The Portland daily press., 1874-09-09
Altering Figures.

The Maine Stdnddrd,a journal the Senuln-
ess of whose Democracy is perennial, in cap
itals and full face type paiades before the
public the figures of ten items of state expen-
diture in 1854 as compared with the sums de-
voted to the same purpose in 1873. We have
not at hand the means to correct all of them
but from figures taken from the records of
the Executive Council of 1854, the following
corrections may be made:
PRINTING.
Standards statement of expenditure. IS 2,so) 90
Appropri ltion expended. ......S2S00 90
Y resolves q AP.'i 49, s. i 1884, 500 z
Real expenditure. ..................S 1888 co
Standards mistake (O............ 1888 80
BINDING.
Standards statement observation-disclosures 500 90
Appropriation (expended).. 500 90
Resolve of April is, 1854. ......... 1920 II
$3.50 IT
Standards error (?...."..... 1,t2O II
STATIONERY.
Standards figures 60 mo M W
Fad IN addition ............. 1,0oS ~
s3,O5s SC
Standards error. ...............,.Sl,05S Sc
FUEL, &c.
Standards statement. ...................S,2 200 90
Drawn from regular appropriation. 1000 90
Standard error. SO0 w
POSTAGE.
Standards statement. 1000 90
Drawn f:om appropriation. .............. 1,39I AZ
Standards error.. ............." 39I ~
CONTINGENT FUND.
s Smoant ex statement 20 90
TOTAL.
Real expenditures for six items $23,202 80
Maine Standards statement of expenditure ll,o93 W
Maine Standards error. .....Ia 1903 So
Had we a longer time to devote to this
kind of Investigation, doubtless other reck-
less statements, not to say falsehoods, equal
ly glazing and extravagant, might be found.
These, however, are enough to give candid
people an idea of the kind of "facts'' that our
opponents are unblushingy spreading before
the public. Is this statement of the Stand
ard that six ordinary items of expenditure of
the state government in 1854 amounted to
1893, when the official records show the
same to be $23, POPS 50, a blunder or an inten-
tional fraud upon the public? If the former
the paper is most unfortunate. If the latter
then the trickster who does such dirty work
is no better than any forger who changes the
figures in legal document, even if the law
does not recognize the offence.
On the other hand with its accustomed lib
erality. the Standard creates a. private secre-
tary for the Governor and fixes his salary at
$1424 There is no such Office and whatever
has been paid to the messenger of the Execu-
tive Council should not appear as separate
salary, as it is embraced in the contingent
fund. In giving the expenditures of its op-
ponents, the Standard employs kind of dou-
BILE entry by which a certain class of debts
are entered twice upon the same side of the
balance sheet.
When the Standard publishes the state tax
of 1856 and 1874 to show Republican extrava-
gance, it should remember that every intelli-
gent voter knows that this increased tax is
necessary to pay the interest on debt incur
for which its party is largely responsible. Had
the editor of that paper in 1876 devoted his
energies as persistently to aiding the cause OF
the nation as he did in those days to traduc-
ing Lincolns administration and the conduct
of the war, that debt would not have been
half as large as it now is. The average reader
knows that the leaders who, Oh the stump
and in their journals, melted Kingfeld riots
and opposition to the CONSUMPTION acts, are re-
sponsible for the last two years of the war,by
dividing the sentiment Of the North and en-
couraging the rebel leaders in the South
This debt, which has trebled our state tax, is
yours, Mr.. Standard, and it will be some time
before the Maine people, who are paying it,
will forget that fact. Fair and genial men as
you are in your personal relations, the course
you have pursued in the past prepares the
public for the utmost distortion of facts and
figures and even the most malicious and ma
lignant falsehoods when there is possibility
of deluding voters thereby.