The weekly clarion. [volume] (Jackson, Miss.) 1863-1882, 1874-10-08

censured than for drawing the color line
and organizing strife by arraying race
against race. God forbid that we should
be so unreasonable as to go back on our
professions and abandon our own faith
because others have declared their accep-
lance of it.
Now there are other matters essential
to the welfare of both races and to the
contentment and prosperity of the people
of Mississippi in which we are more than
anxious to have the cooperation of our
Republican contemporaries. VIII they
come and go with US in support Of re-
ductioa of the expenses Of our State and
local administrations and Of q corresponding
reduction of tareaf
The burdens the people bear, are griev-
GUS. beyon endurance. Taxes are from
three to four times higher on the same
description of property, than before the
war. The property basis of the State was
one hundred and fifty millions in 1873.
In 1860, it was six hundred millions.
Atthat time, our annual State and county
burdens did not exceed eight hundred
thousand dollars; now they amount to
about three million six hundred thousand
dollars. Hence the burden of government
is about twenty times heavier in 1874,
than it was in 1860. Let us re-adjust it
and make the people feel that their gov
eminent under the new order is something
more than an agent of plumber and OPP
preston.
Heretofore the appeal in favor of redu-
cling salaries, has been met with the
objection that State warrants were at a
discount; and when converted into cur
reney, the persons who received them for
public service, were not extravagantly
paid. But this objection can no longer
be urged. The Legislature has, wisely,
we think, passed a law requiring the col
lection of taxes in currency; and we are
informed by the official organs that at an
early day, warrants will be at par. They
will be paid over the counter of the Urea
surer dollar for dollar in greenbacks.
Let US therefore have corresponding re-
duction of salaries.
There is no State in the Union which
pays its State House officers higher sala-
ries than are paid by the impoverished
people of Mississippi. Take the office of
Governor for example. Before the war,
his salary was from three to four thousand
dollars per aunum. Now it is six thou
sand dollars, with costly mansion, well
furnished from cellar to dome, and a
contingent fund for incidental expenses
superadded. New York with her twenty
five millions of revenue to the State
treasury, and her oceans of wealth, does
not pay her chief executive officer higher
salary than is extorted from the poor,
tax-ridden people of Mississippi. And
this case is but an example of the
whole
Another needful reform is biennial
sessions of the Legislature. This change
alone would save annually from $50, 900
to 5000, 900 to the taxpayers.
The abolition of sinecures is loudly
demanded. There are too many drones
eating up the substance of the toiling
masses. Every office not indispensable to
the execution of the laws, is fraud on
the people
The number of Chancellors can be
reduced at least one third; and their
salary, together with the salaries of all the
other judicial officers, ought to be reduced
to something at least approximating the
aute-bellum standard
And then, in the matter of Public
Printing, there could be a reduction
without wrong to the parties who execute
it. 1t will be remembered that in 1872,
by the cooperation of Republicans and
Conservatives, prices were reduced to a
low standard They were cut off nearly,
if not quite, one-half below previous
rates. The printers complained, and
probably not without cause, in view OF
the prices demanded for work by the
Union, that the rates were
not remunerative; but the present Legis
Iature ut its last session increased the
rates very considerably on the ground
that warrants were below par. Now
this being no longer the case, the SEIZED
q H. J.,
In word, if our Republican cotempo-
raries have found in the infexible OPP
position of THE CLARION to the
color line, an antidote for contention and
bloodshed, We would urge them to go
with us in support of other
measures not less essential TO the attain
nent of this end than the obliteration of
distinctions based upon race in the
of our State government.
Let them take their stand with us for
economy and reduced taxation-for
lrresting reckless expenditures of the
public money-and the extirpation of
lbuses resulting from special legislation ,
o aggrandize the few at the expense of
he MANY. What says the Pilot, the
state official journal What says the
Times, whose manly advocacy :
f retrenchment and reform in the last !,
anvass, cannot have been forgotten
What says our old friend, F. T. Cooper, !;
18th his two papers, both weekly? And
ur young friend of the Summit Timesi It
, in order for Col. Deason of the Brookha-
ey, H;4;-ax, ,rLoso Io~yoltxv r. AT;.a:.a:,ov; :