Charities and Corrections.—The tendency of modern government is to concentrate power and responsibility into fewer hands. Prior to 1873 each of the Kansas benevolent institutions had its own board of trustees, but by the act of March 13, 1873, the blind, deaf and dumb and insane asylums were all placed under the control of one board of six trustees. The legislature of 1876 created a "State Board of Charities and Corrections," to consist of five persons to be appointed by the governor, and placed under the control of this board the same institutions as were formerly controlled by the act of 1873.

The first board of charities and corrections, appointed by Gov. Osborn in 1876, consisted of John T. Lanter, J. P. Bauserman, W. B. Slosson, John H. Smith and Thomas T. Taylor, any three of whom were to constitute a quorum for the transaction of business.

By the act of Feb. 27, 1901, the state insane hospitals, the feeble minded school, the asylum of the deaf and dumb, the school for the blind, the soldiers' orphans home and the girls' and boys' industrial schools were placed under the control of the board, which in 1905 was superseded by the Board of Control (q. v.).