Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1882-01-13
Fancy Doctor Bills.


and for Drs. Bo,nton and Mrs. DR.
Edison SO 600 each. Drs. Wood
ward and Surgeon General Barnes,
belongin. to tEe Government service
are to receive no money but I rec
ommeudation for promotion by way
of recompense for their services
DR.. Piss has taken charge of these
claims aud will present them to Con-
gress for payment.
1t is difficult to determine precise
ly upon what principle OF right or
Justice, such demands are based,
or why two month attendance upon
a state patient should cost the peo-
pie an aggregate of $4,000, when
the same service for private citizen,
would be considered amply paid by
one-twentieth part of that amount.
1t is time that the citizens set about
a diligent Inquiry why it is that the
public money should be squandcred
with such reckless disregard of
what under ordinary circumstances
would be considered ample pay for
any given service for the Govern
ment. Is it necessary, in order to
sustain its dignity, that it should ape
royalty, by proAisate expenditures
Did DR.. Bliss bring to bear upon the
state patient a skill and knowledge
that Justly entities him to 5000 for
each day he spent in feeling the
patients pulse and in dictating tele-
grams that only misled the country
as to the Presidents real condition
Can it be shown by any principle OF
right that Agnew, Hamilton or Rey-
burn, earned 1888 per day, or DIR.
Boynton or Mrs. Edison S1GG, or So
per hour, for each and every houl
out of the twenty-four that consti-
tuted the sixty days of the Presidents
illness? And then, if Drs. Wood
ward and Barnes, already derive
princely incomes from the public
purse, why should their honors and
emolumeDts be increased for simply
performing duty they were paid
for doing by annual salaries. Would
the executors of a private estate,
though it be .as exhaustless as the
wealth of Croesus, submit to such
extortion for services the result of
which leave a grave doubt as to
whether or not they have been ade-
quately performed?
1t is wrong to allow this precedent
to be established. which opens and
exposes wide guilt between the
rulers and the people. 1t is incon-
sistent with the teachings of free
government, founded, in theory at
least, upon the equality of the peo-
pie. 1t but lengthens the distance
between the privileged classes and
those who earn bare subsistence
| from daily toll. 1t lays the corner
stone OF royalty upon the ruins of
the temple of Liberty, which has
been slowly but steadily yielding to
the ever-progressive ideas of CEN
tralization of influence and power SO
often manifested by the dominent
party.
1t is probable, however, that the
bill will be allowed in full by Con-
gress controlled by party which
has shown SO little regard for the
popular will, and the morbid senti-
ment of hero-worship so alarningly
developed by the assassination will
still the voice of Reason wien it
should arise above sentimentality and
speak in thunder tones for vindica-
ton of the plainest principles of JUS
tice. The people may be tax-ridden,
but what care the rulers who hold
high carnival at Washington?
In delightful contrast with this
demand of the doctors is the course
of the Pennsylvania Railroad Com.
pany, which absolutely refuses to
make any charge for the expenses Of
laying a special track to Franklin
Cottage, and the delay incident to
the passage of the special train which
conveyed the dying President to the
seaside. But it is not controlled by
political demasogues or grasping
cormorants, and takes this practical
method OF manifesting sympathy
with the people in the nations be-
reavement.
The crop of fools developed thus
early in the year excites grave fore.
bodings OF the result of the next
twelve-month period. The latest
alteration is developed in a morbid
sympathy for the assassin Guiteau.
1t is said that large contributions of
money are sent him by mail from
people who are either fools or knayes
or both combined. The sooner the
trial comes to close the better it
will be for our reputation as a ma
ton.
HE Sacramento Record ONION viz.
tuaily acknowledges that the Repub-
lican party has sold itself to Malone
and Reputation, and thinks the dov