Carson daily appeal. [volume] (Carson City, Nev.) 1873-1877, 1873-12-12
THE SALARY QUESTION IN oON-
GRESS.

A first class lawyer is doing very
limited business if he receives an an
nual income of less than twenty
thousand dollars from the practice of
his profession; railway superin-
tendent on the great lines Of travel is
thought to be entitled to a salary Of
not less than twelve or fifteen thou
sand dollars; competent preachers
get from ten to twenty thousand a
year; physicians, architects, artists,
bank officers, insurance directors and
secretaries of large corporations are
accustomed to incomes equally
handsome with these, and nobody
thinks them unreasonab!e-and, as
The times go, they are nat unreason-
able. It is all very we'll to pirate Of
Republican simplicity and ga Ro-
man contempt for money but 1t so
happens, say what a supervirtuous
press may say, that Congressman are
men, full of frailties and human
longings; and it is a mean and shuf-
fling fabrication of niggardly parsi-
mony in morals to assert that starry
ing, penniless virtue is its own re-
ward. There is no reason on earth
why the gentlemen who comprise the
Congress of the United States should
be the most poorly paid of any body
of men in the Republic-considering
the importance of their services and
the many social needs for their be-
ing, during their term of office, in
easy and comparatively Independent |
circumstances. It is aristocratic |
England that pays her Legislators
nothing The theory there is that
the law-making classes are rich and
therefore above the need of salary,
as they are above the people for
whom they legislate. The theory here
is quite the reverse. We say that no
mans purse shall have any bearing
upon his fitness for office; and that
having called him to take upon him
self the cares and responsibilities of
public life We, the people will pay
him, adequately. for his services.
We have no sympathy with the de-
nunciations that have been flung
upon Congress for the enactment of
the Increase of Salary Bill We be-
lieve that the present (increased)
rate of 81, 500 per year, mileage and
franking privilege Off, is quite little
enough; and as to the salaries of the
President and the Cabinet and the
Judiciary they have never been half
rs large as they ought to be. What
is the excuse of trying to live up to
a lie? Republican simplicity"
when one lollar in gold would pur-
chase as much corn and wool am.
coal and labor as ten in currency will
now buy doubtless had half theoret-
ic i and romantic land half humbug) II
something in it; but that same home
spun and vague quality now is out of
place if its demands necessiate the
resorting of the average Congressman
to mean little makeshifts to procure
his lodging, his meals and his ward
robe. Seventy five thousand dollars
a year is not opulenee. Washing
ton habits, Exclusive of all extrav .
agencies and dissipations,) leave no 4,
margin for savings out of a salary ,
no bigger than that. 1t is not neces i
sary to cramp Congressman or I
Judge ora President within the small {
pittance of Republican simplicity" i;
in order that he may not get rich ont
of his wages as public servant. !
Public life ought to be not only re-
spectacle but surrounded by the in
cidents of comfort, reasonable ease
and self-respect. Following are some
reports of the manner in which these
questions are treated in Congress: E