The Portland daily press., 1879-07-16
Chairman Dana at Bangor.
Democratic Statements Exposed and Re-
futed
[Somerset Reporter !

DR.. Dana of Portland, chairman of the
Democratic State Committee, better stick to
his apothecary shop, his pills, pukes and plas-
ters unless he can keep little closer the
truth than he did in his opening speech in the
Democratic State Convention at Bangor July
1st.
His first gross misstatement that we purpose
to notice is that the Opposition to the Republ-
can party which came into power last January,
secured saving in state expenditures of near
ly 100000. In our issue of June 10 we DEM
onstrated that in order to make big showing
of savings, sundry papers made $150,000 tenn
porary loan and other items to do double duty
by adding the amounts to the appropriations of
1878 and also deducting them from those of
1879. We also gave our readers the true differ
ence in the appropriations of 1878 and 1879,
throwing out the item of temporary loan, viz,
SILT ,6O4, which is but trife greater than the
average for the three preceding years. The ap-
preparations for 1878 foot up $324,935 less than
of 1875, showing an average annual reduction
of $10S,312 and this without the great cry of
economy and reform raised by the Democracy
of last winter.
He says: 'we have been raising by State
tax more than 81 100000 every year for State
purposes" when 1874 is the last year the State
tax was above that amount. In 1875 it was
$500 1853; 1876, $685. sos; 1877, S675, ,175 and in
1878, $S99,712, but the misstatement to the
amount of few hundred thousand dollars is
small to the party he represents and was
doubtless intended to prepare his hearers for
the whopper he tells when he gives the state
debt at nearly $7,00000O. The correct state
ment of the matter is as follows:
Bonded debt less sinking fund. ... 81 SIG, ,9O4.5 90
Trust fund for which State is liable. 73S,O65.40
Making the Indebtedness of the
State bonded and otherwise. ....S 81, ,554, 969.95
instead of nearly 81 100000
The DR.. must have had help in getting off q
falsehood of tl,is magnitude, or rather we may
say it was "stolen thunder" originated in the
House of Representatives last winter by no less
a parsonage than Mr.. Pickard of Bangor, and
paraded in the National Democrat under start
ling headlines. The Reporter exploded the
thing then by incontrovertible facts and figures,
it was copied into all the leading papers of the
State, but still the same old coon appears in
chairman Dana's speech at Bangor with all
the freshness of a new discovery.
The perversion of figures about the appro-
priations of 1856 and 1873 is ingenious. He
does not state the fact that the appropriations
of 1856 Ss544 463 was reduced each year under
Republican rule until 1861 when it amounted
to but S3S9 729; nor does he attempt to tell his
hearers that the principal items, the 1856, 900
interest on public debt, SS0,479 for the sinking
fund.- $26, 900 for the public debt S25 600 for SOL
ders pensions and 80 600 for orphans of soldiers,
a total of $496079 of that increase is directly
attributable to the war forced upon the country
by the Democratic party South, sustained and
prolonged by the Democratic party North; nor
does he mention the item of S220,036 mill tax
for the support of schools that is merely trans
ferred from the towns to the State, aggregating
S726, 115 of the increase which brings the usual
appropriationS below S600.000. There are
other matters, such as the establishment of 3
Normal schools, the Agricultural College, the
Industrial school for girls, ETC., but of course
Chairman Dana did not have time to allude to
these things although he did have time to
deduct from the appropriation OF 1896 certain
items he considered extraordinary.
When Mr.. Dana said thirty-one and half
million dollars of our State debt has to be paid
within the next ten years land this is only
about one-half of the debt of the State)' he
must have got the figures given him by the
great Kennebec leader slightly mixed. This
was evidently intended to read IL millions,
and at these figures it is more than 81 900, 900
too large as one half the bonded debt less the
sinking fund is s., ,40S, ,452
Further ON this financial Doctor says:
'Deducting the annual interest payment and
county criminal cost, the State tax prior to 1857
amounted annually to 100000 only; in 1873, to
which the Republicans point with pride,' deduct
ing interest pensions, sinking fund and payments
toward the debt and other war expenses and the
State tax was SAIL ,232, an increase of 240 per
cent
Why did he not deduct from the State tax
of 1878 the $4,000 for Soldiers Orphans; the
S21 600 for Normal Schools; the S37 600 for
Free High Schools; the 5000 for Maine Cen
eral Hospitals the 5000 for the Maine Indus
trial School for Girls; and the S23OOOO Mill
Tax making in the whole S3O7 600 which can
with greater propriety be deducted from the