Muscatine weekly journal. [volume] (Muscatine, Iowa) 185?-1890, 1859-07-08
VOL. XI---NO. |,

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a candida es r the offices themselves, they
: might select incompetent persons and there.
r by the public veal suffer injuryl Or, is il
e because O the fat salaries attached to themi
: venture to say that majority of the Office
holders, if out of office, wor,d not IN axe one
half of the salaries they receive--some not
one fourth, and some nothing at all.
Yon say the committee recommend the
reduction OF the saa les of the Supreme
Judges to $1,000, which is not true. The
. figures are your own. Whether You made
this assertion to nsleaG the public, or
whe her it is an error | do not pretend to
say. E.
You say, "as to contingent expenses we
would like to have more particular state
ment of the Items" Here you misrepre-
sent the committee. The report c, ntained
ali the items as they were given by the
General Assembly, to-wit, ''for the hire uf
clerks and deputies"
Again you misrepresent the committees:
Gas to the appropriations for the expenses
Of General Assembly, the committee did
not deem i5 necessary to spsejfSuas to what
and where they were excessi r. What,
were, and what not-so we al y ~ tn tl,A
dark on that item. That y1us
dark will not deny lmtass1l =
did specify in what they
quote from the rapor,s Il
mant of ton mapv ofiycora yDsGf1 fScn sis11Gx
sttings." Does any person sibpge. e1U
the editor pro tenn. of the Journal that it "
necessary for the General Assembly to end,
ploy five men to keep up the fires IN -
Halls OF Assembly, at an expense Of SlO50 .
during seventy daysa Does any man sup
pose tina! it is necessary to employ Post
Master at four dollars per day to distribute
the mail among the members of the Assem-
bly,, and to pay him $3.50 extra for bringing
the mail from the Post OH q to the Capital,
amounting in the aggregate to $438, over
six dollars per day? Really, ,acco rdiny to your
Editorship's piece OF chalk as standard Of
measurement, the office of Post Master to
the General Assembly must require a mau
of rare qualifications Does any one sup
pose that it is necessary for the General
Assembly to employ six messengers Tor
should it be) to hunt up the members!
You say, s'as to newspapers our committee
have contented themselves with giving the
amount of appropriations and calling them
wasteful and extravagart without giving us
the amount aud nature of the work done,
whether advertisements Or printing" D.es
| this word newspapers mean printing, or
advertisements, or anything else? If you are
not yet enlightened on this subject refer
you to johnson or Webster. You blame
the committee for not showing show much
if any the charges have exceeded the usual
rates." The Committee could not ascertain
| these particulars without direct application
| to the State printer, who would not be likely
to give the requisite information. Here l
would take occasion to say that in the prin-
ted report one clause in regard to public
printing was left out, whether from design
or not will not say, to-wit: IN the auditors
report of the lst of May 1856, we find the
amount paid ior printing and binding to be
S4l,OlS 81. The very large appropriation
tor the public printing carries with il the
conviction to every unbiased mind, that SO
much printing at fair prices cannot be neces-
sary and it is the opinion of every person
at all acquainted with the subject that too
much printing is done, and that the prices
charged are nearly double what they should
be.
With regard to the committees statement,
that none of the reports Of the State Agri-
cultural Society were allowed for distribu-
tion; you say ave are inclined to doubt
the correctness of this charge, but we arc
not positively informed as to it." Then
comes Mr.. Foster and says, Il approve Of
the report generally; there are some items
and particulars of which did not approve.
The distribution of the report of our State
Agricultural Society, for ls57-a large quan
tity of them are now in store at Secretary
Wallace's Office but some ofthem haze prob
ably been distributed. This (he report to
the contrary is a tritling mistake, q point
Mr.. Zigler was not efficiently informed on"
Thsn you concluded at once that you had
found a mares nest and exclaimed "It is
not true, as MIR. Foster himself admits."-
Now, sir, does Mr.. Fosters ajmissi on make
it untrue9 Mr.. Foster does not speak pt ST.
lively, when he says, "some Of them have
probably been distributed Does he say
some of them have been distributed anorg
farmers He does not The statement was
made by me, upon such evidence as thought
justified me in making it. l was in the
office of the Secretary of the State Agricul-
tural Society, and seeing larg, quantity Of
the reports stored away on the shelves,
inquired of the Secretary if they were for
distribution. He replied they were not and
remarked they would not let me distribute
among the farmers, and am very sorry for
it. For my further justification in making
the assertion, refer you to the joint reso-
lutions, authorizing the publication of these
reports passed, February 9th, 1858:
'Resolued, by the General Assembly of the
State Of Iowa: That there be prin, ell three
thousand copies of the Annual Report Of the
Board of Directors of the Iowa State Agri-
cultural Society for the past year, and that
the Secretary of said Society be instructed
to furnish this General Assembly 500 cop
les OF the same at as early day as practi-
cable, and that he have 200 pies bound in
cl 9TH for the purpose of sfecting exchanges
with other State Soc cites. and the remain
ing 1900 copies shall be subject to the order
Of the said Board of Directors"
Now, sir, what evidence have you to sus.
tain the charge you make against me of
stating what was not true? Does Mr., Fos-