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About The Alliance-independent. (Lincoln, Nebraska) 1892-1894 | View Entire Issue (Sept. 29, 1892)
THE ALLIANCE -INDEPENDENT. 9 THE LEAKING OLD SHIP The Greatest Exposure of Political Corrup tion Ever Made in Nebraska- THE STATE IS BEING- STOLEN BLIND. The Taxpayers Robbed of $10,000 in One Year on Coal Deals How Beef Cattle Grow After They Are Bought Criminality or Gross Negligence on the Part of State Officers Some Men May Find a Home in the State Penitentiary. 'There's something rotten in tho state of Denmark." Hamlet. Hon. E. C. Rewick, one of Lincoln's most reliable and respectable citizens, a life-long republican, a few days ago, v had it announced that on Tuesday eve nine:. September 27, he would speak at "the Lansing theater, and give the public the results of his investigations into the management of our state insti tutions. He was greeted by an intelli gent audience, at the appointed hour. He then proceeded to deliver an ad dress of a liti?e over ore hour, in which he exposed more political corruption then was ever exposed in the iame length of time in Nebraska. The fol lowing is a partial report of his speech which will soon be published in full for distribution: Mr. Chairman, Ladies and Gentlemen: I am pleased to address such an in telligent audience and to see so many democrats, and old-time republicans. I suppose you have come here to learn how a man who was reared in the re publican faith and has voted that ticket for 20 years can find reason for leaving that party. Like that distinguished statesman from Nemaha county, I have been down in the hold of the old leak ing ship, and seen the gr at holes stove in her. I have come on deck and seen her sails rent in twain. I have gazed upon the ship's crew, and find them an unreliab'o and irresponsible 'ot, and that she is drifting upon the rocks. Now since the captain and crew have refused to mend these frightful leaks, or to change the course of tho ship so as to bi ing her salely into tho harbor, I think I am jus ified in leaving the ship, rather than to stay with her and go down with her untrustworthy offi cers and crew. I shall confine myself to-night entire ly to the discussion of state officers and employees, '.Aid the financial interests of the tax-payers The republicans have fi led every state office, with two exceptions, since Nebraska became a state, and every misues of public funds must be charged up to them. In making appropriations for the support of state iustitutions, tho "far mer legislature" of 1891 had nothing to guide them but the advice of republi can state officers, and heads of state institutions. In fact these officers in almost every case sdyised and urged larger appropriations than wero made." Mr. Rewick here gave a statement of tho amounts appropriated to support each of the twelve state institut'ons, a total of $1,183,511 including $180,000 for new buildings. ''In paying out this vast sum, the board of publ c lands and buildings has entire charge. This board consists of the commissioner of public lands and buildings who is chairman, the secre tary of sta'e, treasurer and attorney general. "All claims for goods of every description to be iurnisbed to any of these institutions must be made out on three vouchers which must be signed by the party selling the goods. At the end of each month these vouchers are forwarded to the board which meets to ' pass upon them. If approved they are sent to the auditor, who draws a war rant on the treasury in favor of the party signing tho voucher. "Now I want to call your attention to the Lincoln insane asylum, but I want to fay that I am led to believe from investigation that tho same state of affairs prevails in all the othtrs. "For more than a year I havo given half my time to investigating tho pur chase of supplies for that institution. At first, I was hahdicaped on all sides. But after a time I got started, and I have kept on till I have formed a net work within whose folds are securely held two of the state's employees. If the evidence I present you here tonight duly presented to a court and jury shall be the means of sending two men over tJ yonder penitentiary, then 1 shall feoi that justice in a measure shall have been done. and my labors not been in vain. The duty of purchasing supplies for the instituiion has been generally left to the steward and farm boss. Under Thayer, Dan Lauer was steward and Frank Hubbard farm boss. Lauer left most of the purchasing to Hubbard, but not till he had fully initiated him into the mysteries of the business. Tho three principal articles to bo pur chased are beef, coal and Hour and to these I ask your attention first. Let me begin to give you practical illustrations of how the business has been done. . The farm boss goes out to farmer II H. Smith and buys a two year-old heifer wt. 800 pounds price 3 cents per pound value $25 00. Smith signs the vouches IN blank. These vouchers as filled cut and on file in the state house call for two heifers, weight 1980 pounds, at 4i per pound, value $89.19, a clear steal of $64 10. He goes to G. P. Loose, buys one jersey cow. 800 lbs, 2f cents, $20.00 Loose signs vouchers is blank. Voucher now reads: Two beeves 2100 lbs 3 cts. $63. a steal of $43. He goes to F. Abbott buys one cow for $28. Voucher signed as before now calls for $43.75 a steal of $15.75. He goes to G. W. Schemerhour, buys 5 beeves, $25 each, $125. Vouchers filled our for 6 beeves costing $181.20, a clear gain of $56.80. Again he buys of J. P. Higgins 10 beeve?, 9871 lbs., 3 cents, $370.15. Vouchers signed in blank as usual, call for 10 beeves 10,070 lbs., , an increase of $83.00. These are only a few of the actual cases cited by Mr. Rewick which he has the sworn evidence to support. COAL. Now let us,,turn to the matter of coal. Hero is where the big money is mad. We will take the year 1S91, although doubtless equally startling results would be secured in any previous year. We find the state charged up with coal.as follows for the months of 1891: January 548 tons, Feb. 620, March 560, April 412, May 524, (getting colder you see,) June 511, July 450 tons, (that's when things freeze up at the apylum,) August 499. Sept. 466, Oct. 711, Nov. 74?', Dec. 761 a grand total of 6797 tons for the year costing the state $16, 978.48. At the begining of 1892 Lauer and Hubbard were still at the . old stand. But the firm of Betts & Weaver who usually furnished the coal failed, and S. H. Burnham succeeded to the busi ness. But Mr. Betts still looked after tho business. Mr. Burnbam complain ed that there was nothing in furnish ing coal at the prices allowed, but Bstts said for him to wait and see, it wculd all come out right but it didn't. For January Mr. Betts made out the vouch er calling for $1,030.05 and sent it up to Mr. Lauer. That enterprising gentle man seems to havo been afraid he wouldn't get his rake-off so he dipped his pen in red ink and cut down the amount to $795.99 a reduction of $234. 00, and to this day no record can be found whero that waa paid or any at tempt made to collect it. So Mr. Burn ham gave up tho contract, and the WhiteDreast company began furnish ing coal. In February, a shorter and much mil der month, tho state was charged up with 485 tons. In March tho amount arose to 542 tons. Then Mr. Louer stepped down and out and tho new management come in. COMPARISONS. Now let us compare number of tons of coal during tho past six months under the new management and during the corresponding six months under tho reign of Dan Lauer: 1891. 1892. SAVING April 412 331 81 May.... 524 . 197 327 Juno 511 262 249 July 450 19 431 August 499 70 429 September ....466 108 858 Total 2862 987 1875 Will any sane man undertake to argue that the 28t'2 tons of coal charged up to the slate for those six months of 1891 were really delivered and burned at the asylum? Now let us make one more and a still stronger comparison. There is charged up for July, 1891, the hottest month of the year, 450 tons of coal; for January, 1892, when we had that awfully cold weather, there is charged up only 353 tons, a decrease of 97 tons. Another comparison: In January, 1891, 543 tons costing $1,819 90; in Jan uary, 1892, 353 tons c sting $795.96, a difference of 190 tons ami a saving of $1,023.94. This saving resulted, not from a reform on the part of Mr. Lauer, but because of the failure of Belts & Weaver and Dan's fear that his rake off wouldn't be forth coming. But the strongest and most odiou comparison is this: July, '91, 450 tons costing. ... . . .$917.79 July, '92, 19 tons costing. . . 04.75 A saving of 431 tons costing 853.04 AMOUNT OP COAL NEEDED. Now I have studied this matter very closely. I have talked with tho en gineer and fireman at the asylum, the man who haute the coal. Tho came men fill lhtse places now that did last yfar I have ascertained from them -about the amount of coal actually con sumed. Using their figures, and the figures under the new management, I have been able to make up a safe esti mate of the actual amount of coal con sumed at the aylum. It is as follows: r or four months June, July, August and September 4 1-9 ions per day, or 1271 per month; for the other eight months, 9i tons er dy, or 280 tons per month; a total for the year of 2,750 tons. The amount charged for during 1891 is6, 797 tons,or 4 047 tons more than were actually nn ded. What became cf this coal? Was it ever taken to the insti tution? D d it ever appear anywhere exc pt in the vouchers? This 4047 tons at the average price of $2.s7 per ton amounts to over $10,000. That is the amount of which the tax payers were robbed in one year, on one article at one institution. Is it any wonder taxes are so high in Nebraska? KINDS OF COAL. The fellows who are in this deal have another little scheme: Not one car in four that was charged as pea coal was of that kind. It was slack. Hun dreds of tons charged as lump coal were nothing but pea coal. THE SIZE OF THE PILE. Can you imagine the ' size of a pile of coal containing 6,797 tons? It would fill a bin 12 ft. wide, 8 ft. high, and more than half a mi'e long. Or it would take 340 cars of 40,000 lbs capacity making a train of over 2$ miles long to transport it. So much f( r coal. Now let us con sider the case of SOME FINE COLTS. It peems that along during '87, '88 and '89, Dr. Knapp who was superintendent at the asylum while all these things were going on, and steward Lauer' took a notion to raise some fine colts. They had some very fine mares on the asylum farm which were supposed by the general publio to belong to the state. These mares were bred, and in due time vouchers made out to the amount of $210 for horse service. This was paid by the state. Now these colts nave disappeared. No one seems to know where they are. They are not on the farm. Now if these colts be longed to tho state, then they have been stolen. If they really belonged to Dr. Knapp and Dan Lauer, tho $210 paid for horse service was stolen from the state. They can take their choice. DRUGS. Every quarter tho contract is let for f groceries, clo'hlng, drugs, etc. Drugs s supposed to include liquors. Shill ing Bros, had tho contract. But it seems that they didn't have tho brand of "ryo" Dan wanted. So he goes to his friend Bud Lindsey, and says: . I want 5 gallons of wedding rye, $4.50 per gal. snd 5 gal. imported port wine. $3.00 per gal." Tho bill amounting to $37.50. I do not deny that Lindsey furnished tho liquor, but I do deny that it over went to the asylum. HOUSE RENT. The law plainly states that the stew ard shall live at the asylum. But from February 1886 to March 1891, $1350 was allowed for bouse rent for Mr. Lauer. LAUER LIVED WELL. The steward supplied himself with provisions of all kinds from the asylum. At one time, two thousand pounds of Hour was ordered, and one half of it was sent to Lauer's house. Provisions enough haVe been taken for this pur pose to supply five families the size of his. SIZE OF TilE STKALS. The amounts allowed for groceries, clothing, boots and shoes, drugs, etc. during 4891, and previously, were at least 50 per cent higher on an average than the b lis for the same items have been under the new management. In asmuch as there have been more pati ents in 1892, there is no explanation of this fact except that of a gigantic steal made up of a multitude of little steals. AN OUTRAGEOUS DEAL One of tho most outrageous ' deals perpetrated is the following in which II. D. Hathaway, one of the proprietors of the State Journal is implicated. It should be remembered that Dan Lauer Is a brother-in-law of this Hathaway: The asylum bands plowed and sowed forty acres of oats on land belonging to the family of the steward mar the asylum. July 30, 1891, the oats were sold by F. L. Hathaway & Co. (the company is H. D. Hathaway of tho Journal for $10 per acre, $400. The asylum hands cut, threshed and stored this grain. Along in the winter these oats were hauled over to the asylum. Most of them were mixed with corn belonging to the asylum, and ground in a feed mill. Then they were hauled back to tho steward's farm and fed to cattle. The cattle were then sold to the asylum. Is there anything in the annals of jobbery to beat that? ARE STATE OFFICERS GUILTY? This is a question that must occur to every citizen who learns these facts. These criminal acts of stealing have been committed by men appointed by ana under the direction, and supervision of the state officers. Is it possible that all these deals couM es cape the observation of the officers? They were aware of the corruption at Hastings and Norfolk. Is it possible they never suspected the steals perpe trated under their very noses? ' There are a few incidents that indi cate ' that the state officers haye not been in a condition of such abject ignor ance. Not long since, afferr the new man agement came in at the asylum, some head-light oil was ordered from Shil ling Bros. They made a charge of 75c. per gallon for it. The new super intendent investigated and found that it could be got for 40c of any other dealeV. He asked Shilling Bros, to re duce the price. They refused, and then the superintendent refused to approve the voucher. But Shilling Bros, went directly to the board and got the bill allowed. Again tbe same firm presented a bill for drugs which the superintendent de. " (Contineed on page 12. ) "'