The Placer herald., 1874-05-16
FACTS CROWDING TO LIGHT.

compete ConLTol vi tiic WoTkHlS HachhicI y
of the government Of Placer county. The
Court House has been run by Republican
ring; the Board of Supervisors have been
Republicans, and they have appointed Re-
publicans to ,un everything else. They have
been greatly averse TO the bidding system,
for fear some party not member of the
ring would get place or contract, and thus
not only break into their fat speculations,
but disturb the secrecy of their workings
On two occasions the HERALD succeeded, by
continual pounding, to force them into call
ing for bids. In each case it turned ont
that their favorites were the highest bidders,
but it so happened that in each case the
highest bidder got the contract. Their mot
TO was "the ring must not be broken" and
fearing the consequences, they have clung
TO this motto as man clngs to life. The
election of an Independent Board of Super
visors threatened their destruction. But
every deep-laid scheme conceivable since
the election of that Board has been resortcd
to to retain the advantage, and, we are sor-
ry to say, they have in great measure
been successful They have had complete
control of the Hospital and have struggled
as men only struggle with the wave that
threatens to engulf them, to retain it. Why
should they struggle SO to retain Smith as
Steward =? and losing him, why should Du
Bois remain as County Physician at salary
equal to two or three hundred dollars less
Than nothing These are mysterious ques-
tions, and might have remained mysteries
had not recent developments thrown suffi
cient light on them to enable us, with a
great degree of certainty, TO surmise their
answers. 1t now seems the Hospital has
not been managed altogether as it shoul
have been. They feared if they lost even
Smith their mismanagement would come to
light. If they lost both Smith and Du-
Bois, they knew it would. Smith was lost
"a few d Us passed without any disclos
ures. Their hopes frightened. "Ii we can
retain even Dubois we may escape the dan
ger, and Dubois must be retained at all
hazards" and they did retain him at sala,
ry Of $3.50, when medicines alone will cost
we should Judge, at least $500. This leads
people to say, "there must be something in
this Hospital management more than ap
ears on the surface, or they never would
have given doctors services for one year
md $3.50 in cash for the sake of retaining
it," Spite, we thought, and might have
continued to think, vas at the bottom of it
all, had the Grand Jury not made some dis.
closures last week that dspels the deusve
idea, and cites lis to cause much more
probah,e-not Grand Jury, but some Of its
members, we should have said, for the jury
as whole, in their official report, make &c
disclosures. further than to say some p,rts
If the Hospital they found in satsfactor,
condition. How the other parts were the,
do not say. We wish the Grand Jury hat
< he to the bottom of these things, that W,
might have known all; but they did not
and therefore we only have the information
fom individual members. But they are re-
liable men, and assured lis they would be
responsible for saying that "n their candid
judgment from the facts that were brough
to light, the management of lie Hospta
was rotten to the core" Another party, {
man who has been an inmate for years, as
serts the same thing. These are what me-,
have asserted without proof, and whether
there is any probability of their being true
or not can be judged from the fact that Il {
Grand Jury actually did have Smith ar
raigned before it, and compelled him to re.
turn money which he had short time be-
fore be left taken from one of the patients
and which on leaving he had neither giver
back to the patient nor made any return O
to the county. And also that when the
newl y-elected Steward took charge, he
found one man lying in his filth, and it wal
either the same or another man-we are no
sure whicl-that was so lousy his hair haC
to be shaven off to cure him, and sore
were eaten in his body by the vermn. Why
the Grand Jury did not make a thorough
Investigation at once, we do not know, bu
how the next jury can evade doing so in the
light of these statements, without violating
their sworn duty, we do not know Let u
have the exact facts. IF DR.. Dubois mad
such d sperate fight for the position o
County Physician, regardless of price, 70
the sake of keeping the'e things covered
up, the people ought to know it. If he die
not, it is only iustic, to him that the peop
should know he did not. These thing