The Bennington evening banner. (Bennington, Vt.) 19??-1961, 1904-09-03

Pauper Insane Accountable Best
Illustration Of the Wrong and
Waste Republican Methods Have
EnvOIyed.
The Democratic State Committee
puts fourth the following statement in
reply to that of the Republicans given
in,the Banner.
Equally thin in texture and coward
ly in method is the Republican Com
mittee statement of State expens. ;,
and their outrageous growth in the
past twenty years. Not daring at any
point in the campaign to stand up
manfashion to its issue, their scheme
was to get this 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 Com
mittee has got left to a considerable
degree.
They characterize the Democratic
showing as "misstatements" mislead-
ing and so on in the usual jargon
of man who knows himself TO be
wrong-ior they know that every line
and every figure we have given is
from the official records-aAd fatuous-
ly, as "dispicable misrepresentation"
ignorant of the fact that the Demo-
cratic common to have been very large
| ly in the words of Gov Proctor in
1873, Gov. Barstow in 1882 and Gov.
Carroll Page in 1890, who. every one
severely condemned the expenses of
their times, though but a fraction to
the present, an unreasonable, unwar
ranted, and unjust. 1t is rather ANUS
ing to these republican machinists
thus "ainging mud" as they call it,
at these distinguished gentlemen.
They gave what purports to be
statement from Treasurer Bacon and
Augitor Graham, which starts off with
the assertion that State expenses were
S29s, 800. SO in 1882 instead of 255, 27l. Al
as we gave it. The truth is that the
latter are Bacon's own figures, and
can be found in his special report of
two years ago, on the 4th OF the insert
pages, following page so of the report,
where the line he explicitly states the
''Net Expenses for that year to have
been $3.50, 27l.47. But this is a little
one compared with some of the rest.
The claim rot be able to under
stand where the figures OF s7s3. 800. 05
came from as he expenses of 1903 We
shall again have to refer Brer Bacon
to his own report when he was not
reporting for eve-of- election campaign
purposes--in the folder issued in
July 03 by him and certified to be
correct by one Horace f. Graham,
and Frederick S. Platt-wherein he
will find on page line 18th, his own
footing of 1921, OOl.64 of auditors
orders paying the appropriations; by
line on the same page he will find
that the legislative debentures we're
S52, 0706O and by deducting from the
total OF these items the various ones Of
income that are proper offsets for dis
bursements, he may after election
be able to find what is in his own re-
port.
They go on to ennumerate various
channels into which the money has
gone among them the Soldiers
Home, Sl1, 2s7,5O emitting to mention
that about 2-3 of it comes from Uncle
Sam;-and with similar evasions
about other items.
But their great point Of defence is
the pauper insane account taking
STAT, 25O,68 as against $37, 1913. IS in 1872.
Not stopping over the fact that, accord
ing to their reports, this is out of the
way because they omit that amount of
income from the Waterbury Asylum,
which they remembered when report
ing at the orders of the republican
State Machine-this Pauper Insane
Account is the hest illustration posi-
BILE of the abuses in Vermont admins
tration that need cure. The Swollen
proportion of this account are
due:
II To the fact that our asylums are
filed with patients supported as pau
pers who ought not to be public
charges at all, and who have relatives
legally and morally b., nd to their
support. 1t is because of this they
have multiplied nearly three fold in
the last 20 years, or to an extent with
out parallel, proportionately, any