St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1896-12-11
Press Comment.

mont, state superintendent has been re-
elected unanimously and enthusiastically.
Mason S, Stones three years service has
been so wise and progressive that it was
regarded favor to the state for him to
continue his service. He is to be con
graduated; the state is more to be con-
gratulated.- Journal Of Education.
There is much to be said to the credit
of the legislature of 1896, that while it
enacted no laws OF importance, it also
did no serious mischief Perhaps the
best characterization that can be made
is that il was a session Of legislative
tnkering.
The outcome OF all the discussion Of the
state normal school question is an enact
ment giving $4,000 outright to each Of
the three schools, all residents OF the
state 16 years old or over, who agree to
teach two years after graduation, to
have free tuition. The schools are to be
under the general supervision OF board
of normal school examiners and COM
missoners.
The state tax voted is 15cents, against
II cents for the past biennial term
[Brattleboro Phoenix.
There is a great similarity between the
exposure just made in Vermont Of pro.
tcssional incapacty and political favor
itism at Waterbury, in the treatment of
the insane poor, and that which was
made just 20 years ago at our Tewks-
bury. 1t was a med cal man then who di-
rected the barbarous secusion Of insane
women in the Tcwksbury asylum; it was
a medical woman, appointed from favor
and not for merit, who caused the pre-
mature death of so many insane women,
because she did not know how they
ought to be treated. 1t is often eXped-
ent to take a physician from general
but he must either know something spec
tally Of insanity, or be capable of learn
ing by experience, and Of governing him
self, else he will fall as the Tewksbury
doctors failed and the Waterbury super
intendent misconducted. But for politi-
cal alliances of the Marsh family in 1876.
we should have got them out OF the office
then, instead o seven years later, when
Butter did the work of a cross.eyed
Nemesis; the vision was oblique, but the
retrlbutou was direct enough. May
Vermont profit by the eXample.-L Spring,
field Republican.
Twenty-Five savings banks in New
Hampshire have filled in the last eight
cen months, with deposits OF over S17,'
600. 900 1t is said that OF this amount
81, 500 900 will be lost to depositors
The money was lost in western land i'll
vestments made for the most part, year:
ago, before the collapse OF the farm mort
gage boom. The idea of profit, rather
than of security, predominated with th'
men having in charge the savings of thu
people of New Hampshire. While som
of the older savings banks of Vernon
may have suffered from western invest
ments, not one of the forty OF these in
sti.utions has failed, and every bank
with one exception, bank has paid div
idend of from three to ten per cent, TIT
past year. Montpelier Waterman.
The thing to be done, however, is no
to dwell on past mistakes, crimna
though some of them may seem, but t.
consider and to perform the duty which
lies in the present. That duty requires
first Of all, an absolutely new manage
mynt at Waterbury, Every official, from
, the trustees up and down, who has beer
in any way responsible for this misman
apement should be turned out wlthou
delay, and charge OF the asylum shout,
be placed i'll new and competent and cx
= u rienced hands. The public sentimen
Of the state will tolerate nothing short G
this. BY no other means can contdenc
in the institution be established.
r This is the gjst of the whole matter
), and of this Governor Grout and ever
! other person in authority may feel pei
: f,ctlv assured. The humane sentmentf
r today regards as one of the worst of o
fences anything that savors oinegect, o
abuse. or mal,treatment OF the insane
- The present case is one where the sent
mcnt o. the people Of Vermont will
no temporiz NJ and no halfway method
=. of reform. - Rrattleboro Phoenix.