WAUPACA POST

July 5, 1894

 

THAT REPORT.

 

            Oshkosh Northwestern:  Some of the friends of the Soldiers’ Home at Waupaca are inclined to question the correctness of the report of the Committee of Investigation.  The Northwestern is of the firm belief that Mr. E.D. Coe, chairman of the committee, would not sign anything that was not strictly and entirely correct in every respect.  Full confidence goes with anything that Mr. Coe endorses.

 

            Delavan Republican:  The report of the committee appointed at he instance of the G.A.R. to investigate the State Soldiers’ Home at Waupaca was given to the public last week.  It recommends that a new superintendent and matron be appointed and vigorously criticizes the trustees for their lax methods.  The investigation was a good thing and will be the means of correcting many bad methods that might have been continued for years.

 

            Appleton Crescent:  People have a mistaken idea about the building and equipment of the Veterans’ Home near Waupaca.  The entire amount contributed by the Grand Army Posts did not exceed $3,000, while in building and furnishing cottages, the Woman’s Relief Corps contributed a very much larger sum.  The State has paid over $200,000 for the Home, and liberal citizens a large amount.  These are the facts.  The Home must depend for its maintenance on the State.  The G.A.R. and W.R.C. could not do it.  A majority of the G.A.R. Posts have all they can do to keep up their organization.

 

            Wausau Central Wisconsin:  The report of the committee appointed to investigate the charges of mismanagement made by inmates of the Soldiers’ Home at Waupaca was made public last week and has excited considerable attention and comment.  That there is cause for censure cannot be doubted, in view of the fact that the investigation was most thorough, and any committee would have hesitated to prefer charges against the management which were not founded upon good evidence.  The superintendent seems to have the idea that men well advanced in years and afflicted with disease should be amenable to the same discipline that young men in the regular army require.  The Home is not a military post, and while a certain amount of discipline is necessary to preserve order and secure comfort to the greatest number an unrelaxing military rule becomes intolerable. The management seems to have been a sort of a family arrangement, made for the purpose of keeping what profits there were to be derived from the sale of supplies of the Home in the family.  The trustees are severely arraigned and criticized for their loose management of the affairs of the institution.  The suggestion that the state have a representative on the board is an excellent one.

 

            Sheboygan County News:  The Soldiers’ Home at Waupaca has been investigated by a competent and honest committee, and fraud, corruption, criminal neglect and mismanagement seems to be the correct verdict.