only a few cars in this State through the year, and when the assessment is apportioned to the various counties along the lines of the roads traversed, the taxes for each county frequently run from one cent to thirty cents, except with the companies that do a large business in this State. It will be seen that the work entailed upon this department in certifying out the assessment, and the cost of collection of the taxes, is greater in many instances than the revenues accruing therefrom. It is right and just that these properties should be taxed, but the assessment and collection of the taxes should be simplified. They have escaped taaxtion so long they now feel in some

instances they should be forever exempt, but the burden of sustaining the State government should rest with equal force upon all corporations as it does upon the private citizen. A bill can be drawn that will cover the situation in the manner suggested and from which injunction proceedings cannot shield them for any considerable time.

STATE PENITENTIARY.

The management of the penitentiary and the leasing of convicts has played its part in the political history of the State for several years. During the last campaign it figured conspicuously, and the chief objection raised is because our convicts are leased to private citizens for a term of years at a stated price per head, and from their labor the lessee derives a profit. It will be remembered that two years ago the Secretary of State in his biennial report recommended that the penitentiary buildings be removed to the State farm in Lincoln county and all the convicts removed thereto as rapidly as the then existing contracts expired. The general health of the convicts is better on the State farm than it is in the various camps and the expense of maintenance would be less per capita. The farm should be tested to its fullest capacity, or it should be abandoned and sold. Statistics can be furnished to any reasonable person, demonstrating that the farm, if properly cultivated, can be made to support all the convicts of the State and yield a surplus in addition under reasonably favorable conditions. The report of the superintendent of the penitentiary will convey to the public all information necessary to show what has been done by the management during the last two years. As a member of the penitentiary board the Secretary of State has voted for such officers as he felt would do their duty by the State and the convicts. and has imposed upon them, so far as he is concerned, the responsibility due to such management, without in the least seeking to shirk his own responsibility in the conduct of the same. The board entered upon its duties confronted by debts and one money-losing contract. It had no appropriation upon which to exist for even one day. The record shows that it has sufficient money in the State treasury to meet every obligation and many thousands of dollars surplus, which can be used to pay the balance of the purchase price of the farm, and the interest due thereon, should the Legislature appro

priate the money for that purpose. As to the taking the management of the penitentiary from the hands of the board and placing it in other hands, it is in the power of the General Assembly to pursue such course after full and fair investigation if it so decides, and no member of the board will object. If a board can be selected that will be forever free from criticism from either friends or enemies, then it would be good policy to effect a change at once. The Legislature is capable of fairly and dispassionately considering this grave proposition, and will meet the demands of the people of Arkansas upon all questions without the aid of outside influences to guide them. The submission of the views of a State officer are always the opinion of one who has had some practical contact with the affairs of which he treats, and cannot be meant to influence the opinion of those who have the making of the laws for the government of such officers in the performance of their duties.

STATE REFORM SCHOOL.

The last General Assembly passed an Act carrying an appropriation of $30,000 for the purpose of building a State Reform School. There were a number of towns competing for the location of the school, and each of them offered a body of land for the site of the same. The members of the board visited the various towns, among them Atkins, Van Buren, Pine Bluff and Little Rock, inspected the property offered for the site of the school, and viewed the environments of the same. Finally the offer of two hundred acres in the western suburbs of Little Rock, which was tendered by the Business Men's League of Little Rock, was accepted, and a contract let for the building, after plans had been submitted by Architect Frank W. Gibb. The work is now under way and the building will be completed during the present session of the Legislature. There are many applications for the position of superintendent of the school, but the election of officers has been deferred until the building is completed and equipped.

SUPREME COURT REPORTS.

Two years ago the Secretary of State recommended an appropriation to be used in reprinting the exhausted editions of the State Supreme Court Reports. Acting upon the sug