The Wahpeton times. [volume] (Wahpeton, Richland County, Dakota [N.D.]) 1879-1919, 1910-10-20

'AOANAAA4 OS1Ol
By the Grafton Homo Tor the Feeble
Minded and was one Of those bills that
were dumped upon my desk during the
last night Of the session and was one
out Of which something had to como in
order to keep tho expenditures Of the
state within ito revenues. And 90
had to take out some Of ito items.
Do you think I took out anything
that would in any way be Of any a..
sistance to those poor, feeble minded
childrenf Do you think I cut out q
single item that they really neededf
Certainly I did not. I thought to my
self that perhaps there were several
items in the bill that they could really
do without, but I WASH Z sure 20 I al.
lowed everything that would in any
way affect the children directly.
What did I cut QUIT Well, I ran
down the lists Of items and I cut out
ono item for $1,000 for improvements
to the grounds; S2,5oo for . new farm
house and 1880 for IN addition to the
barn. I have been to that institution
. number Of times and know all about
the conditions there. have looked
over the grounds and the barns care.
fully and I know exactly how they are
Axed.
Those poor, feeble.minded children
don't live in that farm house; they
don't live in that barn; they don t
spend very much Of their time on those
grounds, and whom they do they find
them in splendid condition. So vetoed
those items because I thought they
could wait little while Tor those
items. That barn and the house at the
Grafton Home are both better now
than 9 great many farmhouses and
barns throughout the state.
"Oh," says the editor Of the Grafton
Record, "but he didn't cut out any.
thing from the appropriation at Devils
Lake, his home town. He allowed them
all they asked for"
Yes, my friends, did, but they didn t
ask for anything like what the Grafton
Home did. They asked for only $4,000
for modest little hospital and $4,000
for new building and they needed
them both. But even then, thought
that perhaps, might cut little on
these amounts.
And 80 I got the superintendent Of
the Devils Lake Home on the telephone
and told him that I was in a serious
predicament as had more appropria.
lions than revenues. I asked him If he
couldn't help me little, by getting
along without one of the items Of the
bill and suggested that the hospital
might be kept for a couple Of years.
"For Gods sake, Governor" he re-
piled, ''don't cut out that hospital. We
need it worse than anything else." And
I investigated the matter little and
found out that when scarlet fever was
started in the institution last year, it
spread so rapidly, because they did not
have proper facilities to prevent it, that
several lives were sacrificed as result.
Measles later broke out at the Home
and went through the entire institution
before it could be checked The doc.
tors didn't use to think that measles
were very dangerous, but lately when
they come with all their complications,
a serious or even fatal illness may re.
suit. And neither Of these epidemics
could be stopped because the Home did
not have proper preventive appliances.
And so I approved that bill, not because
the Home is at Devils Lake, but be-
cause it called for necessary expendi-
ture.
And he took $4,000 of the state
money" says the Grafton Record,
"He improved the military reservation
at Devils Lake, his home town. He
didn It cut any Of that appropriation. {"
No, my friends, didn't and I'll tell
you why.
I want to say to you, fellow citizens,
that we owe great debt to our citi-
zen soldiers, men who leave their bust
ness and regular pursuits to drill and
train themselves for service in case the
country should need them. They go
into encampment every year, giving
their time for practically nothing so
they can learn to fight in the event it
may become necessary.
And the least we can do for these
self-sacrifcing citizen soldiers is to give
them as splendid an equipment as we
can. I wish you could all 60 down to
Bismarck and see the great Fort Abra.
ham Lincoln, that the government main
tains there, the splendid drill and
parade ground and the equipment pro-
vided for those men. Then think you
would agree with me that the soldiers
need to be taken care of.
The land in that reservation was
given to North Dakota by the United
States Government, and the least we
could do was to put it into good shape
for our troops. The grounds were full
of holes in which the soldiers stepped
and over which they fell in their drill
and they ran all kinds Of risks of
sprained ankles and other injuries. They
had to have good parade and drill
grounds and place for encampment;
it was state necessity and I signed
the bill providing for it.
JOHN BUR KE
ON THE
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