REPORT.

To the Twentieth General Assembly of the State of Iowa:

Your joint committee, charged with the duty of visiting and inquiring into the management of the Iowa Soldiers' Orphan's Home and Home for Indigent Children, at Davenport, Iowa, beg leave to report, that they have performed their duty in accordance with the concurrent resolution of the Senate and House of Representatives.

Your committee would report that they visited the above named Institution on the 6th day of February, 1884, and proceeded to the duties assigned them.

Your committee was charged with the following duties: To examine and include in their report:

"First. Whether the appropriations made by the last General Assembly have been wisely and economically expended.

"Second. Whether they have been expended for the object appropriated.

"Third. Whether chapter 67 of the acts of the Seventeenth General Assembly have been complied with in not contracting indebtedness in excess of the appropriations.

"Fourth. Whether there has been any diversion of the money from the specific purpose for which it was drawn from the State treasury.

"Said committee shall also report the names and number of persons employed at the Institution; for what purpose employed and at what salary; also whether any of the employed receive or have received anything in addition to the salary in the way of board, rooms, lights, fuel or clothing, or anything else at the expense of the State.

"Said committee shall also examine and report as to the sufficiency of the means of fire escape in case of fire, and also as to the protection against fire.

Number.

"And said committee is hereby authorized and requested to present other and further report than herein mentioned which it may deem necessary to be made known to the Assembly."

We find that the appropriations made by the Nineteenth General Assembly have been wisely and economically expended, and that they have been expended for the objects for which they were intended; and that chapter 67, acts of the Seventeenth General Assembly, has been complied with in not contracting indebtedness in excess of the appropriations; and that no funds have been diverted from the specific purpose for which they were drawn from the State treasury.

The following table shows the names of all persons employed, the kind of service they severally perform, and the price paid each per month. All of these persons have their board, fuel, lights and washing at the expense of the State.

NAME.

DUTY.

Salary per

month.

The means of escape in case of fire are ample, and as protection against fire the Institution is provided with the following appliances, viz: Six Whitman fountain pumps; two Babcock fire extinguishers;

six Bean force pumps; two hundred feet of rubber hose; two hydrants attached to water supply pipe leading from tank in attic of dining hall building.

We inspected the cottages, twelve in number, two of which are occupied at present as rooms for guests and sleeping rooms for the teachers. They are plain, substantial, brick structures, 31x51, one and one half stories high, each containing a sitting room 18x18, a sleeping room 20x80 for the children, a sleeping room 10x12 for the lady in charge of the cottage, together with bath room and sundry closets. The rooms were in perfect order, and the children were all provided with good, comfortable beds. The schools are graded and presided over by three competent teachers. All children, six years old and upward, attend school.

An inspection of the laundry, bakery, pantry, storeroom and dining hall show the same admirable management that pervades the whole Institution.

The children are provided with plenty of wnolesome food, are plainly but comfortably clad and appear to be contented and happy.

Owing to want of room, the hospital has to be used, in part, as a residence for the Superintendent and family. At present there are no patients in the hospital, but should an epidemic occur, the whole building might be needed for hospital purposes.

The old barracks, used as a stable for the horses and cattle belonging to the Institution, are about ready to tumble down, and should be replaced by a barn of sufficient capacity to shelter the stock and afford storage for hay and grain.

There are forty acres of land belonging to the Home; about fifteen acres are used for buildings, lawns and play grounds, twenty acres for pasture, leaving about five acres for cultivation.

The Trustees ask for an appropriation of $3,000, to buy eighteen and one-half acres of land adjoining, which is offered at a reasonable price. It can be readily seen that more land is needed to furnish em ployment for the boys, and to make the Institution more nearly selfsustaining. There are at present two hundred and forty children in the Home, one hundred and sixteen girls and one hundred and twentyfour boys.

The Trustees ask for the following special appropriations:

Extension of dining-hall and central building.

.$ 35,000.00

7,000.00

6,000.00

3,000.00

2,500.00

1,000.00

2,500.00

4,000.00

1,500.00

250.00

$ 62.750.00

Your committee, believing that the best possibilities of the Institution cannot be realized with the present accommodations, cheerfully recommend the appropriations asked for by the Trustees, and would especially call your attention to their request for steam heating and water supply, in the interest of economy and safety; also in regard to sewerage, in the interest of the good health of the inmates of the Institution.

We would respectfully call your attention to the fact that the Institution has cost the State, up to the present time, for buildings and land, less than thirty-six thousand dollars, and when we consider the good results that have accrued to the State and society, you can readily see that the State never made a better investment.

It is also the opinion of your committee that at some time in the near future, an Industrial School, where the children could be taught some useful trade should be established in connection with this Institution.

In conclusion we take great pleasure in commending the management of the Superintendent, S. W. Pierce, and his worthy lady, the Matron of the Home, which they have, with the held of their competent assistants, made a Home in fact as well as in name, for the little children placed in their care.

The Institution has been very fortunate in securing the services of so eminent a physician and surgeon as Dr. W. F. Peck, and so able