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Show SALARIES OF NATIONAL OFFICIALS. The proposition to raise the salary of the President from 550,000 to 575,000 and of the Vice-President from 5S00O to $15,-000 $15,-000 was defeated in tho House by the objection of ono man. Representative Baker of New York. It is probably just as well. The proposition came as an amendment to the general deficiency bill, and was too restricted. It has been a long Umo slnco there was an adjustment of salaries of national officials, offi-cials, and a general overhauling Is in order. The prices of living and tho necessary outlay have greatly Increased In-creased In 'the last thirty years; a much more liberal scale of expenditures Is expected now from all public officials than was expected In 1S73, when the so-called "salary grab" was passed. The fact Is that no one can emerge from obscurity nnd be of service to any marked degree unless fie spends more than his salary In Washington, it is all well enough to say that this ought not to be so; that every man should be Influential according to his merits, but tho fact is that a genius, without money, living In a mean lodging, dressing dress-ing shabbily, and without entertaining or being entertained, cannot but be obscure and out of tho reckoning. It is Idle to hold to mere speculative theories. The nation pays too little for its public service, with the result that the best men arc not now in public life. The corporations get .them, are eager for them. The Secretaries of the Treasury are taken by great financial Institutions at high salaries as soon as they go out of office. A Cabinet ofilcer cannot afford to stay in his position un-less un-less he 19 rich. A Comptroller of the Currency is at once taken by some large national bank at a high salary as soon as he gets out of office. The Agricultural Department Is under the constant disability of losing its most highly-trained men because private or corporate institutions, educational or commercial, or foreign governments, Induce them (o leave our public service by offers of preferment and high position, posi-tion, with big pay. Of course, some of this would go on In any event;' the public could not al- i ways kedp Its best men; but It should be so that the public employ would be steady and fairly remunerative, and not uncertain, poorly paid, and a mere stepping-stone where a bright man can show what he can do, chiefly so that he can get satisfactory employment In a foreign country or In private life. |