St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1904-08-31
52.O70.60
$873.072.24
LEAVING NET STATE
EXPENSES S738 362. o.

amounting to .......... 134703.29
LEAVING NET STATE
EXPENSES ........... $738,368.95
Any last-mon1ent attempt to alter
or modify these figures will be an at
tempt to FOOL THE PEOPLE.
This is likely to take the form of
statements showing. how much is
paid out for these institutions with
out taking any account of their in
come. Any citizen can readily de-
tect their falsity by consulting the
ennial report for 1902.
Where the money has really gone
is illustrated by the amount of SAL
aries, $61,759.35. official expenses"
them of the kind in which Daniel
Webster well said civil government
always ,130.6s. Total,
$110,344.49, while in 1866 all these
items took just $15,370.73. The single
item of official expenses" postage,
etc, took $1,000 more than the whole
executive department took then,
when there was vastly more work to
do because of war business and when
a dollar was not worth over two
thirds what it is now.
The postage and stationery account
alone, analysed, means that every one
of these officials and commissioners
has been writing $500 official" let
ters a year!
A legislative investigation a few
expended by officials without war
rant of law; but the investigation
did not stop the practise and C. J.
Bell as cattle commissioner collected
for 364A days work in 1901 and 374
days in 1902.
In full swing, took $43,S03.52 in a
year-of which $2O,426.77 was in the
counties of Rutland and Franklin,
where prohibition was at it's rotten
est. Anybody can see why these fell
lows are so desperate to get prohibit
ton back again.
So we might go on illustrating.
The Free Press does not deny that
state expenses have increased 2So
PER CENT, while population has in
creased only 81 per cent and wealth
deny that the increase has been from
s255,271.47 in. 1882 to $738,368.95 in
1903-does not deny that these fig
ures. taken together make the
WORST SHOWING OF ANY STATE
IN THE WHOLE UNION, whose
faster than the narrow, prescriptive.
stagnating policies of immense Re-
publican policies have permitted to
Vermont-does deny what is plain to
that a more nearly equal division of
parties would bring very different
condition of affairs by developing
real and progressive craftsmanship
and effort to win by promoting public
good in place of the petty politics
and personal intrigue that now af-
f1ict the state.
The Free Press undertakes to deny
this by citing the cost of care
Of insane. which it claims to
be- only a transfer of ex-
pense from town to state. The truth
Is that the net expense of $149,975.99
under this account represents an in
crease of about $4,000 oyer what
either town or state paid in 1882, and
the bulk of it is for support as state
paupers of people who ought not to
be public charges at all. simply be-
cause Republican legislation has
made no adequate provision for de-
termining whether they have rela-
tives able and legally and morally
bound for their support. Every law
yer In the state knows this and Gov
ernors Page and Fuller pointed it out
In vain
The Free Press cites. the Soldiers
Home-without mentioning that I'm
Gle Sam gave us S6,04S to support 1t:
the State Laboratory,-whose cost
was less than SIC, e00-and the State
Board of Heaith-only about $1,000
as explanations OF the enormous in
crease The truth Is that these items
granting them to be all right. renre-
sent hardly ONE-TWENTlETH OF