Rensselaer Republican, Volume 20, Number 31, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 5 April 1888 — TOPICS OF THE DAY. [ARTICLE]

TOPICS OF THE DAY.

THE STORY Off THE CRIMES AT THE INSANE HOSPITAL TOLD IN A FEW WORDS. The “Brown Bill,” a partisan Democratic measure, introduced in the Legislature of 1883, by Jason B. Brown,made the three great benevolent institutions of the State the ipoils of the Democratic caucus,and “Dr.” Harrison, Phil Gapen and B. H. Burrell were elected by a strict party vote as the Trustees for the Indiana Hospital for the Insane. Howhave they administered their trust? These men have filled the Asylum with their political henchmen for partisan purposes. They have purchased legislative influence by wholesale nepotism. They have established sinecures, iiave paid excessive wages to political favorites, and reduced to a system the traffic for place. They have permitted and encouraged political activity, electioneering,tberaisingof campaign funds; the formation of Democratic political clubs ft the Asylum; the candidacy of emplo' es and their attendance at political conventions, thus impairing the efficiency of the service and diverting the funds of the whole people to party pur» poseS in consideration for political wort They have so conducted the Asylum that 643 changes bad to be made in leas than four years bv reason of the unfitness and incompetency of their employes. They have thus consigned the insane to the care of reckless, brutal attend* ants, by whom one patient was wilfully suffered to escape, by whose negligence others were killed,and by whose cruelty many of these helpless beings were systematically beaten, tormented and abused. Under their administration, hogs were killed for the tables of the patients out of a drove dying from a malignant and contagious disease; oleomargarine, rancid and maggoty butter, decayed and wormy apples, peaches and prunes; bad bread and coflee; rice, fish, pork, cheese and other articles unfit to eat were furnished and supplied to the insane, while food better in quality and in greater variety was placed upon the tables of the officers. They caused goods to be accepted by the Hospital which were not according to the contract, and which were unfit for use, because such goods were furnished by contractors who were their personal and political friends. They fraudulently allowed a claim of SSOO to be paid out of State 'funds, of which they were trustees, to C. 8. Weener, an attorney employed in defence of the iniquitous management before tne Committee of the House of Representatives. After their misdoings had been exposed, they procured the appointment of a committee by the Senate for the purpose of exonerating themselves from their guilty responsibility for these abuses. The investigation of their conduct was taken away from the Senate Committee on Benevolent Institutions, to which it properly belonged, and was consigned to a special committee appointed by Green Smith, who was a personaTbeneficiary of the present corrupt system of party management. Thia committee was composed in part of other beneficiaries of this corrupt management, among whom was a relative of one of th“ members of the Board of -TruftßeA-gn.i a TgardHty oh saig~~com~ mittee were the devoted political adherents of said Board. They procured as the fit instrument of their defense an attorney, Henry N. Spaan, a man then under charge of fraudulently altering election returns, and who was then under indictment for crimes committed in connection therewith. They Corruptly procured the appointment of this man, their own attorney, to be the attorney of the Senate Committee, who were their judges, and thus caused him not only to assume inconsistent duties hut to be corruptly allowed the sum of 1200 out of the moneys belonging to the State for services performed in their behalf. By their said attorney there was drawn up and prepared a pretended report and finding of facts, filled with falsehoods and misstatements of. every kind, which paper was signed by the chairman of the Senate Committee, and adopted by vote of the Democratic members of the Senate, and published as a correct statement of their administration of the Hospital. Mr. Gapen abandoned his duties as Trustee for a year to engage in business in Arkansas, and yet demanded and received salary for services which were never performed, out of a futid which w as not applicable for such a purpose. As Treasurer of the Asylum he received from Mellen & Co. a rebate upon the purchase money for goods sold to the Asylum by that firm, which rebate he feloniously embezzled and when detected he falsely charged that the sum had been appropriated by Dr. Fletcher, an innocent man, who had never received the money. According to his own testimonv he was in the habit, as Treasurer of the Board, of paying out money without taking receipts therefor, and he erroneously paid out funds of the State for debts which had already been paid in full. Even after the investigation conducted by the last General Assembly, he continued to abandon his. duties as Trustee and Treasurer of the. Board tor proeecu e his private business in Arkansas, and continued to draw pay for services which he neglected to perform. »—■ ■ FAITHFUL ALLIES: Detroit Tribune. The third party will make an extraordinary effort to carry Indiana for the Democrats.