HITCHCOCK, O'CONNOR, Root. the gentleman from Seneca [Mr. O'CONNOR] yesterday. It is true, that he read the law correctly. It is equally true, that the appropriation of twenty-five thousand dollars was made. But, that the trustees said that twentyfive thousand dollars was all they should need to carry on the institution for fifteen years to come, is not correct. They never made any such proposition. They never thought of any such proposition. They always knew it could not be done. The gentleman must have drawn on his imagination in regard to this matter. The General Assembly passed a law authorizing the establishment of the institution. Land was purchased, plans made, and submitted to the General Assembly; and that body made additional appropriations. Mr. O'CONNOR. I do not wish to enter into any discussion; but so far as I am concerned in the matter, I would say to the gentleman from Geauga [Mr. HITCHCOCK] and to the members of this committee, that the member from Seneca did not draw on his imagination; that that statement was positively made, as a basis for arguments in favor of this institution, by members upon the floor, who had charge of the proposition, and by the then superintendent of the institution, who was, at the time, in the lobby, urging the passage of the bill. Mr. HITCHCOCK. I am obliged to the gentleman for his explanation. As I have already said, the trustees never thought of any such thing, and knew better than to say any such thing. Mr. O'CONNOR. The gentleman from Geauga [Mr. HITCHCOCK] perhaps, does not know, that at that time, he was not one of the trustees of that institution. If the gentleman will refer to the records, he will find that he was mistaken about that. Mr. HITCHCOCK. A reference to the record will show that the "gentleman from Geauga " was a member of the Board of Trustees at that time. In regard to this lobbying, I wish to say a word. I refer to this simply because the gentleman seemed to take this institution as an illustration; and intimates that this was done by lobbying. I might as well speak of that now as at any time. For sixteen years almost I have been connected with that institution. I have sought to influence members of the Legislature, to interest them in the institution, just as I will seek to interest gentlemen in this Convention to-day. I have sought to interest them by asking them individually, and collectively, at all proper hours and seasons, to visit that institution; to investigate it; to learn of its purposes, of its results, and to make suggestions as to its management; to examine its accounts with the severest scrutiny. I ask gentlemen, when visiting there for other purposes, to visit also the school rooms, from nine to twelve in the morning, from two to five in the afternoon, upon all week days, and see the children engaged in the various exercises there. Gentlemen of the Convention, I wish you to go there; not as a body, to be feasted, but to go privately and investigate the workings of that institution, and see the results, and examine into its management. This has been the kind of lobbying done. The appropriation of fifty thousand dollars was made, but we did not commence the building with [THURSDAY, that appropriation, because we knew that was not sufficient to construct it. It was the purpose, if no more was secured, to build one part of the structure so that additions could afterward be made to it. But we did not commence the erection of the building until appropriations were made equaling the estimates of one hundred and twenty-five thousand dollars. And I say upon this floor to-day, in answer to the gentleman from Seneca, [Mr. O'CONNOR], that that building, estimated to cost one hundred and twenty-five thousand dollars, actually cost one hundred and seventeen thousand dollars-eight thousand less than the estimated cost, as reported to the General Assembly. I know what I say to be true. There were additional appropriations made, and while they are reported as having been made for finishing up the building they were largely used for other purposes. In every application made for funds the trustees specified for what purpose they were desired, but frequently the General Assembly, having estimated these appropriations for different purposes, made the appropriations together, and called it for finishing the asylum buildings. Estimates made for constructing the building go merely for constructing the building proper, and do not include the heating apparatus, light, plumbing, &c., and the additional appropriations for these purposes have been reported as for finishing the building. For the money appropriated we have the land, with all the improvements made thereon, the main building, complete and furnished, the gas works, engine house and laundry, hospital building and barns. Now, I wish to refer to the charge which has been made in reference to the sale of the Central Lunatic Asylum grounds. In referring to it I am well aware of my temerity in at all questioning what may have been said by the gentleman from Erie [Mr. RooT.] I know the power of that gentleman. I saw how this Committee was moved by his urgent appeals the other day. I certainly know the risk I took in entering into this controversy at all with the gentleman from Butler, [Mr. CAMPBELL] and much more with the peculiar power of the gentleman from Erie [Mr. Roor.] But "all of that of which he spoke I saw, and part of that of which he spoke I was," as was the gentleman from Erie. And, therefore, I will not hesitate to speak of it. It was the swindling of the State in the sale of the old Central Lunatic Asylum property, and the purchase of that upon which the building is now being constructed. The gentleman from Erie [Mr. Roor] said he was present and knew in regard to the circumstances connected with that transfer. It occurred to me to inquire, when I heard the remarks of the gentleman upon the floor on Saturday last, with what prophetic ken he looked forward to the year 1873, and himself a member of this Constitutional Convention. During all those three years past, since the transfer was made, that he postponed his denunciation of that transaction, that he might make it with better effect three years afterward upon this floor in the consideration of this question. Why has not the powerful voice Mr. ROOT. Will the gentleman allow me one word? Does he say that I delayed three years to denounce it? Did not I denounce it on the floor of the Senate? Mr. HITCHCOCK. I presume the gentleman opposed it on the Senate floor. Mr. ROOT. Did not I denounce it as a corrupt job on the Senate floor? Mr. HITCHCOCK. If the gentleman says he did Mr. ROOT. I understand the gentleman to say that I held my peace three years. I assert here, and I can call witnesses to prove it, to attest it, that I denounced it at the time as one of the most corrupt jobs, one that had been hounded through the Senate by the officers of that very institution. where the maniac's cry may disturb the slumbers of citizens by night, as by day, the convalescent patients in that asylum walking for exercise are submitted to the taunts and jeers of reckless boys, and all that class of persons roaming the streets of this city. That we hoped to save a lunatic asylum being established in the centre of a large city. As to the financial feature of that operation, what was it? A sale of seventy acres of land for $200,500, and the purchase of three hundred acres of land for $100,000. It may have been at the time a large price for three hundred acres. I am not able to say, but that is the fact; and more than this, that we got the purchase money of that property sold by the State. The trustees of this asylum had nothing whatever to do with it. It was passed through the hands of these commissioners to the treasury of the State, and could be used only when appropriated therefrom in pursuance of law. That is the transaction, and I regret, gentlemen, very much, that I have occupied so much of your time, before coming to the consideration of that which I regard more important. Mr. HITCHCOCK. I have no doubt that the gentleman did denounce it. I was not present in the Senate at the time, but the point I was arriving at was this: with reference to the time of the transaction, and during the years that have elapsed, that this thing has rested so quietly without the attention of the people of the State having been called to it by the powerful voice and pen of the gentleman, and being called to it at this time. Now, Mr. Chairman, what are the facts in regard to that transfer? I pass now to the consideration of certain I did vote authorizing the sale of that Central data to which I very respectfully call the attenLunatic Asylum property. I did not vote to tion of this committee. It will be recollected authorize the trustees of that asylum to sell that in the discussion of this question, decades and make the transfer. I did not vote author- have been taken, and the different expenses izing them to have anything whatever to do during those decades, and the increased exwith that transfer. I voted authorizing a com- penses from the first decade until the present mission, consisting of Governor HAYES, Treas-one have been exhibited. As the gentleman urer WARNER and Attorney General POND, to from Butler [Mr. CAMPBELL] desired to be sell that property, provided the sale could be explicitly understood, and as I did understand made at an amount not less than $200,000, and him, that in the showing he made he included to purchase the other property, provided its all the expenses of these institutions, including cost should not exceed $100,000. Now, Mr. lands and improvements, the various years he Chairman, this asylum property was located, referred to, I exclude all those expenses for not in the heart of the city, but in a part of the those years except what are actually connected city that was then, and is now still more rapid- with the running of the institution; in other ly filling up. I voted not with especial refer- words, what is called current expenses, includence to what that property might be worth, if ing repairs and salaries, leaving out of view speculators should divide it into city lots permanent improvements. I hold in my hand to sell upon time; only having reference à carefully prepared statement, which exhibits to what I believed to be the interests of the the number cared for each year, commencing State in making the transfer of the Luna- with 1850 and ending with 1872, the expenditic Asylum, situated in what must be ul-ture per capita, and the amount expended for timately the heart or center of а great permanent improvements, lands, buildings, etc. city, surrounded completely by buildings, The statement is as follows: HITCHCOCK. I find, Mr. Chairman, and the committee will understand why I call attention to this, it is in reference to the rapidly increasing expenditures connected with these institutions-I find that in ten years, commencing in 1850, the average per capita expenses in these institutions was $149.84. I find that from 1860 to 1872, a period of thirteen years, bringing us up to the present time, the per capita averaged $215. I find that the increase per capita in the first ten years is 691⁄2 per cent. The increase per capita in the thirteen years from 1860 to 1872 is 2912 per cent. I find another fact. I find that as you take each year, you can by this column of expenditures per capita, read the history of the country in the years which are past. As was the business of the country and the prices of the country, during these twenty-three years, so are these per capita expenses as they appear upon this table. I find another fact, that from 1866, a time as all are aware, of the highest prices in this country, from the year 1866 to 1872, a period of six years, that the decrease per capita has been $63.87, or including the soldiers' orphans which were included in the estimate of the gentleman from Butler [Mr. CAMPBELL], and ought to be in this, the per capita decrease in those years has been $68.49. Mr. CAMPBELL. Between what periods? I find, Mr. Chairman, that this decrease per capita during these six years is 34 per cent., being 42 per cent. greater decrease in the last six years, than the increase during the period of thirteen years, showing that all the increase in the thirteen years per capita, was in the first seven years, and that the decrease was largely in excess, at least 4 per cent. in excess of what was the per capita increase for the entire period of thirteen years. There is another fact in this connection to which I desire to call attention. I find by reference to the report on statistics, from the Secretary of State for 1872, that the increased percentage per capita of supporting the poor in the county infirmaries of the State, between the years 1850 and 1860, was 40 per cent.; between 1860 and 1870, 60 per cent. And, by the way, these are institutions managed by the county infirmary directors, elected by the people, with their acts supervised by the county boards of commissioners, also elected by the people—not referring to these boards with any desire of objecting to them, for I have always sustained and shall continue to sustain and vote for those boards, unless I see reasons which I have never yet seen. Yet it is a fact that in these institutions, thus governed aud supervised, the increase of expenditure was 40 per cent. from 1850 to 1860, and 60 per cent. from 1860 to 1870. Another fact. I find that the increased percentage per capita for the support of the poor for the twenty years, or two decades from 1850 to 1870, is 134 per cent., while the increased cost per capita in our benevolent institutions is 91 per cent. The adage is very frequently used that figures will not lie. If these figures are correct, and they are prepared with the utmost care, and frequent revision, the fact stares us in the face, that in this man [THURSDAY, agement for support of the poor, to which I have before referred, the increase in twenty years has been 134 per cent., while, in the other case, that of our benevolent institutions, it has been 91 per cent. But a little more in particular; the increase per cent. per capita, from 1860 to 1870, for the poor, over that from 1850 to 1860, was 20 per cent., while the increase per cent. in our benevolent institutions for the same period, from 1860 to 1870, was less than that from 1850 to 1860 by seven per cent., showing to the credit of the benevolent institutions an advantage of 27 per cent. during those years, when the prices of all supplies were the highest in our country. There is another fact to which I would call the attention of the committee for a moment in this connection, as I want to make this thing as plain as is possible in the nature of the information which I possess. I trust that better information can be secured in the way suggested by the gentleman from Butler, but this is the best at hand. I find in the comparison of some of the principal staples that enter into the supplies of those institutions, as they do in our families, that in 1850, flour was $3.50, coffee 10 cents, sugar 5, and beef 6 cents. In 1860, flour was $4.50, coffee 14 cents, sugar 7, and beef 11 cents; an increase between 1850 and 1860 of 48 per cent. In 1870, I find flour between $7 and $8, coffee 22 cents, sugar 11 cents, beef 121⁄2 cents, making an increase of 4734 per cent in cost of supplies. While the actual increase per capita in those years for the support of our benevolent institutions was 29 per cent., the actual increase in cost of supplies was 4734 per cent. Now, Mr. Chairman, does any gentleman undertake to say that this shows too much? There are more cared for in those institutions now than then, but in proportion to the number cared for, not by the rule which is shown in reports of the disbursements in this State, but by the correct rule, the more you care for the more cheaply per capita you can care for them. That is the single answer to any suggestion that this shows too much. Here I will refer, to the fact not as perhaps having any material bearing upon the question now before the committee, but simply as a matter of information, that in 1850 the duplicate of Ohio was $439,876,340, in 1860, $888,302,601, in 1872, $1,524,323,118, an increase from 1850 to 1860 of 102 per cent., from 1860 to 1872, of 71 6-10 per cent. Mr. CHAIRMAN: It seems to me at this point, without multiplying figures, which may very easily be made, it is sufficiently established that so far as the ordinary expenses of these institutions are concerned, there is not mismanagement and extravagance, but there is good management and economy. There is not a rapidly increasing, but on the other hand, a rapidly diminishing per capita expenditure. But it may be well enough that we look at these matters a little further; therefore, the attention of the committee is called to the fact of the expense of supporting like unfortunates in the States which surround us. I call the especial attention of the .committee to the fact, that in the last year, 1872, the per capita expense in the State of New York for deaf and dumb exceeded those in Ohio, by $68,41. That for the blind it exceeded Ohio $113,82. That the City Blind Asylum |