People's voice. [volume] (Wellington, Sumner County, Kansas) 1890-1917, 1895-07-18

members Of the State Board of Chari-
ties. This if equally divided would
amount to 81, 300 apiece. cannot for
the life of me understand how any
member Of that Board can draw a
larger amount than the appropriation
calls for. | labor under the impress
sion that there Is some mistake 10
reference to these figures and want to
denOunce the statemeI t that THE
members Of the Board paid their way
on Pullman cars to the Worlds Fair
out of state money as being absolute
ly false in every particular. 1t has
always been customary for the Board
to use up the entire appropriation and
for the fiscal year ending June 30, '93.
there was a balance returned to the
treasury from this fund of ten cents.
This was under Republican rule. The
law allows members of the Board per
diem and l0c milage. The POpulist
senate last session reduced the apprO-
priatiOn for this purpose to 5000 per
annum and endeayored to reduce the
milage to &c per mile. 1t passed the
senate, was messaged to the house and
they inserted ten in place of three and
returned it to the senate in that
shape. 1t finally went to two differ
ent conference committees and was
compromised on the basis of Sc per
mile, but unfortunately in the shuttle,
the bill was not properly enrolled and
it is published in the session laws
without this section changing the rate
Of milage, so that tie members of
that Board will receive at the rate of
lOc as heretofore.
Conceding that the Mails figures
are right, these men have simply
taken advantage Of too liberal con-
struction of law which the Popu-
list senate tried to amend but were
prevented by Republican house.
We do not excuse these men but we
insist upon holding Republican
boodlers responsible, as well.
The report of the asylum investi-
cation consisted largely Of condemn
alton for abuses of long standing
in that institution and did not have
reference specially to the Populist
administration.
There have been many general ac-
cuSations made concerning "Popu-
list stealing" and the VOICE has been
criticised for not condemning "dis-
honesty and corruption" in its own
party. The writer has lived long
enough in the world to expect more
or less imperfectness in human ma
ture wherever you find it but it is
always more abundant in old asso-
Citations, old cliques, old parties and
old rings; it is therefore question
of secondary consideration when
great fundamental questions are at
stake.
We wish to say right now that the
VOICE will condemn a Populist for
stealing as severely as it will Re-
publican, but we want to be sure
they are guilty before we speak. A
crowd of old political mountebanks
stand ready at all times to falsely &C.
cuse and smirch the character of
any man who rises to prominence in
the cause of reform. The Mail will
not deny that, Notwithstanding all
the noise and clamor over the alleg-
ed peculations of Warden Chase, he
is the only man who ever made the
penitentiary self-supporting and paid
a balance into the state treasury. 1t
will also note the fact that John
Breidenthal went before the Ways
and Means committee of the legisla-
ture and asked that his contingent
fund as Bank Commissioner be re-
duced 81 900; and then, recently, at
the end Of the fiscal year, returned
$1,000 of the remainder to the treas
ury unused. We mention these
cases because in all fhe long years
of Republican rule in Kansas no
such precedents were made.