The Potter journal and news item. [volume] (Coudersport, Pa.) 1872-1874, 1874-02-18

pleas of the county of Philadelphia;
two thousand eight hundred dollars
each; the salaries of the judges OF
the district court and president judge
of the court of common pleas of the
county of Allegheny, two thousand
five hundred dollars each; the salary
of the president and associate law
judges of the several courts of CON-
mon pleas of this Commonwealth,
two thousand dollars EACH"
The House bill proposes to fixthe
salary of the Chief Justice at nine
thousand dollars and that of the
president and associate law judges
at five thousand dollars each. There
is no good reason for this lavish in
crease of salaries. The people are
not in any mood, at this time, for
travelling in that direction. They
are compelled to retrench in their
expenses. Many of them can re-
member when Chief Justice Gibson
served the state for sixteen hundred
dollars a year, and when such peer
less lawyers as Rogers, Kennedy,
Sergeant and Burnside did the same
thing. If sixteen hundred dollars a
year secured such judges, surely four
thousand a year ought to be quite
sufficient for any that we now have,
or are likely to have in this genera
ton. The people are very properly
demanding retrenchment, economy
and fidelity to their interests. The
House of Representatives seems to
be inclined to turn a deaf ear to this
demand. Gentlemen of the House,
you will hear thunder next fall if
you refuse to listen to the earnest re-
quest of the people for rigid economy
in expending their money.
Hence, we note your second project
Tor wasting money that will, not be
endorsed, and that is the proposition
to enlarge the hall Of the House of
Representatives. There is not the
slightest necessity for any enlarge
ment of the hall. Remove the lobby
seats and the partitions that make a
cloak room on the right and COM
mittee room on the left of the speak
er, and two hundred members can be
comfortably seated, acith desks, in
the present hail. The speaker and
clerk can be heard more distinctly in
the present room, so arranged, than
in any larger one likely to be con
structed.
We are not Of that class who cry
out Job" at every act of the Legis-
lature that does not suit us; on the
contrary, we believe the average
legislator is quite as honest as the
average editor, and quite as desir-
Gus of discharging with fidelity the
duty before them, and therefore we
appeal the more confidently to the
present HCu ie to halt in both the
projects named, for we are sure the
people will approve neither of them
and by reference, to the report of the
State Treasurer, the members will see
there is staring them in the face a
probable loss of taC0 millions of reve-
nue. during the present year, in con-
sequence of taxes repealed at last
session. Let each member constant
ly keep in mind this warning of Mr..
Mackey and they will pretty certain
ly not increase salaries or undertake
to build estate Houses" either at
Harrisburg or Philadelphis.:
1t is possible that with strict econ
omy in the appropriations for the
present year, the revenue will be suf-
liclent to provide for the ordinary
expenses and for the payment of that
amount of the public debt which the
Constitution requires to be redeemed
annually.
Looking at the Dark Side