The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1897-12-11
IN THE INTEREST OF ECONOMY.

Last January, when the legislature
assembled, the G ODE published a
series of editorials giving the results
of it's Investigations into the expense
accounts of the state, showing the rap
id increase that had taken place I'M
der the impetus of the 'boom" era,
and how the momentum of spending
had kept up Notwithstanding the col
lapse of the boom. 1t did this to call
the attention of the legislature to the
worse than folly, the absolute injustice
of maintaining a scale of expenditure
never justified by public needs, but in
dulged in under the impact of the reck-
less extravaganza everywhere of
period of feverish speculation and fam
cied values, kept up at a time when
industrial distress was keen, when
values had shriveled, when rich men
found themselves poor and poor men
were poorer, when charitable organi-
cations were relieving want, and the
doors of citizens were besieged by ap-
plicants for food. But neither the
demonstrations of the G Il b e nor the
warnings Of the state auditor had any
effect, and the scale of spending went
on undiminished, while the valuations
upon which taxes were raised sank
away more than three-fourths of mil
lion dollars.
nf he tot 70 Two
the deficit in the revenue fund, bound
to increase until after the legislature
can make another levy, the probable
ity that there will have to be another
issue of revenue bonds authorized as
in 1889, to make good the deficit, vim
dicate the protests made by the G O b e
against eXtravagant expenditures and
give warrant for renewal of the dis
cussiOn of the economies Of the state.
This is the more needful now that, with
the coming year, new set of legis-
latOrs is to be chosen and the question
of economy and retrenchment may now
be discussed without suspicion of par
tisan motive. That body will be again
besieged by parties demanding appro-
priations for the location and building
OF another insane hospital and another
state normal school, while the existing
institutions will clamor for increased
appropriations for their extension. In
the discussion the G OBJ purposes
making, the need Of another insane hos
pital or another normal school will be
investigated and shown to be unwar-
ranted, and facts, statistics and COM
PARSONS brought forward to demon
strate that there is imperative neces-
Sity for the enforcement of economies
In the conduct of our state institutions,
the reduction of the sums appropriated
to their maintenance and a reduction
of spending to some decent regard for
present economical and industrial con-
ditions. Political considerations, in the
partisan sense, have nothing to do with
the motive for this work, and the in
dependent partisan position into which
recent events have forced the Globe
removes any cause for suspicion that
it is doing this in the interest of any
political organization. We purpose taxi
ing up first our insane hospitals and
examining them with a view to pre-
vent their increase in number and to
decrease the cost Of their maintenance.
We shall next consider the normal
schools with a similar purpose, and
follow with an examination into the
other institutions of the state to see
where extravaganza and useless expen-
diture have crept in and can be pruned
away.