The Montana post. [volume] (Virginia City, Montana Territory [i.e. Mont.]) 1864-1869, 1868-11-06

the close of the session. Look at the
figures
Legislators.: .,,.......... 5G
Per diem of each. ... SIG
Total per diem. m.. $576
Number of Days. ... 40
IOtal. ..--..-.. -.--.-,-..-- S23,O4O w
In round number TwENTY-THREE
THOUSAND DOLLARS y! OF this amount
the Territory pays ST. $50 for single
session of forty days TO the men elected
to made the laws-all other expenses
must of course be superadded. Is it
wonder that the Territory is hopelessiy
in debt, and paying 10 per cent. interest
in semi-annual payments Legislating
is profitable in Montana. The successful
candidate may safely calculate on saw
ing enough from his per diem, tor half
years support. As money getting en-
terprise, it offers great inducements. es-
Pecially to that class OF men who have
proved their inefiiciency for any other
pursuit, and who shall say that they
ought not to be provided for, if it need
be, at the public expense
Let US look a little farther, and see
what We have received for tins money.
at the first session of the Assembly,
there were seventy-two private acts
passed, thirty-three OF which were for
roads, bridges and ferries Nine i'll
81 "A,
A three months limitation law for the
pr otection of citizens against their for
eign debts, a memorial to Congress to
increase the pay of the territorial law
makers, and the great act increasing
their pay twelve dollars per day, at ter
ritorial expense. All this in addition to
the passage Of such laws rs the condi-
ton of the county Obliged them to pass
No one will venture to say that the work
OF twenty men for sixty days. thus inn
portant, was not worth sixteen dollars
per day to the man. The poor miner
delving amid the mountains, feeding on
beef straight, or such game as he might
bring down with his trusty rife-the
gulch washer with his cradle or pan,
content, after u hard days work in the
mud, water, snow and frost, to count up
three or four dollars as the result--the
ranchman, fighting grasshoppe=s and
early trosts, to protect the little crop,
borer, who, from his scanty earnings,
could hardly supply his little family
with food tEey certainly must have
thought, if they thought at all, that
sixteen dollars per day. twelve of which
they must be taxed to furnish their pro-
portion, was very moderate, and these
great men of the Territory were modest
in their drafts upon the purses of the
people. 1t was $4,000 in all, $14,4O0
OF which was taxed to the Territory
And this added to as much more for
rents, fuel, lights, stationery, printing,
and clerk hire, was a small debt to sad
die upon country that had yet to earn
the first dollar of revenue to pay it. AS
TO the next session of the Assembly, |
the law makers, restrained by act of
Congress from granting private charters,
but renewing old ones, while their own !
Judiciary Committee held it illegal, gave |
US general corporation law. This
would have been well enough, had it
not been applied to precisely the same
interests that had at the previous ses-
sion been monopolized by private acts
--Roads, Bridges, and Ferries were the |
subjects--improvements which as gen
eral thing should be constructed either
by the Territory or by counties. Thus
at both sessions. the people paid for the
passage of laws which must ever be OPP
pressive and expensive. The funds
which had been accumulated by taxa
tion for general purposes were absorbed
by the extra compensation of these pat-
riotic law makers TO enable them to
have a good time at the Capital. The
PEOPLE of the Territory must Judge for
themselves of the honesty of this law
Partisan feeling can apologize for a
great many errors, but we do not believe
that even the democracy of our Terri
tory can view this iniquity in those they
have trusted, with entire indifference.
Certain we are they will not applaud it
Or desire it's continuance. Let the com
pg Legislatur.. stamp IL with their dis