The Butler weekly times. (Butler, Mo.) 1881-1918, 1904-02-04
INVITE rae CLOSEST SCRUTINY.

mas -ueen-lo years o-luhllk u-ttu1
Willy the stats officers and cast as
pensions on their every acts, has nev
er been taken seriously and has fur
nished amusement even for those b,
maligned. Emboldened by the lonl
Indifferent silence OF those heasssult
ed, who had ignored his clown Xix,
antics, be exceeded the license OF th,
buffoon and cast aspersions upon thu
official integrity OF State TreasureI
Williams, who demanded an imme
diate and full retraction Of the Globe
Democrat, which was Immediately
forthcoming. We publish MIR. Will
Jams letter and that papers retrac
ton in another column.
"0ld Politician" however, pridei
himselion being smooth, and wher
cornered Immediately tackles anoth
er lead. y He said in his last bud
get, published in Sundays Globe
that he didn't mean to question vii
liam's,honesty, just wanted to fint
out, and took that method to draw
the treasurer out. OF course, th,
only object of it all is to confuse tn,
mind of the reader and create d
suspicion that everything is not just
right In spite OF his illiterate AM
ungrammatical verbosity, the sold
politician" is not so dense" rs t.
use these methods il he was really a
seeker after knowledge, The books
OF the state offices are open 1t all
times to anyone wantingiuformation
aud gentlemanly clerks are on hand to
assist in the search. There is little
trouble in tracing any transaction
effecting an appropriation through
the auditors and treasurer's offices,
as the auditor draws his warrants
on the treasury only on vouchers by
boards duly authorized to expend
theappropriations, and these vouch.
ers must state explicitly for what
purposes tie money is to be paid,
and, further, receipts must be filed
with the auditor showing how each
dollar has been expended, and to
whom paid. So if "old politician"
wanted to know how any appropria.
ton made by the general asss mbly
had been expended, he could go to
the auditors office and demand the
papers in the case, and If anything
was wrong he could discuss it intelli.
gently.
As to the appropriations made for
The Hospital for the Insane at Farm.
ngton, which "old politician pre-
tends to believe has been misman
aged, the commission which was in
,harge, of which the editor of The
TINES was chairman. invites the clos
'st scrutiny. destinations and in
lendos, without investigation, are
owardly and unworthy Of notice
statements so far shows that in
Iividual has taken no pains to post
lin sell on those matters before at.
to discuss them. He says
n one article that the money was
Irawn out of the treasury end used
y private parties, while the work
vas held up. After being compelled
y treasurer Williams to admit he
ed, then he stated that work was
eld up for more than a year in order
hat the state repositories could use
he money, all of which is equally
alse.
There were two separate appropri-
tiOns made for this institution,
landed by different commissions
We assume that "cld politician" re.
ers to the last appropriation of
$4,000 as MIR. Williams did not
lold Office under the first appropri-
.tion. $4,000 OF this appropri.
ltion was made contingent on the
evenues, and Of course was not used
Until in was clearly apparent to the
governor that there would be suffi.
lent funds to meet it, consequently
t was not used until the second year.
B25, 900 was appropriated for main
,enance, leaving only $4,000 avail.
able for building purposes. The new
commission was appointed in the
spring, selected their architect, pre-
pared themselves to know what was
needed by visiting institutions built
On similar plans, instructed the
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