Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1907-02-15

| saw it done. If there be anything of
christianity or of justice, now is the
hour for the State of Maine to be just
| to our boys that We're robbed of their
| birthright so many years ago. Turn
those boys away, will you, that their
money may be invested in monuments
of stone to adorn the city Of Port
| land.
| For more than twenty years I can
remember the discussion back in the
Judiciary committee of 1888, 1885 and
1887, when / had the honor to be Il
member of it, when the women of
| Maine came then, as they have since
come, knocking every year, asking
| that this state put an end to the cry
| ing disgrace that rests upon our cS-
cutcheon in permitting women to be
hcrdcd with the men of our jais
| and prisons. 1t is an outrage upon
dccency We turned the women away
| in these years saying we could not af-
ford it. They have since been turned
away, year after year with the an
swer: we cannot afford it. You can
afford it today with your so called
$30O,00 of surplus revenue. Will you
spend a hundred thousand dolr.rs
that the women of Maine should fee!
that their kind may be at least re-
| spccted for their sex. Ought
Christian State to delay them justice
longer? There can he but one an
| SWer; If you delay them, it is because
| of these demands Of the civic pride of
| Portland.
And. Mr.. Chairman, the unfortun-
ate blind of Maine-God pity them.
| Their sightless eyes can never enjoy
the architecture upon the hills of Port
land but you at least can stay the hand
that would take their money and in
| vest ii in monumental beauty that
they could never sec, and it least give
them a school where they can be
taught to earn their Dread. But
! Portland says, No!
| Our hospitals in Bangor and Au-
gusta are inefficient. The building
| across this river is 50 unsanitary 1nar
| when disease enters it runs havoc
through those soulless minds-help-
less and hopeless, sOulless and mind
lcss-God save the State of Maine
from just punishment if she turns a
| deaf ear to their entreaties and in
| vests their money in piles of brick
| and marble in the city of Portland to
crafty nothing but pride. (Applause)
Along in the late sos it was one of the
Questions and it became my duty in
1889 to fight that question-we began
The policy of opening the treasury of
this State to the hospitals of Maine.
f"r about 20 years we had given all
that the Maine General hospital had
ever asked. We had been good to that
grand old institution that had done so
much to succor distress and we began
III 1889 this splendid policy that has
| SINCE grown so great, of pouring out
| our money for the hospitals wherever
the people would come up and give
| theirs to institute them. We have them
i'll Biddeford, in Westhrook, in Lewis
ton, in Bath, in Rockland, in Augusta,
in Belfast, in Bangor, in Old Town and
down along the st. Croix. Wherever
the people out of their wealth will give,
| Maine has come up generously and
joined hands with them in order that
the poOr-aud, Mr.. Chairman. it is the
poor who earn these taxes that you are
| sitting here to distribute, all wealth
comes from their labor-in order that
the poor might receive without money
| and without price all that skill and sci
ence could furnish to alleviate human
| suffering. VIC have opened up our treas
| Ury and yet there are more knocking
at your doors. You have but begun;
| and every legislator here knows that
there are demands at this hour in adj
| Gition to the demands of last year of
more than 100000 to alleviate human
| suffering. Will you turn them down
that that money may be invested in
| brick and mortar in the city of Port
land?
Take the state prison at Thomaston.
Every gentleman acquainted with pub
| lie matters knows that that institu-
ton is a disgrace to Maine and to civ
iization Every man knows that there
| is demand for the expenditure of
S1O0,G0" to approach even modcrnized
humanitarian and decent conditions.
Let il wait; Portland needs a State
| House more
And ono thing further. The state of
Maine today is appropriating but $751;
900 q year for soldiers pensions. Every
body is familiar with the harsh injus-
ticn of many of the decisions at WASH
| iHgton; and long ago we founded the
policy-we started with $4,000, we
made it S5oN0o. made it $50, 900, made
it $4,000. We made it $4,000 and there
We stopped and yet everybody knows
that as a matter of right. as Il matter
| of Christianity. as q matter of justice,
| if You have surplus revenues. better
| spend them upon the men of '61 than
| upon pillars Of marble III the 9ty of
| Portland. Npplause) Surplus reve-
nUcs-whcn you know, Mr.. Chairman,
is a brOad-minded man, that every dol
| lar Of it is needed and might we'll be
| spent in improving tho common schools
of Maine. the embellishments of liber-
| ty upon our wooded hills. Maine is be-
hind the standard of education in other
| states. all because of the grudgng par
| simony with which you have held on to
the public funds. There is no surplus
revenue in Maine as long as there Is a
child to be educated within her hor-
dcrs. Npplause)
But if you say that in some of these
| things | am exuberantly rhetorical. if
you say am mapping out a policy too
generous and too liberal. let me remind