The weekly North-Carolina standard. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 186?-1869, 1868-12-16
Salaries and Fees.

We regret to see that one branch OF the
Legislature has voted to repeal that section
of the Code of Civil Procedure which re-
ouires every officer who receives fees to
make an annual return of their amount 1t
is TO he hoped the Senate will not concur.
The offices established by the present law
are all new, and their duties are new.
When it became necessary to fix their fees
the task OF doing so was mainly coniectural.
It was desirable that they should he suf-
ficiently paid for their services, but not ex-
cessively paid. In the imbecility which
pervaied every operation of the old govern
meut, it had never occurred to them to re-
uuire any returns, and hence there were alb
soIutely no data to go by. We must not
adopt this imbecility. We must not con-
tnue to !egislate in the dark as they did.
There is a people of North Carolina fully
alive, and attentive to every act of their
representatives, and they will wish to know
why these public officers are unwilling tor
the people to know the amounts they receive
for their services The reason for their
repugnance to a disclosure may be guessed
at. but the reasons which could induce
members to aid them in their concealment
are more difficult to discover. We by no
means insinuate that the reasons were bad
in the sense of being corrupt; but We
venture to think they were insufficient.
Every member of the Legislature knows
that there is not class of officers in the
State. MANY of whom are now clamoring that
their fees are too low, while the people in
many parts of the State are bitterly COM
planning that they are too high. The COM
missioners in the entire absence of certain
data, fixed the fees according to their best
Judgment, as must be supposed. They
provided that the officers should make an
nual returns for the benefit of future legis-
lators; that they might have information
which is now wanting and thereby be
enabled to act justly towards both classes,
the officers and the public. Are the fees of
any particular class of officers too high ?
Who can say no 2 Are they too Iowa No
one can say either, upon any thing more
certain than mere conjecture. Let the
present law remain in force for two years,
and We will have guide by which the
question can be wisely adjusted. 1t is said
that it is troublesome to these officers to
keep accounts. But they take their office
with its burdens. The people of North
Carolina do not want to he served by
slnecurists they want their officials neither
to be starved nor bloated. And do not
these officers keep accounts of their fees
more or less correct and full for their private
information2 If there is one that does not,
the chances are two to one that he is care
less and incompetent man, lacking in the
industry and accuracy necessary to make
good officer. The duties imposed on our
public officers demand higher standard of
education and business knowledge, than
was formerly required of the officers who
bore the same official designations. There
have been accusations that many of them are
unfit for their positions. An unwillingness
to discharge a duty so simple and easy as
this, 50 useful, nay so necessary to future
legislation, and so much desired by the peo-
Pile, will be apt to he regarded as confession
of all that is charged. Whatever the
officers may do, it will not do for the Leg
islature to join in such confession; it
would be "a condemnation of the whole new
order of things. The practice proposed is
by no means new or unusual. The United
States allows no officer to retain his fees;
every dollar that he receives is paid into
the Treasury with a statement of how it was
done, and his fees are then paid to him by
the Treasury with a deduction for tue in
come tax. In this system no officer dare
Charge cent more than his legal fees, and
the government knows exactly the COM
pensation which every officer receives
That system is not proposed in North Caro-
lima in full. The system which is now
actually the law in North Carolina, and
which it is sought to repeal, is the law in
the most progressive and enlightened States
OIL Europe and of this Union. The LegisIa-
lure should not be influenced to destroy so
useful law by the ciamor of Incidence, or
ot selfish disposition to keep things IN the
Ozark. Let us know what every place is
worth, and if the present officers find their
h'"rs too difficult there are plenty of others
who will not. -..,f. ~ ...t.tt
george Peabody, the great philanthropist,