The Ohio Democrat. (Logan, O. [Ohio]) 1886-1906, 1886-10-09
EoRAKER's FIGURES.
Hc Faisifics n Correct Abstract Furnished
by q Coinpetent Hand.

the books Of the pententiary disclose
the fact that in making up his keynote
speech Governor Foraker was quite as
economical of the truth rs he was in his
now exploded cane story. Had he been
content with using the figures ae fur
nished him from the books Of the insti-
tuition, and as they appear in the official
reports on file in the State House, a very
different state of things would have
been shown, and his tremendous can
nonading would have been mere rattle
of musketry.
Tho official records show for the two
years OF Governor Hoadly's admnistra-
ton the following facts:
Total expenditures ....... $3.50, 029 25
Total receipts. s.............. 41S,113 73
Difference. .................. 22O,9l5 52
Less permanent improve
ments. .......... 76,20O w
Actual loss. ...,........... 144.7l5 52
BY juggle of the figures, and by
adding figures that are nowhere to be
found in the books of the institution.
Governor Foraker makes the loss foot
up S205, 5,061.32. He might rs easily
have made it foot up half million by
the same process of give and take that
he resorted to for the purpose of making
the losses appear $4,000 greater than
they really were.
He resorts to very complicated
method of forcing his adverse conclu-
sions against the Democratic manage
mcnt. He assumes, for instance, that
the losses annually were Sl02, 900. and
TO this adds still further loss of $50, 900,
or the alleged profits of the former
years administration, thus adding
loss OF 3l06,00 which is not to be found
in the fiscal accounts, and which has no
existence save in his own Imagination.
Not content with this sort of jugglery,
he resorts to another method of SWELL
ing the losses, quite as ilagitious, un-
principled and unbusincss-like. As, for
instance, he sets down rs loss on the
part of the penitentiary managers the
sum of $25. .630.56, 'for money credited
but not collected.
This sum was earned by the peniten-
tiary, and was due from contractors
whose contracts came over from the
Foster Administration, and the amounts
were certified to the Auditor of State,
and by him turned over as the law di-
rected to the Attorney-General for
collection. Owing to the insolvency of
these Foste. contractors the State failed
to collect the money, but that failure
was in nowise due to the penitentiary
managers. The whole thing passed
beyond their power and control as soon
as the sums due were certified to the
proper State officers This 1928, $3.50 56
is, therefore, wrongfully charged up as
loss to the late management There
was nothing in the accounts of the pen
itentiary to warrant it in being so charg-
ed, and Governor Foraker knew when
he so manipulated it that he was doing
violence to the truth-in short. was
willfully making false charge against
the management.
Then he says, land to the expendi-
lures should be added loss on State
account not carried above 1874, 7O6 "a"
This is even more tiagtitious than the
previous item. This latter sum is to
cover the losses on the broom shop,
woolen mill, etc.
But when Governor Foraker made
this addition with vew of compelling
the figures to tell a falsehood, he knew
very we'll that every dollar of this alleg-
cd loss has been included in the expen-
dturcs above. In other words, this
1874, 900 has already been included in
the expenditures and charged in the
accounts against the institution, and he
concluded to do little "double entry"
and charged it again SO as to swell the
losses by that amount.
Another of the Governors lunacies is
the way in which he figures ont loss
of ssh, ,O61.32. apparently forgetting
that he had stopped on $2O5, 600 few
minutes before. He does this by as
suming that under Warden Peetrey the
annual loss was 100000 and under
Warden Thomas the profit was $53, 1000.
Adding these together, he makes the
annual loss $155, ZOO, and for the two
years S311, 900. A man who would in
the first place cook his figures so as to
make them state falsehOod, and then
draw upon his imagination for 300, 900
Of additional losses that the State could
not sustain under any circumstances,
is capable of any demagogical perform
ance.
Governor Foraker's methods of figur-
ing up the losses were varied and IN
some respects amusing. In addition to
those l have shown above, one method
was to charge up to the Democratic
management the time of all the convicts
at seventy-five cents day, the highest
price at which his Administration is
now selling slaves. Then again he fixed
the present price according to his own
ideas. upon the permanent improve
ments made two years ago, and set the
m
600 Watcr-works he decided should
only have cost $4,000. and in this way
| figured out a $4,000 loss there. These
works were built by Republican firm.
But the statement of the actual re-
ceipts, expenditures and improvements
given above. and which are taken
from the official accounts, which
Governor Foraker can find in the
State House, with his additions and falsi-
| tications, prevarications and misstate-
ments, show just how reliable he is as
statistician, and that his figures are
no more to be relied on than his story
about skinning Irishmen and negroes,
which was so dramatically set forth to
fool some one.
But really, when one sees how the
Governor made the official figures lie,
by adding what was nowhere shown or
limited ut In the books, he can not but be
impressed with his moderation, consid-
ering the dreadful case of ground-hog
from which the gang is now suffering.
He might have coined twice as big a
Munchausenism with scarcely any addi-
tional effort
The above statement is made upon
the figures furnished by Clerk Lang, a