Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1921-02-25

FSs4u &uS coSe III A0<Vs teSS CredftS Oh
| the State Of Maine:
Salaries and clerk hire $21,544.4o
General Office expenses 15,544.S3
Aid Of mothers with depen-
| dent children 54,0S5 81
Board and care of
neglected hill
dren s104,ss5.00
Less amount receiv-
ed from cities and
| towns 19,SG2.SS
Making the States part ss4, 2.64
| The following bills chargeable to
1890 account have not been paid:
General office expenses S 1889
Aid of mothers with depen-
pendent children 1o,5s3,5S
Board and care of neglected
children 1e,5sO.ss
Making total of the States
appropriations sls9, 1885, q
Out of that there should be taken
over $1,000, the expense/of dispensing
this charity, and my people at home
are asking why it is costing so much.
That is one reason for this order, and
another is whether we want a board
| Of Charities and Corrections, or
| whether we want this charity dis
pensed in some other way. A few
years ago this department was Great
ed with small sum of money. It
has grown now very large. You know
by the budget what they are askin.,
fof this year. They are asking for
considerably larger sum than they
expended in 1920. No wit is time to
curtail and see whether we cal lop
off some of this extravaganza. ana it
looks to me as though it was I. w
time to start. Now I want to racite
one case and only one at the present
time, and that is the case of nan
| who is getting seventy five dollars
month in Portland whose three
children are put out. The State is
paying three dollars for every c2ilj,
three dollars for their board ind
| clothing. though the city is only pay
Now the State of Maine is paying for
all these neglected children, large
Psums of money; and the towns,
though I do, not mean that they are
doing it wiIfully, are sending these
| children away where they can care
for them cheaper and making the
State pay the difference. l think that
there should be law for that man,
who gets seventy-five dollars a month
and who last summer, know of my
own knowledge, was getting over one
hundred dollars month, and still not
supporting his family. He has been
under probation because he was in
Boston with a married woman, and
they caught him there, brought him
back and had him under probation
until last December, Now he has
agreed to pay something. but I will
guarantee that. il they do not set
hold of the money first, nobody IN the
State, Board of Charities will get a
cent of it. I think it is time for us to
do something in this respect.
! 1t is true this thing has gone on,
and have only cited one case. These
cases are occurring all over this State,
and | think it is time to find out where
these different cases are and whether
we should have this thing go on in
definitely, or try and stop it at the
present time.
] want to say again as to the high
way department. which this includes,
which department have got a number
Of contract under the cost-plus system.
Is there any gentleman in this House
tk.an a
under the cost -plus system? They have
! gone farther, and l will cite one in
stance in either Hancock county or
Waldo, I will not say which
! Mr. BUZZELL of Belfast: 1t was
+, Waldo.
Mr.. ROUNDS: All right. if the gen.
| tleman from Belfast (Mr. BuzZelD
wants to make 1t Waldo, we will have
| it Waldo. 1t was where an italian
built two miles of road for ten thou
sand dollars, hauled his gravel farther
than it had to be hauled by the high
fway department. and this highway
] department, with all it's knowledge
and skill, drove that Italian to throw
a steam roller into the hole that he
| dug and it tipped over. He says. Me,
me no wanta do it again; me tip her
over again." But the engineer. says.
| Tip her in again or "send her in
again., and it tipped over the second
| time; we take the contract away from
| you and we make money for you. That
lit what the highway department does.
For seventeen hundred feet of road it
cost them five thousand dollars and
! they made that poor Italian practically
a bankrupt and made him pay for every
cent which they had put in. Still they
| would be willing to give him other con-
| tracts afterward because they said he
knew how to build roads; but 1t cost
him this amount of money for them to
| find out how he built roads.
| will not dwell on this any longer.
| can see by standing up that garage
| up here on Capitol street, and If am
not saying what is right I would like
| to be corrected, that the gentleman
who signed the order for them to go
ahead and build such a building as
| that thought he was building a small
| garage for the seven thousand dollar
automobile that the highway commits
sioners and the engineer are riding
around in.
The SPEAKER: Would the gentle
| man from Portland {Mr Rounds)
| make a motion? Discussion is not in
order until motion has been made.
understand that you move that the