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THE DEFENDERS of the Tewksbury "slaughter-house" barbarities, having failed in the attempt to treat the investigation as a joke, have now taken to saying that "Tewksbury is no worse than similar institutions in other parts of the country." We suppose that this means, that, if infants are starved or poisoned for the value of their dead bodies in other States, the people of Massachusetts have no reason to find fault with the Tewksbury management! Oh, of course not. Neither should the good people of Massachusetts hold as blamable the political party which has allowed the Tewksbury almshouse to be managed as it has been according to the recent exposures. In short the Republican press of this State seem to feel, -- rather, they pretend to feel, -- that the people of Massachusetts ought to condemn the persons making these exposures, because, you know, the knowledge that our State almshouse has been run in this horrible manner will bring discredit upon our reputation as a commonwealth! Sensible people will say, on the contrary, that Massachusetts of the present day may take credit to itself, and will receive credit abroad, for having exposed and put a stop to infamies which were concealed and permitted to exist by the Massachusetts of the past, and that these infamies should be stopped anyway. It is not Massachusetts that was responsible for the Tewksbury abuses, but the Republican "Rings" that ruled the State and stood around to conceal one another's wrong doings.

"POLITICS has much to do with the Tewksbury investigation." Indeed? And did not politics have much to do with allowing those abuses to be perpetrated, and exist for years? That was "ring" politics. The people would have the kind that exposes and abolishes, rather than the kind which creates and conceals such abuses.