The weekly chieftain. [volume] (Vinita, Craig County, Okla.) 1905-1913, 1912-09-13
HORACE GREELY JR
BREAKS OUT
(By Horace Greeley, Ja.)

10 thS expenditure OF money Tor some
thing that nobody needs, and the othe
is the payment of money for somethinj
without value that everybody needs
Just why il was that in establishini
statehood in Oklahoma the people con
sented to flagrant dishonesty in tn,
conduct OF the states business is pas
Handing out. One is unwilling to be
lieve that the people themselves ar,
dishonest or consciously in leagu,
with grafters and incompetents, ol
that knowingly they would uphold the
knayes who try to get something fol
nothing.
Let's be specific. During statehood
legislative authority was given for the
Ierection of number of public build
ings-many of them to be used for
educational purposes, for the teaching
of integrity and good morals to the
boys and girls of Oklahoma. The
writer has not seen all these buildings,
but he has seen a number of them, and
without exception those he saw were
monuments to the incompetency, if
not corruption, of those who were
charged with seeing that the taxpay-
ers got dollar for dollar for the money
invested l could imagine nothing
more demoralizing to good standards
with which boys and girls should meas
ure men in public life than to gaze
upon those buildings and know that
such shameless practices we're permit
ted by men who had sworn on oath
faithfully to perform their official du-
ties in protecting the public.
In time the boys and girls must
learn that these things are the result
of machine politics, and that what was
stolen from the people, either through
1ncompetnecy or crookedness. was
taken from the people that elections
might be manipulated; that the eA
penses of personal campaigns might
be paid; that blood money might be
given to political thugs who threaten
ed violence unless rewarded for their
services, and that the countless selfish
schemes of men in power might in
secrecy be carried to success, while
the people were made to believe that
they were being srved by patriots.
There is one public building in west
ern Oklahoma that is such mon
strosity that those responsible for it
should be punished. And that structure
will stand there cracking and sinking
and crumbling year after year while
those who fathered it will range the
state prating of their loyalty to its in
stitutions and invoking posterity to re-
member them as public benegactors.
Drop down into the south central part
Of the state and the ruins of another
will be found. What the outcome at
that place will be nobody can guess.
Travel in still another direction. Go
70 Vinita. The writer has never seen
he buildings for the asylum for in
sane persons now under construction
1T that place. He has talked to repu-
able men, however, who have seen
hem. First of all, let it be said that Il
he taxpayers of Oklahoma are grey
ously burdened with public debts.
every cent that is spent should bring
ull value. The state, practically is
Without an asylum for insane persons.
t is true that it has an asylum at Fort
supply, but even if the title were un-
louded, no reasonable man should be
Wiling to say that what Oklahoma now
las at Fort Supply is adequate, eco {
omical or desirable. {
The annual per capita cost of main {
aiming patients at Fort Supply is far {
n excess of what is paid by contract I
0 private institution in central Ok !
ahoma for even better service. So
he taxpayers of Oklahoma through
heir representatives in the legislature,
anctioned the building of an asylum, q
S was right and proper 1t matters
ot if Vinita was chosen as the result Z
+ political dealing Practically all !
tate institutions are located in that
yay, just as the asylum was located
t Fort Supply, in behalf of which titles
town lots at Supply are now in pos d
ession of scores of persons who had
o right to them Vinita is one of the
lost delightful towns i'm Oklahoma,
nd no state institution could be in
lore healthful spot By the rules of =
le game Vinita was entitled to all she
ot
But the point is that Vinita is en- !,
tied to a whole lot more than she ;,
ot or will ever get And when vi :.
ita was denied what she should have =
ad, every taxpayer in Oklahoma was =
kaWiSe danriVed af what ha cbo,,Id