Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1874-08-06
that way. If shortened ten days it
would save $1,000. If thirty days, it
would be 50, 600 or SIC, 1000.


: would save $1,000. If thirty days, il
would be 5000 or $4,000.
| Now, we propose to pay members Oi
, the General Assembly salary, so thai
, the shorter they make the term the
: more profit upon the time spent and
the greater saving to the State. This
thing of constantly running off upon
the railrcad-because it costs nothing
for them to ride upon the railroad, and
| because their per diem of five dollars
per day rams on whether they are al
some or abroad, thus retarding the
work OF the Legislature frequent
lV Tor lhe want OF d quOFan, is Sc
nous evil, OF which the people have
cttUSe to complain. Let them be paid
ny salary, and If absent, let there be q
deduction III proportion to the time
/ they are absent, and we Will not have
, such long sessions or such fruitless ses-
J sions as we have had, and we will save
largely to the Treasury.
Another item of economy-and am
speaking of it nOw.merely asa question
of eeonomy-is in reference to our
JUDICIAL CORPORATIONS
In cities and towns. Under our pre-
: sent Constitution, municipal corpora
tions may be empowered by the gener
,, al Assembly to contract indebtedness
without limit. In some cities of tbs
"ta this public Indebtedness has al
S,a.- "n to fifteen per cent. OF thf
ready run =. tie some of the towns
tax duplicate, wn4.> amounting
had run up an indebtedn.- Int
to six, seven or eight per cent. u.
tax duplicate. Even the great city OF
Cincinnati has debt now of five per
cent, with prospective debt, which
certainly must come within the next
two years, of five per cent. more, max
ing ten per cent. Indebtedness upon the
great wealth of Cincinnati.
We have provided that no town shall
incur public indebtedness to exceed
five per cent. of the tax duplicate, un-
less by vote of three-fourth of its eiec-
tors, and then shall never exceed ten
per cent. of its tax duplicate. As it is
now there is no limit, and cities and
towns may tax to any extent whatever,
and bankrupt the people of the town so
that they will have to run away
from their houses in order to get clear
of pay ing enormous taxes.
Now, in and through these various
processes by which we propose to econ
oinize the expenditures of the peoples
money, more than fifty thousand dol
lars every year may be saved, and in
the single item OF salaries to your
county officers more than fifty thousand
dollars may be saved and in other items
added you nlay count probably fifty
thousand dollars more.
EXPENsIvENE ESS OF FREQUENT ELEC-
TONS.
But there is anO,he. item of economy
that influenced that Convention, and it
is this: We foudd that the cost in actual
money paid QUO Of the public treasury
was about $30, 900 for every election that
Is held in the State. We found also
that estimating the value of every
mans time at ten cents per day, the five
hundred thousand voters would spend,
at that low estimate, time to the
amount of S50,000 mole, and if we esti-
mate the expenses and the time spent
in preparing for elections and election
eering, attending Conventions, burniag
fire-crackers and powder, and running
into all sorts of tomfoOlery, at ten cents
more. that will aggregate another $50,-
900, 50 that the cost of any general elec-
tiOn in the State Of OHIO amounts, at
the lowest estimate you can dare to
put it, to more than $1o0, 900 annually
$50, 900 OF which, az l have said, is paid
out from your treasury in solid cash.
We thought some OF that might be
saved. Under our present system there
is one general election every year, and
in the Presidential year two, making
five elections in four years. We pro-
pose to avoid three of these general
elections, which, in the period o, four
years, at this estimate of $3.50, 900 each,
would amount to $3.50, 900, and this ad-
ded to The other items of economy of
which l have spoken, will amount to
more than $500, 900, or enough to run
your entire General Assembly will be
saved by adopting the system of bien-
nal elections and other economical
measures which We have proposed. We
propose
BIENNIAL ELECTIONS.
Instead of election every year, because
your officers are elected for at least two
years, aud many of them for more than
two year. Why, then, have elections
every year, when We can just as well
get along with elections every two years
and save the enormous expense and
everlasting annoyance of being dogged
to death by politicians, being button
hOled everywhere you go? You see
am not politician. L have quit that
business. | used Ju be and know all
about ii, and l know it is OF all trades the
most annoying to constantly beset men
begging them for their votes. We pro-
pose to get rid of all this and have peace |
one year out of two.
Another matter that influenced the |
action of the Convention consists i'm |
this: 1t has been found by long exper-
ience that our system of
CORPORATIONS,
Our policy of transacting almost all our
business by and through corporations |
had become exceedingly interesting |
and the power of those corporations
must be controlled. Our insurance
business was transacted almost entirely
by foreign corporations, and yet we
found that if we brought suit against
one of them they could carry the case to
the Federal Courts, and we must either
abandon our suit or sink the entire
amount involved in the attempt to re-
cover. We placed in the Constitution
a provision to prevent this, and think
We have done it most effectualIy, if
you will adopt the new Constitution.
we louHu again tHat ulScrImiudtlOn
was being made between the various
TRANSPORTING INTERESTS
of the State. A shipper at the COM
peting end of line could have his pro-
duce sent through to New York for less
than cost, while upon intermediate
points an amount sufficient to reim-
burse the amount of the deficiency
upon the transportation of the through
shipper, was taxed upon local shippers,
and thus the local interests of the coun-
try were being made to contribute to
the interest of your competing through
shipping points in the State.
Now we felt that it was not fair that I
the good people of the State should all
to the building up of these