Barton County democrat. [volume] (Great Bend, Kan.) 1885-1915, 1897-01-14

from our fathers, and the best legacy can
leave to our children finds ample house room
and school room for every Kansas child and for
SUCH struggling waits as come to US from where
penury and parsiInony stalk side by side There
tramps in Kansas, except those birds Of
passage who fit by us, grim reminders of the
conditions in older communities.
With cheerful audacity that almost chal-
1engeS admiration. Grub street Scribblers on a
venal press, which panders to the most vicious
instincts of seni-civiiized foreign colonies like
New York city and Chicago, with semi-barbario
splendor at the apex and semi-barbaric squalor
at the base of their social life have offered their
puny and preSuInptuouS criticism of those whose
shoestrings they are not worthy to unloose-
The dogs Of Egypt have barked at the Pyra-
midS unanswered for so centuries When the
accused doge stood before the Venetian coun-
ell he said: MY defense is your accusation
Let Grub street rail on. They we'll know that
Kansas was pillar of cloud by day and a pill
lar OF fire by night before an oppressed people
in the nations darkest hour. We shall keep those
hreS aIght IN our camps and that smoke as
cending from our hilltops till this is indeed a
government of the people, and for the people,
and by the people.
For she failed you not in the early day, and she
failed you not in the late,
Nor forgot you how the balance was poised on
our youngest state,
And how with the fate Of Kansas was linked the
nations fate
Financial Condition.
In full and exhaustive report the state
which shows that at the beginning of the fiscal
year July 1, 1894, there SS42, 326 % hand,
and that the receipts during the fiscal years
ending June 80, 1898 and 1896 81, s9S 092 SO,
making q total of IS, 740, 1905 The disburse-
ments for the two years named above were
So 135, $50 90 leaving balance in the treasury
June 30, 1896, of 1904 SO 10. The report for the
year ending December 81 1885, Shows that the
balance hand 1868 Sss. 50, and that the
permanent school fund amounts to 81 0l6 993. TO-
january l, 1895, our state bonded Indebtedness
was S.sS,.CO. On March Is, 1925 $50. 50C was
paid eni on July 1, 1896, SO Coz. which leaves at
present a bonded Indebtedness of S6S2. COO 49,
600 OF these bonds are owned By the permanent
school fund, S., 900 by the permanent university
fund and the balance, .0t0 by individuals
end corporations On July L. 1897 and July 1,
1855 $40 COO in seven per cent bonds become
due. The state treasurer in his report recon-
mendS that the whole amount be refunded in
four per cent. bonds and sold to the permanent
school fund. The suggestion meets my APP
prevail for the reason that any increase of our
state levy at this time to meet these bonds
would work a hardship on our tax payers and
the further fact that, in these days when many
unsafe and questionable bonds being
hawlled around, an investment of this kind will
protect this fund that has been set aside for
the educational purpo' es of our state.
Charitable Institutions.
No class of people should receive the pity of
their fellowmen more than the inmates of our
charitable institutions. Many OF them have
been reared in luxury, some Of them waits
economic conditions yet all of them are human
and born in the likeness of their Maker. Their
care and comfort sacred duty imposed
upon by humanity and all the better ele-
mentS of nature Some of these inStitu-
lions are filed with those to whom the sunlight
OF monday and the darkness OF midnight are
the same Others unable TO enjoy CONVEX
Sation with their fellow-beings, and nothing
takes the place of the senses which are most
gratifying to humanity. Some of them are
bereft Of reason and struggle through hallucina
tionS against imaginary evils. Some are born
into the world bereft Of reason or sense and
are thrown upon our lsty and charity
from the beginning. I consider it one of
the most essential duties OF an ex-
ecutive and the coordinate branches
of the legislature to that the best OF treat
ment be accorded them, that those who care
for them should be kind. attentive and take an
interest in their work, that their food should
be clean, wholesome and plentiful, that the
sanitary conditions of the buildings where they
are confined are conducive to their health that
the professional duties be administered by as
good talent as the state possesses; in short
that the gravest duty that we have to discharge
is in the care OF those who unable to care
for themselves. and placed in the institu-
lions Of our state as wards Of the state.
A visiting board for all the charitable educa-
tional and penal institutions of the state, with
power to come and go, and report abuses to the
governor would be o good thing. Several