The Butler weekly times. (Butler, Mo.) 1881-1918, 1902-01-23
BASELESS FABRICATION.

into the news columns wholly false,
is not at all surprising, when 1T Is
considered how news has to be gath
cred and in what haste prepared for
the daily issue. But there is no
excuse for such paper TO publish
unqualified and baseleSs falSehoods
through observation-disclosures, for the
editorial writer is supposed to have
Il knowledge OF matters which he dis
cusses. Different writer's may deduct
entirely different conclusions from the
same facts and vet all be honest in
their beliefs. but for eitherto deliber-
ately falsiiy thefactS is very far from
being honest or reputable Journal
ism.
Pennington, the county seat of
Saint Francois county, where is
located the new Hospital for Insane
No 4. is only eighty-six miles below
St Louis. There are telegraph and
telephone connections with that
town, and it is only 2s miles from
DeLassus, on the Iron Mountain
railroad. the asylum being located
midway between the two towns, | \
miles from each, We give these de-
tails to show how easyit would have
been for the Globe-Democrat to post
itself on the conditions there, and
how utterly ineXcusable for it to mis-
representandf alsify thoseconditions.
The following is an excerpt from an
editorial in Saturdays Globe-Demo-
crat:
Gov, Dockery'S trip to Farming
ton, Mo-, to consult with the COM
mission in charge OF the new asylum
partly constructed in that town, but
boarded up during the building sea-
son, indicates that the democrats of
southeastern Missouri are asking
unpleasant questions, The Farm
ington asylum was authorized by an
act Of the legislature approved April
lth, 1890, nearly three years ago.
Work was begun, but for some rea-
son not explained was suspended last
+ tr- -+t-ttir w7r~-trrrt n iTrrk ri
appropriations The latest was made
April Ia, 1901, and consisted OF
100000 with $4,000 more "out
Of any funds not otherwise appro,
priated OF the totalamount SO
GOO was for support and payment of
employees. But work on the build
ings has been long suspended and
none OF the appropriation OF last
April has been obtained. There is a
mysterious hitch somewhere. A half
finished public institution, rotting
down before it is under roof is GER
tainly not creditable to the party in
power.
The only statement of truth in all
Of the above is that in reference to
the appropriations and, considering
the policy OF that paper recently, it
is somewhat surprising that it will
even copy correctly from the stat
utpS.
The facts are, briefly stated, as fol
lows: The first commission complet-
ed its labors under the first appro-
priatian about middle OF May,
lAel-Fhe Hew-heartE h,rftfg been
reduced by the legislature from a
membership OF tiXc1n-1A and only
one member of the old commission
retained. organized and appointed
its architect. The majority of the
being new members. and
wholly unacquainted with the work,
had OF necessity to prepare them
selves by visiting institutions built
Oh n similar plan. This was done in
June. About the first OF July our
was ordered to prepare
plans and specifications for dining
hall, kitchen and laundry buildings.
These were submitted early in Sep
TENDER, accepted by the board and
advertisements Of notice to contract
ors inserted in three papers, one of
which was the Globe Democrat, and
on October 2nd, contracts for these
three buildings were awarded and
active work OF construction begun.
which has been rushed. The laundry
building is under cover, the dining
hall is ready for the roof and about
one weeks work will complete the
walls of the kitchen. With no orovi-
Dental interference, all the buildings
will be completed by April LIST, 1902.
after that time the institu-
ton will be differed and opened up
to receive patients.
In Justice to Governor Dockery we
desire to say that he has not at
tempted to delay the work by holding