Omaha daily bee., 1889-03-06

grabs that are no better than downright
fraud.
Take for instance house roll No. 4SS,
and we find that the insane
hospital at Lincoln expects TO consume
| twenty thousand dollars worth OF coal
during the next two years, and twelve
| thousand dollars are asked to pay for
heating and lighting the capitol. This
| is fully double what it should cost for
supplying the hospital and state house
with fuel and light.
Every state officer wants from three
| hundred to FIVE hundred dollars appro-
| priated for telegraph and telephone
expenses. What excuse is there for
| squandering several thousand dollars
| for telephones in the state house when
one telephone in each story Is ample for
all purposes? Why should the state
superintendent of public instruction re-
ceive one thousand dollars for attending
institutes and travelling expenses, in
view Of the fact that he has passes over
all railroads and in nine cases out of
ten is the guest of private parties when
attending institutes?
Why should the legislature be asked
to vote eight hundred dollars for fur
nishing and repairing the governors
| Office, when his Office has just been fur
nished and there is nothing to repair in
a new building? If this furniture for
| which appropriations are asked in
nearly every state Office has already
been bought, by what authority have
the officers made the purchase in ad
vance of an appropriation? If it is
bought on credit, it stands to reason
that the state will have to pay three
| prices.
What is true of the extravaganza in
appropriation bills for the state house,
is doubly so forother institutions. Here
tofore legislatures have appropriated
from five hundred to fifteen hundred
| dollars at every session for musical in
strumonts at the insane hospital, and
these instruments have been either
used for kindling or carted away by the
| different superintendent. Now they
ask for sixteen hundred dollars for
''amusements," instead OF pianos and
organs. What kind of amusements do
| the insane get for the sixteen hundred
dollars? Then we note that the super
intendent OF the asylum wants fourteen
hundred dollars for farm improvements
| and Implements. Also five thousand
dollars for Il green house. And a cool
thirty-fve thousand dollars for sun dry
Improvements in the building! We
venture to say that the asylum will not
rnicn thpnSnpl lpl1o,s h of ,o,.
den truck and fourteen hundred dollars
worth of farm produce in the next ten
years.
The state had better sell all the land
around the asylum than to sguander
this money upon it every year.
The state reform school and peni-
Tertiary come in for their share of rob-
berry and jobbery. The Kearney insti-
tuition modestly asks only fifteen hun
dred dollars for out-houses. Fifty dol
lars will build all they need. The con-
tractor of the penitentiary wants the
state to spend fifteen thousand dollars
| on the sewer and several thousand dol
lars in other improvements. The peni-
tentiary contract is bonanza. The
state pays about sixty thousand dollars
| year for the board of the convicts,
gives the contractor the use of their
labor and the unrestricted use of the
costly buildings and work shops con-
nected with the penitentiary. The
state Is under no obligation whatever
to build sewers or auueducts, or to make
any other improvements for the benefit
of the contractor.
These are only few points. The
legislature should thoroughly sift these
bills three or four times before they
finally pass.