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Poor Outside the Poor Farm

There is much interest being taken in the enormously increasing expenses of the poor. It seems sometimes as if this would eventually become a burden that the people cannot stand, and some relief will have to be had. If the Board of Supervisors are powerless to stay the tide, new legislation will have to be had at the earliest opportunity. Every good citizen desires that the poor should be cared for, but at the same time no one desires to pay for this purpose two or three times as much as necessary. Some check must be made to confine these expenditures to their legitimate sphere and prevent the robbery of the public treasury in the name of the poor, and making it a scheme and source of profit to the unworthy. There is an alarming increase in these expenses, as will be seen by the figures we give. We do not find that the county auditor has made any published reports of warrants drawn for particular purposes farther back than 1876.

From the files of The Republican we get the figures from the county auditor's report of warrants drawn for various years for the "poor outside of poor farm," as follows:

For 1876....................$2,004.41
For 1877....................$1,931.23
For 1878....................$648.71
For 1879....................$1,779.93
For 1880....................$2,402.57
For 1881....................$1,629.62
For 1882....................$7,444.52

It is probable that there are enough unadjusted claims for the past year to run the amount for 1882 up $500 more. The above figures show for themselves what a raid has been made on the treasury the past year.

Source: Boone News Republican January 31, 1883

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