The Columbian. [volume] (Bloomsburg, Pa.) 1866-1910, 1898-10-27


The account, fully made up, there
fore, stands about as follows:
Excess payments of 1897 over
1888, exclusive of charities.
schools, penitentiaries. in
sane, interest, loans, etc. So, 200, ,063
Moneys that were appropriated
to schools, charities, ETC., and
should have been paid in 1897,
but remained unpaid at end
$5.34O.2 .25s
Total ........................ SO. .040. .316
This is a long. long way from veri-
Tying Mr.. Penrose's contention that the
only reason why 1t costs more to run the
state than it used to is that we now
give SO much more to the cause of
education and in benificences to the
helpless and suffering. Going to the
official records for the facts COM
pletely upsets his slyly conceived dec
larations and insinuations, as 1t 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 *5.340,253 due
Nov. 80. 1897, on appropriations made
that year and before, and not paid at
that time, $S,4S9,99S was, as will be no
ticed, owing to the schools and $780, 900
to the charities (See treasurers report.
page 14,) at the same time that bal
ance of $5,1S6. 200 was in the treasury.
Here Is confession over the official sig
nature of leading beneficiary of the
machine that moneys are wrongfully
withheld, and no sane man for a mo-
ment doubts that the purpose of the
Withholding Is to accommodate the
fArorite banks and insure the ma
chine Foeral contributions for its cam
paign funds. There are comparatively
few other moneys that could be with
held in the same way, so that, were
1t not for the large appropriations to
the schools and the charities the banks
would have to surrender their deposits
and the machine go to some other
source for means to deceive and cor
rupt the voters.
Then the myraid of officials that ad-
minister the affairs of the institutions
under consideration are practically all
machine about election time and do
what they can to confound Its enemies.
At the beginning of each legislative
session the governor has 700 or 800 ap-
pointments of various kinds to sub
NIT to the senate for confirmation. A
large proportion of these are connected
with the educational, charitable, penal
and reformatorv institutions of the
- -
pony up in some way to the machine,
either by money contribution. lip SER
vice or repressing what they know
and feel and would like to tell. Refusal
to do this In any direction is regarded
as threatening the appropriations for
that direction next due. For many of
these places, even where neither sal
ary or perquisites attach, there is al
ways warm competition, and in such
cases the machine steps in and, regard
less of the local situation or the
equities. determines the contest In IA
vor of those who are likely to prove
most subservient to its behests.
There are III homes, hospitals. asy-
lums, aid societies. missions. ETC.. or
ganized and controlled by the state,
or managed by private corporations
and receiving state aid, to which ap-
propriations were made by the last
legislature. These are exclusive of the
deaf, and dumb and blind schools, the
institutions for the training of feeble
minded, etc. In many localities these
institutions are looked upon as of such
Importance that the men chosen to rep
resent such localities are expected to
make sure Of the appropriations for
them at whatever sacrifice. Urged by
their two or three thousand officers,
managers, directors and employees and
depending upon the machine as the
sole arbiter in the appropriation COM
mittees. these poor legislators are often
forced to choose between voting con-
scientiously and losing the appropria-
tions or voting with the machine and
getting them. Thus even the chari-
ties of the state, the sick and the Grip
pied are made, unconsciously, to con-
tribute to the maintenance of a ras-
cally gang at the head of the states
affairs and their conscienceless robbery
of the taxpayers.
Mr.. wanamaker said in his speech at
Phoenixville, May 27: Politics con-
trolls the appointment OF trustees of
state institutions; politics controls the
management of state institutions. The
needs Of overcrowded asylums ana un-
healthy hospitals count as naught
against the request of the man with the
political pull and who can deliver state
delegates" And he might have added
that the controllers and officers of the
institutions not under control of the
state. but receiving state aid. for the
most part are but in a degrees less the
servltors of the machine.
The appropriations are notoriously
inadequate for the support of the state
institutions, notably the insane asy-
lums. The payments for the insane
were sT3S. 800 in 1896 and $751;. .544 in 1897.
The appropriations were $500. .s20 fos-ls97
and s717,70o for 1898, but of the former