Jasper County Democrat, Volume 7, Number 25, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 24 September 1904 — AN OMISSION. [ARTICLE]

AN OMISSION.

The Democrat has frequently made the assertion that it was the custom of the republican papers of Rensselaer to publish only so much of the mutters concerning county affairs as they wished their readers to know. While this feature is not so pronounced as it used to be before The Democrat was established, it occassionally creeps out in the suppression of something that shows up particularly bad for the republican officials. Only last week the Republican, in its report of proceedings of the county commissioners, found it convenient to omit the report of the poor farm superintendent, which showed expenses for the last quarter to have been $567.03, and receipts for the same period to have been $68.6b, leaving a net deficit of $798.37 for the quarter.

Now, if the Republican editor had not wanted to deceive his readers, why did he omit this part of the proceedings? It is a part of the record and was of as much interest to the taxpayers as the matters the Republican did publish, and perhaps more so. The Democrat has from time to time mentioned the great expense of this institution under some of the former as well as the present management. and shown from the records aud reports that ex-Supt. Clark was the only man that has been on the farm for many years who has come anywhere near making it self-sustaining, and he was practically discharged because the

record he was making made the former management show up in too bad a light. The capacious maw of this institution should be appeased—not by spending $2,000 to $4,000 of the people’s money each year in addition to everything the farm produces—but by using a little business sense instead of political pull in selecting a superintendent. It can easily be made self-supporting, or nearly so, and the taxpayers should register a kick that would both be heard and felt in this matter. The omission of the report for the last quarter by the Republican shows that the editor of that sheet is ashamed of the record that is being made there, and we think everyone will admit that it takes a good deal to make him ashamed in such matters, too.