Saint Paul weekly Minnesotian., 1858-06-19
Salaries Of Supreme and District Court
IldUcS.

The Senate, Yesterday, passed to thru read
ing. the bill establishing the salaries OF !me Dls
trict and Supreme Court Judges LIZ s ,,ar n Sear
these officials a salary of 2OOO dollars per year
This sum exceeds by but two or three hunureo
dollars the salaries of scores OF clerks III tne o''e
and does not equal the fees OF the neeis.cio ANU
and Sheriffs of any of the popuious Countes Al An,
ther Thousand dollars added to the salaries Oh the
i"d,res would have placed their compensation at
a ,,r0ner foure Experience III every state Oh TIE
Irpp;op has demonstrated that small salaries have
axnrc;sed an unfortunate influence upon the 0ccu-
nants of the bench. Poor salaries, poor Judges,
pants a,wost ~ W" become maxim An able lawyer will
not Give up good practice to accept Judgshlp,
when by the change he may lose two or three
thousand dollars per year.-Roneer Of June IL.
so, the Pioneer, as the organ of the De-
mocratic party of Minnesota, thus square'y
takes its stand upon the platform Of h'g" sat-
aries, when the people are in distress, ana
thousands and tens of thousands know not
where to find the money to pay present 'aAes'
let alone those to be levied in future to meet
the salaries of State officers. The idea 1t
advances that our Judges should be paid
$4,000 year, is monstrous, and, ii adopted,
would be too great an outrage upon the peo-
pie to be quietly borne. At $1,000 they will
receive a salary greater than is paid the
Judges of any other rth-Western State.
We are content to let it stand, however, at
those liberal figures for the District or Cir
emit Judges. some of whom have to traverse
eight or nine counties, and to perform great
amount of labor. But we are not content to
have the three Supreme Judges receive such
an enormous sum-enormous in proportion
to the labors to be performed by them.
Viewing the matter in this light even an an
nual salary of only $500 to each of them'
would be out of all proportion to that justly
due the Circuit Judges. The Supreme
Court will meet here in st. Paul perhaps
twice year. One of the Judges lives in ST.
Paul another resides at st. Anthony; and
the other nominally at St. Peter, but really
at the Fuller House, also in st. Paul. They
will be at scarcely any travelling expenses in
the course of performing their duties; and
their offices will come as near being sine
cures as they decently could be in this coun
try. If along yith the honor of being Su
preme Judge, they were paid $1,000 pei
annum, they would receive more pay than
their services will deserve.
And yet, the intention of the Democratic
party evidently is,-judging from their lead
ing organ and the votes of their members o.
the Legislature give them $4,000 yeal
apiece, for doing nearly nothing at all.
We trust the Republican members will op
pose their votes, firm as a wall of adamant
against the career of Democratic extrava
gance, waste of the peoples money and waste
of the peoples time, which the party of RICE
and BUCHANAN have entered upon in these
parts, evidently to emulate the $lO0,OO0,O0O
a-year administration of the affairs of the ma
| ton.
Rather than submit to encumbering the
State Treasury with extravagant salaries
better kill every bill offered, until the Dem
ocratic majority consent to fair, reasonable
and economical salaries for State Officers
The people will sustain the members who
pursue this determined course.