Bradford reporter. [volume] (Towanda, Pa.) 1844-1884, 1861-10-03

didates for public place, who will not agree to
such reduction at once, without even Legisla-
tive intervention" Now it would seem. unless
/ will agree, at once, to a principle so strange
and new even in democratic circles, You and
the meeting whom you represent are pledg
] ed to oppose me. You will allow me to say
that after giving the resolutions of your meet
ing very attentive, and, as | think, candid
perusal, and afterhaving noticed the frequency
with which you refer to the Constitution and
the determination which you express of strict
compliance with " all its provisions" and hav-
ing no doubt but the State as well as the Ma
tioual Constitution is included, | was at loss
to see how such policy as here proposed,
could be deemed conSistant wit h a strict con-
struction of the 18th section of the lst Arti
Gle Of the Constitution Of the State of Penn.
! sylvania, which especially declares L" that the
! Senators and Representatives shall receive a
compensation for their services to be ascertain
ed By ia10, and paid out of the Treasury of the
| Commonwealth" and yet, with all your attach
ment and reverence for the Constitution, you
pledge yourselves to oppose all candidates
for public place, who will not agree to have
| the measure of their compensation fixed by
| your standard instead of the Legislature as
| expressly required by the Constitution, as
above Notwithstanding the very able
argument contained in your letter, liz favor of
| this new mode of yours for regulating salaries.
viz: " For the people to exact of men solicit.
ing their suffrages for public Office, an agree
ment beforehand, as to the measure of com
| penSation they are to give for such public ser.
| vice." | should think it would be better to
abide by the old and constitutional way, viz
That it should be aScertained by law" for
many obvious reasons First, among the mauv
good reasons that | can see for it is, bY the
! old constitutional way perfect uniformity and
| equality can be attained while in the new way
that you propose, for each County to fix Il
| standard for themselves, we are as liable to
| have as many dl tferent standards or variations
in compensation for the same Office as there are
| counties in the Commonwealth For clearly.
| if a Democratic Mass Meeting in Bradford
county has a right to fix the salaries OF their
Members of the Legislature, without legis-
latlye intervention" then the Democrats
of every other county in the State should
ha We the same right, and when it is once con.
ceded that the Democratic Mass Meetings have
such extraordinary rights awarded to them,
other political parties would claim to have
equal rights, and it would be difficult to form
any idea to what extent this diversity of meas.
ure of compensation thus agreed on by the
people beforehand, without legislative inter
venlion," would go 1t might happen that the
compensation thus agreed on, in this new way
would vary from one to twenty dollars per
| day, or from one hundred to two thousand dol
lars for a session of the Legislature, and such
| diversity and uncertainty as this new mode of
| fixing salaries would lead to- certainly would
be very unfair as well as unwise, therefore |
must say it would be vastly better to abide by
the old and constitutional way, to allow the
Legislature to Intervene and "aScertain the
compensation for the services of Members of
the LegsIature,' agreeable TO the terms of the
Constitution.
In answer to the inquiry whether | will
pledge myself to do all in my power to reduce
the expenses OF the State Government bv a
reduction of all salaries of oiliceholders to the
standard fixed 10y the law passed in 1912, |
have simply to say, that have a very strong
aversion to PicdgiHg myself TO do or not to do
particular thing to an opposite party in pol
itcs, on the eve of an election, for the cypress
purpose Of obtaining their votes | think
such proceeding would be decidedly improp
er, therefore | cannot consent to do it, and
thus having canddly and truthfulIy, as | be-
lieve, answered all that you have required me
to reply to, perhaps, strictly speaking, 7
should close my reply at this point, yet, | can
not refrain from saying, before | do so, that |
am at a loss TO know how you reconcile the
idea of perfect purity for Democrats and the
Democratic party, which seems to run through
the resolutions passed at your meeting, with
the sweeping denuncation therein contained
against "lhe reckless extravaganza" of " later
legislation" which has increased call salaries
and daily pay" One would be led to suppose
by this that you had forgotten that the State
Administration, as well as both branches of
the Legislature in 1858, when this most ob-
noXiouS legislation, Of which think you most
justly complain, were all Democratic. |, there
fore, have no hesitation in saying, if | am elect.
ed to serve in the next Legislature, if there
shall be general movement of the people to
remedy the wrongs thus inflicted on the tax
payers of this Commonwealth, of which | think
the people have a right to complain, it will
give me great pleasure to be instrumental in
ca rrying out their will, as | recognize, in the
fullest and most enlarged sense the duty of a
Representative to carry out the views and
wishes of his constituents. will further add,
that while l differ, and, perhaps most radical
ly from you and the meeting who have author
lied you to act, in many things, upon which
you have been pleased to express your senti.
ments, yet, the sentiments expressed in that
resolution, passed by your meeting, in which
you pay tribute of respect to the memory of
the late STEPHEN A. DOUGLAS, meets my en-
tire approval. give cheerful and entire ac-
cord TO the sentiment viz: "The Govern
ment is paramount to all other political ques-
tlonS, and that there can be but two sides to
this controversy, every man must be on the
side of the United States or against il there can