Freeland tribune. (Freeland, Pa.) 1888-1921, 1898-11-03
A MACHINE LNFAMY.


pitfalls and Charities, Etc, for Base
Partisan Purposes--FuII Details as
to the Methods of Achieving This
Great Outrage--Senator Penrose's
Attempt to Deceive the state as to
the school and Charity ApproprIa-
tions Fully Refuted From the Rec
ords.
At the late Republican convention
that met in Harrisburg to express its
contempt for honesty and economy in
the state government the boss sent the
Junior senator to represent him and
sing a siren song into the ears of the
people which, if it did not deceive them,
might still be used by the heelers for
such clamor as should confuse and
drown the cries of the reformers Mr
Penrose made very valiant. but
manifestly very labolious effort to full
fill his task. He, of course. ignored the
detailed, specific and widely published
evidences of the Republican ma
chimes theft and waste of the public
moneys, because it is impossible for
him or anybody else to fairly meet and
successfully refute them. But sweeping
them aside. as with a wave of the hand,
he undertook to account for the con-
stantly increasing cost of machine
rule by ascribing 1t to a greater liber-
ality to the schools the hospitals and
elemosynary institutions of the state,
leaving it to be inferred that Mr.
Quay and the machine were being
criticized and abused, not for any real
wrongdoing, but for their enlarged
liherality in caring for the helpless
wards OF the state.
Even if it were true that the differ
ences in the gross annual outlay of the
state were accounted for solely by the
larger appropriations to the schools, the
hospitals, etc, these appropriations are
themselves made to dishonesty and
unlawfully contribute to the main
tenance of the machine, whose astute
chief and ever watchful lieutenants
would consider themselves grossly
derelict in permitting such large sums
to pass through their hands without
gathering on it some profit on the way.
But the excess Of the cost of main
tanning the state government as be-
tween 1888 and 1897 was almost three
and three quarter millions OF dollars
greater. leaving wholly out of the con-
sideration the cost of the schools, the
pentsntiaries. the insane and the
charities, as the following figures will
show:
Payments 1897, less interest,
etc. (sec. Rep. treas, p. 23) .s12, ,B15
Payments 1SS3 less loans re-
deemed, interest, premiums
and u S. bonds purchased
(see aud. gen. rep, p. 151 :. 4,S36,9s7
Excess of current payments
for 1897 ........,............$8 8,431 ,558
Cost of schools, charities, in
sane, penitentiaries etc, '97 S 7,172, ,315
lame, 1888 ..................... 2,440,S40
Excess for 1S97.............$ 4,T31, ,475
Excess of total payments in
loSi ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS. S,43l,5 ,53S
Excess for schools, etc, in
1881 .................... 4,I3l,4i5
Excess for ordinary expenses
IN 1877 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS. 3,7O0,O63
And this says nothing of the fact
that the state treasurer in making up
his estimates of expenses for the year
ending Nov. 30, 1898 (Which reach
total of 81, 7,346S23 as against an an
ticipated revenue of $l1561, ,OOO, in
cludes, among Others the following
items:
State tax due counties. 81, sos, ,255
School app'n 1897 due. e......... 3,439,9
Due u. of p. on app'n 1885,. $4,000
Due w. u. on app'n 1895 ...... $4,000
Appropriation for new capitol
expected to have been paid in
1897 and appropriated for that
year ...................... 275,000
5,S4O,253
The account fully made up, there
fore, stands about as follows:
Excess payments of 1897 over
1883, exclusive of charities,
schools, penitentiaries, in
sane, interest, loans, etc. SO, ,700,0 ,063
Moneys that were appropi lated
to schools charities, etc, and
should have been paid in 1897
but remained unpaid at end
$5,340,253
iotal .................. ..$5,U4V,3lo
This is a long. long way from veri-
flying Mr. Penrose's contention that the
only reason why it costs more to run the
give so much more to the cause of
education and in beniflcences to the
helpless and suffering. Going to the
official records for the facts COM
pletely upsets his slyly conceived dec
larations and insnuations, as it will
be found to upset every plea made by
the machine apologists in explanation
and extenuation of its crimes.
And the appropriations for the
schools and the charities, the poor,
prisoners and the insane, are all and
in numerous ways made to do duty for
the machine. OF the S5,340,253 due
Nov. 80, 1897. on appropriations made
that year and before, and not paid at
that time. $3,439 99S was, as will be no.
ticed, owing to the schools and 100000
to the charities (see treasurer's report,
page 14,) at the same time that a bal
ance of $5,136, 700 was in the treasury.
Here Is confession over the official sig
nature of leading beneficiary of the