Worcester daily spy. [volume] (Worcester [Mass.]) 1850-1888, 1871-09-14
Rufler and RntIcrism.

Butler and Rntlerism.
In report of Gen. Buffers speech delivered
in Marlboro, Tuesday night, appears the follow
ing passage, which we commend to the atten-
ton of those who respect the truth, and desire
TO see for themselves how Gen. Butler deals
with it:
81 said the other day that there were only
thirty-hve insane people in the Worcester hos.
pital, and that moment Worcester paper, (be
cause they want the institution kept up there
you know, for it makes business good, came
out and said: Gen. Butler don't tell the truth.
He said there were but thirty-fivc insane there:
Now we say the average is greater than that.
Wei, never said anything about the average.
And the general proceeded to elucidate his point
by telling about those defunct pauperites once
more. The state had only thrty.tive insane ut
the Worcester hospital, and they paid s24, GOO IN
salaries to the officials, besides their living.
Why, the state could have done a great deal
better to have boarded them at the Revere house
and given them Il bottle of wine each day Tor
dinner and guess they would have been sane
enough 10 have stayed there. tApplause.C
He repeats his original statement, knowing it
TO be false 1t is impossible to find an excuse
for him, this time, by suggesting mistake or ig-
norance of the facts He knows as certainly as
he knows anything that what he says Of the
cost of keeping lunatic state paupers at the
Worcester lunatic hospital, is most ineXcusa-
bic and outrageous falsehood In fact, it is a
rank cluster of falsehoods Let us look again
at two or three of them.
1. The first appears in his refusal to take the
average number of state patients for the year,
and his persistent repetition of the assertion
that the number was only thirty.fve He was
talking of the cost for year, and he deliber-
al tbo
never said anything about the average" he
says. OF course he didn't for this would have
exposed his falsehood, namely, that the number
supported during the year was only thirty-five.
3. The second comes out brazenly in the as
sertion that the state paid $4,000 to this hos
pital, for salarIes besides another sum for their
Giving stated in his first speech as $4,000; the
fact being that the state appropriation for this
hospital was only $3.50, and that the whole
cost to the state for ifty-two lunatic paupers
was only s534s. There was no charge to the
state for anything else, and the balance in the
treasury, unused, was several hundred dollars
more than the whole amount of the appropria-
ton. When Gen. Butler asserts that the state
paid $4,000 or S24, 900, or any other sum ex-
cec3ing S5S4S.26, on account of any expenses |
whatever, incurred at the Worcester hospital |
for lunatics, he states what lie well knows to be |
false The facts and figures are all given in |
"Pubic Document, No. H."
8. Falsehood appears in his comments on
what we said of his false statement. He care
fully hides the fact, that, in replying to it, we
spoke by authority of official documents. We
appealed to the official facts and figures against
his Justification; but this is not allowed to APP
pear in his speeches. On the contrary, he de-
Eherately represents that there is nothing more
than our assertion against his AT Marlboro,
he transformed the language Of our criticism
and made ii read as follows: "Gen. Butler
don't tell the truth. He said there were but |
thirty-fve insane there. Now we say the av- |
erage was greater" 1t was not eve" who said |
this and the other troublesome things against |
his msstatements; it is said by the public docu-
ments to which We appealed. His contro- |
versy is with these documents, with the actual
facts and figures, which convict him of false
hood. He does not venture to face these.
We hold him to the actual facts and figures
in this case, because all he says Of the institu-
tions, expenses, and finances of the state, is of
the same character. 1t is, in its SPIRIT in its
purpose, and in its method, well in its facts
and figures, tissue of similar falsehoods, from
beginning TO end. One naturally hesitates, at
first, to believe candidate for governor capable
of going about the state to distribute in
speeches a series OF statements about our state
affairs, so scandalOusly false and so easily ex-
posed. We believed he was INSCRIPTIONS, but
did not suppose he could be so brazenly I'M
scrupulOus as this. We now look over
his statement concerning the Worcester hospi
tai, and find ourselves unwilling to believe that
he, being a candidate for governor, has actually
in public speeches made and repeated this state
ment, and many others like it. He has done it,
however, without scruple, hoping only that his
falsehoods, in most cases, will escape exposure
until after the caucuses are held. We can not
regard such man as fit for the oficeof govern
or Of Massachusetts,. His success in this can
vass would be disaster to the commonwealth,
for il would be the result of immoral methods
in politics, inscriptions dealing with public in
terests for effect on caucuses, and astonishing
falsifcations contrived TO catch the ignorant and
unwary. We can not believe such resalt pos
sible in Massachusetts.
N n1