Muscatine weekly journal. [volume] (Muscatine, Iowa) 185?-1890, 1859-05-27
Retremch hment and Reform.

Rctrenchment and Reform.
The concluding portion of the report of tn
Retrenchment and Reform committee, ha
, for its topics, the publication of the Report Q
the State Geological Survey, the Insane Asy
lum, the County Superintcndency, salarie
of county officers, a startling development o
an appropriation of 1857 by the General As
sembly, in which the astute and investiga
ting noses Of the committee smclt something
like brandy, and recommendation of an in
come tax.
After reciting the provisions of the act fo1
distributing the Geological Reports, the com
mittee ask "what good has it donc'-" who
has it benefited" and the committee answe,
Members Of Assembly, State Officers, ant
ex- Governors" That is, the committee think
that the Geological Survey Of this State with
all the facts and valuable information with
regard to soils, minerals, coal beds, and
stone, which it has amasscd and its impor.
tant contributions to the science of Geology,
has benefited only Members Of Assembly,
State Officers, and ex-Governors. Why
Because small number of copies has been
distributed to each of certain State officials.
The committee did not know we presume,
that all these copies distributed among these
officers are by them distributed in their re.
spective neighborhoods, so that in the end
every county and every township in the
State, will have one or more of them.
AS to the Insane Asylum, the committee
Enthusiastically suggest t:iat it should be
boarded up and left half finished, and that
with the fact staring them in the face, that
this county and other counties have had no
other refuge for their insane than the common
prison, fact revolving to every instinct of
humanity and christianity.
The next object of our committees attack
is the County Superintcndeney. They rec
commend its abolshmcnt and the substtu-
ton Of a Board of Examiners. Our magnan-
imous committee, suggest that the teachers
pay the expenses Of the same. Now, one of
two things is certain, if this Board did their
duty, their expenses would equal the salary
of the County Superintendent; if they did
not, as would most likely be the case, with
thc pay that our committee would allow
them, then they would do more harm to the
schools than the value of ten times his salary.
The fourth item Of retrenchment suggest
ed by the committee is in the salaries Of our
county officers, that is they want their probate,
school, road-tax, and other public business
attended to for less than competent man
could make at anything else. We looked for
the committee to suggest so cents day, and
add "that plenty of men could be got to
work on the Upton Railroad at that rate"
Such an argument would be so much like the
rest of their report, that it seems incomplete
without it.
Next comes the cap-stone to this sagacious
and original report-a suggestion that the
income of professional men, public officers,
and clerks, and we suppose mechanics, ar
fists, and laborers, and all others whose cap
ital is in their arms, hands, eyes or head,
should be taxed as property. These are
the words of the committee, all that
class of persons who have an income in
the production of which there is no capital
taxation, should pay tar equicalent to the
capital employed IN any ordinary business
Of life producing a like income" Clear
isn't it? The mechanic who makes 5000
year, should pay tax "equivalent to the
capital employed in any ordinary business
producing like income" Something like
proposing piece of chalk as the standard of
measurement! But we will take farmer
who makes 5000 year, and suppose his
capital to be SIC, 900, then the mechanic with
his 5000 income and no property should pay
a tax equiualent'' to the capital of the farm
er with his $1o, 900 property, thatis $4,000.
Sharp financiering, rather. 1t is difficult
to know whom "your committee are ad-
dressing, the meeting, the county, or the
General Assembly. We hope that it is the
latter, so that our legislature may have the
benefit of such extraordinary financial and
commercial ability.
The GERMANS OF PITTSBURGH. The Ger