Buchanan County bulletin. [volume] (Independence, Iowa) 1869-1891, 1874-10-09
To tho Voter. Of 3ncAan,n County

To the Voters OF Buchanan County.
During last years campaign you were
urged by the opponents of the Republican
party in tbs county to vote the Anti
Monopoly ticket on the gsDund that it
meant economy and reform, as opposed
to alleged Republican extravaganza and
corruption You were told that your Of
tici.ls were receiving extravagant salaries;
that YOU were groaping under burden
of excessive taxation, for which the Re
publican p rty was responsible; that Rec
publican leaders and Officials had assumed
the rins of power and were cracking the
lash over your heads regardless Of your
interests, and intent alone on their per
sonal ACKNOWLEDGEMENT. II was the old
story. harped upon single string by the
opposition everywhere. almost from the
birth of the Republican party. But it now
came under the guiSc of Il new name and
with sclf-assumlhon of superior virtue.
You were expected to believe that its dec
lar;.tioas were especially true, and its
promises OF RI form exceptionally honest
AMI sincere. But have its declarations
been verified and its promises fulfilled?
The Autobiography party has had the
management of county affairs over eight
months. 1t elected five Of the seven men
composing your Board of Supervisors.
We chcerfully accord TO these men their re-
puta,ion for honesty. judgment, and good
intentions. The Autobiography Board
undoubtedly entered upon their official
duties with the honest purpose of making
Il wholes lie reduction of salaries, If, upon
investigation, they should find them to Re
extravaganza; of cutting down your taxes
if in their judgment the cAigcncics of the
public service would admit of it; and of
correci ng the abuses which their party
had declared to exist in the management
of county affairs, if they should discover
them What has been the result:
First, as to salaries. An cAtravagant
salary is certainly one which should be
largely curtailed. In the case of the
Count" Auditor, the salary was reduced
from 81 500 and fees, amounting in all 20
about 50 300, (.hc officer to furnish his
own clerk hirc) to 81 GOO and fees,
amounting in ali to ahout $2.1C0, with the
same conditions as to clerk hire. Here is
reduction of $500. This was simply
following the example of the Republican
Board of 1870, which made precisely
similar reduction from previous rates, al
though large amount of extra work was
then to be done in systcmatiSing and re-
organizing the Office.
The Clerks Office had been sclf-support-
ing for several years, the incumbent re
cciving the fees for the transaction Of the
business, without cntailing expense of
salary upon The county The Board di-
,rcctcd the Clerk to pay into the County
Tre;.su'y tie probate and marriage license
fees, the whole averaging about $3.50 per
wear Here then Was comparatively
small reduction.
in the Trcasurcr's office the allowance
for clerk hire was reduced from 5000 to
$500 Per year This was the extent of
reduction, and its moderate amount SIM
ply proves that these picked men of the
opposition, upon y careful review of the
situation, were convinced that the salaries
Of YOUR officials were net ertraragans,
and that the best they could do without
great in Justice to the officials was to make
Il mo crate reduction. They thus prac-
tically Endorsed the theory of previous
Boards, and of business men generally,
that it i, far more economical TO pay a
the work he performs commands in the
worlds markets at large, than to hire II
poor servant at any price
In falling to reduce their own salary of
four dollars each per day, allowed them
by law, Icy reconvcrting a portion of
it into the treasury, the Ant, Monopoly
Board amply justified the judgment Of Il
Republican Legislature in fixing their
compensation ut that rate.
In filing to re.lucc the salary of the
Anti Moao oily County Superintendent Of
School from $3.50 TO $500 per day, which
! could have been legally DONE the Anti
Monopoly Board fully en.lo sed the action
of their Republican predecessors and tie
incumbent Of that Office himself, who
was the chief spokesman of the Anti
! Monopoly party in this county last year,
and who is even now on the stump decry-
ing Republican corruption and cxtrava-
glncc and advocating economy and re-
form, has furnished us the strongest
possible evidence Of the t;ithfulncss and
economical management of the R'put-
iican officials whose place he occupies.
His compensation per day was left the
same as theirs, and it was to be expected
that he would furnish conspicuous in
stance of the possibilities of retrcnchment
md reform. The case was entirely in his
own hands. If his predecessors had spent
more time in the discharge of the duties
# the Office than was necessary, receiving
therefor corresponding unnecessary pay,
he had now an opportunity to Illustrate it
in his own person by doing the work in
less time ana saving corresponding cX-
pense to the county. The fact that he
SIN view OF the fact that some of the Anti Mo-
n0po'y leaders apu assert that their party never
ciaimtd there abus, =, cxtravaganccs. etc. in
onnfy manag, mcnt that needed reforming We
will quote n few out of a multitude of Anti Mo
nDpoly uttcrancts TO refresh their memories
Why. their ry first call for conventicn. in 1873
headed Anti Monopoly and Reform assumes it
as self rideif faf that abuses existed in county
government, its language being:
"WHEEEAs. 1t il a self-cvident fact that the
present abuses in National. State. and Ca.n'y
government need correction and Whereas we be-
tve there is no hope for reform in either OF the
pr, sent political parties. etc.
And then again. SIC how going to rack
and ruin. oppressed with high taxation and mort
cages all of which was to disappear with the adj
vent Of Anti .Lonop0lism, Said COnseru .fice
corr, spondent. Oct. s. 1873, in appealing to mcr