Show TIIE THE SALARY QUESTION A gentleman signing hial himself self X published a letter in saturdays nation in which lie ho expresses himself in re regard ard to county municipal cipal aud and school government the sentiment or the article which favors retrenchment and economical administration of governmental affairs is in the right diree tion but his suggestions as to the proper manner of attaining these ends are it seema seem to us entirely too sweeping lie he advocates gratuitous service on the part of the mayor and city council and a sweeping reduction in salaries all around with the single 0 exception of tile the city attorney he says that the state stata legislature took a step in the right direction hen it required hoards boards of education to serve the people without compensation ile he advocates union of the offices of tile the city auditor recorder and city justice in one person and su suggests bests that the convention fix the z salary alary to be paid each officer A number of objections to the gent ent lemans proposed methods occur to us its first the laborer is worthy of his hire just is as much in public as in private service and there here is no valid reaton reason why he be should not receive reasonable pay ment for that service ervice in proportion toils 1 ts amount the the responsibility involved anil and the bonds required gauged C by this standard we do not believe there is a single county or city official who is ia receiving 0 more than be geould ii in private employ for like service if there is the salary should be cut down to the private employ standard no lower gratuitous or poorly paid service would either fill the offices with men of wealth and le leisure i sure who chose to enter public service as a fad or with incompetent officials who would be dear at any price the actual and capable incumbents are men who have to depend upon their work for a living and they cannot afford to work for little or nothing the segregation of the offices of city auditor and recorder was effected by legislative enacts enactment nent and the council had no choice in the matter one man cannot under the law hold both the salaries ot of these officers are as low lov as could N ell be asked it is true that the board of of education has performed excellent service but it has been a matter of pride with them as when were elected the law allowed fair compensation for services rendered and they would not allow the quality of that service to deteriorate because the payment was withdrawn let mr X broach tile the subject of re election to the members mem bere and he will find that the claims of their private business are too urgent to permit them to entertain the thought they have each cacti lost opportunities of making 0 money while ren rendering derin free service service to the public and cinno canno bot longer afford the luxury when the gentleman assumes that the respective duties of the county and city att attornies ornies are equal and that each requires the same amount of time and ability he be is gri grievously in error th the city attorney acts as advisor or counsellor to the city council drafts its ordinances and prosecutes cases in tho the police court when necessary the county attorney acts abet as advisor ad vigor to tile the county commissioners prosecutes justice cases in anil and from froin all parts of the county co twell tyone ty one precincts outside of logan and since sinco we obtained statehood and it a district court is ed to prosecute all felonies a duty form erly performed by a federal prosecutor e there is DO comparison in in the responsibility or amount of requited ed any more than there is between the ollices offices of autice of the peace and district j judge adge mr X claims that mee seekers ire are too generally fee fiends we have but bul few office kofl ice seekers bee kere and since the passage of the law requiring tile tho deposit of all fees in the public treasury the occupation of the tea fee fiend is gone gona A nominating convention joes does not possess legislative powers therefore cannot fix salaries but suppose it could would knocking down tile the office to the lowest bidder secure the most desirable officers the creation cret tion of unnecessary and salaried offices for the benefit of party workers worker or the payment of exorbitant salaries to necessary officials should be decried economy should be tile the watchword but the happy medium between prodigality and parsimony P is the one calculated to produce the most ratie factory results tile the people can cal afford to pay a a reasonable price for the protection tec tion comfort and convenience afforded by government whether national state county or municipal and should be ba willing to fairly remunerate their servants finally the democratic party has proven itself the jart parta ol of econome economy and good government in both county and city and the merits of any proposed expenditure ot of public funds have always been I 1 demonstrated briore an appropriation was made salaries have invariably been fixed at the lowest ills possible ible rate consistent with efficient service and the monetary interests of abo people have been as carefully conserved as those of I 1 any private business institution |