The Barre daily times. (Barre, Vt.) 1897-1959, 1904-09-03
THOSE STATE EXPENSES
SO GROSSLY SWOLLEN

ASt>n SsNAN ~eAAHAttt~~ Nf~~-eSAA~
The Defense Of the Pauper Insane
Account The Best Of Illustrations
Of the Wrong and Vase Republican
Methods Evolve.
The Democrats State Committee puts
forth the following statement in reply to
that Of the Republicans given in the press
earlier in the week;
Equally thin in texture and cowardly
in method is the Republican Committee
statement Of State expenses, and their
outrageous growth in the past twenty
years Not daring at any point in the
campaign to stand up man-fashion to its
issue, their scheme was to get this state
ment out so late. IN the last issue before
election Of all the weekly papers, that
it could not be met with the truth
Wherein the Committee has got left to
a considerable degree.
They characterize the Democratic
showing as MEASUREMENTS "mislead-
ing, and so on in the usual jargon of a
man who knows himself to be wrong
for they know that every line and every
figure we have given is from the official
| records-and, fatuously, as dispicable
Misrepresentation III ignorant of the
fact that the Democratic comments have
have been very largely in the words Of
Gov. Proctor in 1873, Gov. Barstow in
1882, and Gov. Carroll Page in 1900
who every one severely condemned the
Expenses Of their times, though but a
/ fraction Of the present, as unreasonable,
9nwarranted, and unjust. II is rather
amusing to see these Republican ma
chinists thus /" ilinging mud as they
! call i, at these distinguished gentle
men
They give what purports to bea state
ment from Treasurer Bacon and Auditor
Graham, which starts off with the as
sertion that State expenses were S2gS, Z
| GOOSE IN 1882, instead Of 2S5,27I.47 as
we gave Il. The truth is that the lat
ter are Bacon's own figures, and can be
found III his special report Of two years
ago, on the 4th 81 the insert pages, fol-
lowing page So Of the report, where in
/ line 10 he explicitly states that the net
Expenses for that year to have been
| S255, 27I.47 But this is a little one
lcompared to some Of the rest.
/ They claim not TO be able to under
stand where the figures Of $7S3, s6S. o5
! came from as the expenses of 1903. We
shall again have to refer Brer Bacon to
his own report when he was not report
ing for eve Of election campaign pnr-
poses-in the folder issued in July,
4 1908 by him, aud certified to be correct
/ BY one Horace Il Graham, and Freder-
lick S. Platt-wherein he will fnd on
page S, line rs, his footing Of 1871, ooI ga
Of auditors orders paying the appro-
priations; by line 4 on the same page
| he viii find that the Legislative deben-
lures were Ss2,o7o.6o, and by deductine
from the total OF these items the vari.
Gus ones Of income that are proper off.
sets for disbursements lie may-aftef
lelection-be able to End what is III his
own report.
They go on toenumerate various chan.
neis into which the money has gone
among them the soldiers home, SIr,
287, so emitting 10 mention that about
two-thirds Of il comes from Uncle sam
aud with similar evasions about other
items.
But their great point of defense is the
pauper insane account, taking STAY
l25o.S6 as against s37,IeS.76 in 1882
Not stopping over the fact that, accord.
ing to their own reports, this is ont 81
the way because they omit that amount
/ OF income from the Waterbury asylum,
which they remembered when report.
ing officially but forgot when reporting
at the orders Of the Republican State
machine this Pauper Insane Account
is the best illustration possible Of the
abuses in Vermont administration that
need cure. The swollen proportions Of
this account are due
ID TO the fact that our asylums are
lflied with patients supported as pau.
i pers who ought not to be public charges
at all, and who have relatives legally
and morally bound 10 their support
[ 1t is because of this that they have muI
tiplied nearly threshold III the last
| twenty years, or to an extent without
! parallel, proportionately anywhere on
earth To this extent this cost is not
simply transferred from town to State,
as the Committee asserts, but the crea.
ton of an entirely new burden, and in
the main one that IS all wrong, and that
is due to lack Of any adequate proyis-
Of law to protect the State from imposi-
ton. Every lawyer in the State knows
how extensive the abuse is Cows. Page,
! Fnller aud Stickney in their messages
all pointed it out, and urged remedy,
4 but in vain
Cd After several hundred patients,
who have relatives legally and morally
bound for their support, are thus loaded
on the State, the cost Of caring for them
is higher than most anywhere else.
This is seen at a glance by comparison
Of the weekly cost per patient.
4