The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1880-04-03
The Mutilated Returns

The Mutilated Returns.
The Greenback-Labor Chronicle, a paper
which enjoys the distinction of being the
organ OF ex-Councillor Fogg, "wich onct
wuz Tabulator and hopes to be agin," con-
tains many-columned article signed by
that loquacious person, in which he essays
to review the report of the Hale committee;
to defend the action taken by Garcelon's
canvassing board, and to demolish the Sec
retary of State because the Deputy Secre-
tary declined to show the election returns
at nine o'clock at night to a crowd of whose
intentions he was suspicious and of whose
character he knew nothing good. The re-
view is without doubt the most ridiculous
thing that ever appeared in print. Its utter
perversion or direct misstatement of facts
will fail to mislead the most credulous; fer
the conclusions drawn from the false prem
ises are even more absurd than the untruths
on which they are based. 1t is silly beyond
description. The only show of reason it
makes is in its comments on the Somerville
case, and what a travesty of fact its account
is the examination in our local columns will
show.
This review is simply another of the fool
ish and hasty expedients resorted to by the
accused ex-Councillors to break the force of
the Hale report. 1t is of piece with the
demand made upon the Deputy Secretary of
State for the exhibition of the returns. The
members of the notorious tabulating COM
mittee had no expectation that the returns
would be produced at the unreasonable hour
of their call. They did not want to see
them. They knew the returns were under
the control of the investigating committee,
and that neither the Secretary nor his Dep
uty have access to them. Had they desired
to inspect them and 20 make explanations
of the forgeries and alterations that
are so manifest they would have read
lily accepted the respectful invitation ex-
tended by the committee, and have gladly
availed themselves of an opportunity to
explain away the suspicious which attach to
the doings of the Garcelon returning board.
This they took good care not to 10. They
shirked that opportunity, and called to see
the returns at a time it was evident they
could not be exhibited, and made the de-
mand upon an officer who, they knew, had
no control over the papers. If the ex-Tab-
uators desire to see the returns the investi-
eating committee will doubtless crafty their
wish. 1t would certainly be criminally care
less, considering the tricks that were played
with the papers while in the possession of
Garcelon's Council, to permit these buster
ing ex-Councillors to handle them except in
the presence of numerous and trustworthy
witnesses.
THE art of saying nothing in great many
words is perhaps better understood by Mr..
Gladstone than by any other man. At Ed
inburgh he was asked ''Will you accept the
result of the election as an indication of the
feeling of the people of Scotland with regard
to disestablishment?" He made the follow
ing alleged reply, worthy of the ingenuity of
Cromwell:
Probably may find an occasion for refer
ring more at large to this subject, to the great
or satisfaction of my querist, on some of the
occasions when may speak in the country,
and therefore will only say that so far as 1
am able to judge, we are thinking at the pres
ent time, and the people of Scotland are think
ing, of other objects, which are regarded
believe, as of much more urgent and immedi-
ate duty than the determination of very
much controverted question which, as I have
said before, believe the people Of Scotland
will find themselves perfectly sufficient to de-
termine, and in manner which the rest of
the empire will respect whether the answer
be aye or no. 1t is not within my knowledge,
certainly, that the consideration of that ques-
ton has entered definitely into the concerns of
the present election, and therefore l do not
feel my own information or means of judg-
ment about it at all augmented in the course
OF it by anything that has reached me.''
THE Providence Journal refers to a recent
address on "Health and Education" by DR..
Richardson, an eminent English physician,
as follows: 'Any one who has suffered the
horrible wretchedness of diseased and de-
bilitated nervous system, will desire to press
the warning here given upon parents, physi-
clans and teachers. Is there anything in
our own methods of public education which
tends to produce the evils here spoken Of?
And if there is, who is responsible for it?
The system of indiscriminate forcing, the
multiplicity of studies, the vicious practice
of marking and credits, the unhealthy COM
petition, the cruelty of long written exami-
nations inflicted upon growing boys and
girls, the frequency of public exhibitions, so
well calculated as they are to destroy the
bloom and modesty of childhood, are all
among us here. The result is as sure as the
rising Of tomorrow's sun-a generation of
men and women Of disorlered nerves, of
weak health, of unstable character, of feeble
judgment and depraved morals. Let us be
warned in time'
KENNEBEC Journal: TIL Fusionists who
declared that Garcelon paid Ill the expenses
of the State Steal up to the time he stepped
out of Office told an egregious falsehood.
So late as the recent meeting of the Govern
or and Council, a bill of $500 was presented
to the Council for expenses incurred last
fall iii inspecting the militia. This inspection
was held at the time when the count-out
was beginning to create lively excitement
among the people. 1t will be remembered
that the inspecting officer was very particu-
lar to inquire of the soldier boys how many
rounds Of ammunition they had. which indi-
Gated that even then there was preparation
by the conspirators for apprehended trouble.
| The amount of expense to which the State
was subjected by the counting out business
Is not yet fully known, and the bills were
very far from being paid when the conspir-
acy collapsed.
THE New York International Exhibition
| bill passed by the Senate provides that
| the corporation which it authorizes
shall not exist after January /, 1885, and
names among the commission President
Jewett of the E lie railway, Ex-Governor Nor
| gan, ex-Secretary of the Treasury McCul-
| loch, William Ii. Guion of the Guion line
| of steamships, Thurlow Weed, j. Pierre
pont Morgan. the banker; Alfred NJ Hoyt,
Louis A. Sayre, Samuel Sloan and Edward
| NJ. Dickinson, the coal kings; General Han.
cock, ex-Minister Pierrepont, Rufus Hatch,
Sheriff Bowe, Mayer Cooper, John Bigelow,
/ OswaId Oitandnrfor and caua,oI o+l,o, ,,,o,,;