Buchanan County bulletin. [volume] (Independence, Iowa) 1869-1891, 1877-09-07
The Increase Of Salaries.

we expressed the opinion in thes
columns, few weeks since, that the is
sue sought to be raised over the allege,
increase of salaries of county officers b,
the Board of Supervisors, at the Janua
ry session, was false issue, not found
ed in justice or reason, and that in on
opinion it was almost exclusively stimu
lated by demagogues to serve their owl
selfish purpose in the coming election
We suggested that an examination O
facts might show the actual increase O
salaries to be comparatively insignifcan
in amount, and that whatever it was, i
might be shown to have been founded
in justice, prudence and correct bust
ness principles. The slight examination
Of the facts pertaining to the action o.
the Board that we have been able tt
make since our former article was writ
ten, more that confirms us in the opin
ion therein expressed. The facts are
not as they have been reported and the
increase of salaries is not the fragrant
crime implied in the charges of designing
parties, and to prove this we propose te
present few facts, hastily gathered
Let us first examine the Treasurer
Office. As everybody ought to know
the salary of the Treasurer is fixed by
the Code, and is based on percentages
of the taxes collected and certain fees
specified in the law. This is beyond the
control Of the Board Of Supervisors, but
the Board is allowed to make such in
crease as they deem proper for clerk
hire. Prior to the incumbency of the
present Treasurer this allowance for
hired help has been from 5000 to 81 100
per annum Mr.. Poor never received
over 5000. At the January session this
year the Board increased this sum to
$3.50, on account Of the extra labor i'm
posed on the office by the large increase
of school districts in the county, which
from 81 in 1873 rose to 20 at the present
time, with each of which the Treasurer
is obliged to keep a separate and dis
tinct account and to settle with each
once in 30 days. 1t was specified, how
ever, that only so much of this allow
ance should be drawn from the county
treasury as was actually expended. Now
mark the actual result: Up to Sept. LIST,
of this $3.50 appropriated to Mr.. Poor
for clerk hire, he has expended $3.50.
For the remaining four months Of the
year he expects to expend 5000, making
a total of $3.50 for the year, which is less
by $50 than the expenses of his office
for any one year since he has been
Treasurer 1873, when they were
$57O-less than any one gear IN the last
ten.
Thus, in the face of the insane howl so
vociferously dinned into the ears of the
people by designing demagogues, we have
the incontrovertible fact brought out,
that the Treasurer's Office in this year of
grace, 1877, is being run by an honest,
Industrious and competent Republican
official at less expense to the tao payers
Of the county than at any time acithin the
last dozen gears; that not only has there
been no actual increase of the Treas
urer's salary, but that Mr.. Poor will
keep the expenses of his Office $50 with
in the sum appropriated by the Board
for the years 1874, 1875 and 1876, and
this, too, Notwithstanding the work Of
the office has been very largely increas-
ed. Mr.. Poor has done this by his own
hard labor of brain and hand, working
early and late, while many who are
now dishonesty and unthinkingly railing
about what they know nothing, were
quietly sleeping in their beds.
Now, what about the Auditors sala-
ry? The increase voted by the Board
was just 500. The extra labor impos-
ed upon the Treasurer involved a like,
if not greater burden upon the Audit
or, not only in the keeping of the multi
tudinous accounts of the school districts
but in the perplexing and intricate task
Of plating, and separating the assess
ments, and spreading each tax in its APP
place upon the books: requir
ing the utmost care and circumspection,
much time and requiring
and skillful assistance. No
reasonable man, knowing the facts, will
say that the act of the Board in voting
this increase of 500 was arbitrary or
the compensation excessive.
Regarding the Clerks salary, the Su-
preme Court has decided that he is en-
titled to $1,000 per annum, to be derived
from the fees of his office. He is allow
by the Board $3.50 for clerk hire. The
fees of the Office last year, exclusive of
the probate and marriage license fees
which were turned into the treasury
to something like $1,000, and
this was all that was paid the Clerk and
for assistance in his office. All the
change this year was to allow the Clerk
the probate and marriage license fees,
to $24O. These, however,
MIR. Smith will turn into the treasury as
usual, so that the Clerk salary, with
clerk hire amounting this year to $500,
all paid from fees Of his office, will be
no more than last year, Notwithstanding
he has expended great deal of labor
outside of his regular duties in tran
scribing new incumbrance book, for
which he is really entitled to extra COM
pcnsation.
To sum up the whole matter, the to-
tai increase of salaries this year is COM
prised in the 800 paid the Auditor, and
deducting the $50 which will be saw
ed from the Treasurer as compared with
his allowance for clerk hire in 1876, will
reach the magnificent sum of $50! Strip
ped of it's misrepresentation and dema-
goguism, this is the whole substance of
one of the main issues relied upon
by the opposition by which to ride into