The Manitowoc pilot. [volume] (Manitowoc, Wis.) 1859-1932, 1882-07-13
AFTER a prodigious effort the bill TO

AFTER prodigious effort the bill for
the payment of the expenses growing out
of the attendance on the late President
Garfield has been narrowed down from
which goes to the attending physicians
has been reduced from $50, 900 to the ill.,
significant sum of $4,000.
Senator Vest seems to be the only man
who had the courage to fight the bill as
it originally stood and he deserves in
great measure the credit for its reduction.
All the Democratic senators voted for the
bill in its amended form together with
senator's Sherman, ingalls,, Rollins, and
Van Wyck.
1t is difficult to imagine what were the
reasons why such large sums were agreed
upon by the Committee whose business
it was to audit those claims. Was it be
cause the country was rich and able to
stand itl If that wes the reason anyone
who favored such q large appropriation
ought to be remanded where he belongs
to the obscurity of private life. Men are
not sent to Congress to squander public
funds.
Just now the country is in sort OF an
unnatural state of excitement about the
late President Garfield Just as there has
been a morbid and sickening thirst for
| blood of the wretch Guiteau and a sick
ening howl of approval after justice was
| melted ont to him. In their momentary
excitement the people forget that they
will have to pay the bill and think only
that they are paying tribute to the Ia
! mented dead. They do not seem to think
that the money goes to the men who
bungled during the whole treatment of
the case and who appear more in the
| light of notoriety seekers, and money
grabbers than skillful physicians. The
| more rational way to proceed would be
| to have those Creatures file their claims
against the estate Of Garfield and pay
| only just such sums as would DE allowed
by court of probate. They have no
more right to ask the government to
compensate them for their services than
would any of our local physicians have
to ask the government to remunerate him
for services rendered the victim of
Fourth of July accident.
Inpudence and impertinence seem to
be blended in nice proportions in the
pompols DR.. Bliss. He seems to think
that the whole appropriation is INSULT
cient to nay him for his uGssked for SER
vices. The doctor that charges from s766
to $1,000 FOR an ordinary professional visit
ought to die and the killing of him GER
.einly would not deserve capital punish
ment. The unbounded liberality with
which men Lavish m 2ney act their own is
proverbial and this is probably The best
explanation we can get for the action o.
the members of congress who were pre-.
pared to vote for any appropriation how
ever large.
No doubt the Republicans will attempt
to make political capital out of the quar-
rel over this bill aad in this they may
temporarily succeed, but it will only be
for short time. After the people sleep
off their excitement about Garfield and
Guiteau they will come to the rational
conclusion that every one who had any
thing to do with Garfield during his last
illness, from the cook who prepared his
broth to the NJ. d. who fastened his end
will get more than they earned and more
than they deserve.