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Show TO RAISE THE SALARIES. Porhaps responding to the complaint that private employment secures all the best talent, leaving the public at a disadvantage by reason of the better salaries paid, Senator Gallinger has introduced a bill to increase the salaries of tho leading public officials in Washington. Wash-ington. The argument no doubt Is that all salaries in private and corporate employ have materially advanced since the salaries now paid to Government officials were fixed. This is no doubt true; and yet if the other proposition is also true, that the best talent goes to private employ and second class only as a rule to tho public pub-lic employ, the argument for a raise In the salaries Is not so strong as It might be. The truth Is that It Is hopeless for the public to attempt to compete with private enterprise in the payment of salaries. The honor of the official position posi-tion is expected to mako up the difference dif-ference between private and public pay. And that has been the position of the Government from the first. It will probably continue to be its polioy. Wo doubt if the public can offer salaries sal-aries high enough to make any material mate-rial difference with those who are after large pay. We gave an account the other day of the supposed losses of Mr. Root, late Secretary of War, by his service ser-vice in the Cabinet. They footed up over four hundred thousand dollars, net. In that connection we showed that if this were to be fixed upon a basis of pay or allowances,, each Cabinet officer -would cost about $100,000 a year. Needless to say, Senator Galllnger's bill does not progress very far in this direction. The pay of a Cabinet officer Is now eight thousand dollars a year; his bill would make it fifteen thousand, an Increase that cuts but a small figure on the Root basis, but -which would probably be a welcome Increase to many men of not large resources who might yet be Cabinet timber. The pay of Senators and Representatives Representa-tives la now five thousand dollars a year; it Is proposed' to make It eight thousand. This Is not extravagant, and the best part of It Is that the Increase Is expressly barred to the members of the present Congress. In fact, the whole bill Is made to take effect March 4, 1905. The old "salary grab," that set the country on fire thirty years ago, was not odious and Indignantly objected to so much on account of the Increase of Congressmen's pay to seven thousand thou-sand five hundred a year, as because of the manner and time of doing it. The bill making the Increase -was passed at the final see.slon of the Congress, und was made retroactive, allowing tho Increase In-crease to date back nearly two years, and this so enraged the people that a storm of Indignation compelled the repeal re-peal of the law which gave the "grab." If there is to be a readjustment of the salaries, it would seem that now In a good time to make It. The thirty years Intervening between the former attempt and now have mado many changes, and the cost and style of living havo much changed In the meantime. The jKst-poning jKst-poning of the increase until the beginning begin-ning of the new Administration and the new Congrees will also have a material bearing in favor of the new adjustment, adjust-ment, which on the whole does not seem to be particularly objectionable, , |