The daily gazette., 1879-02-03
From the Philadelphia Times.
rOr Private n Se Q . r ! . s--
8&ZH. 900.

YR&OsVVVs
| Senator Lamar, OF Mississippi, is a
legislator, who, If not always on The
right track, is generally credited with
conscientious effort 10 be there but be
has left it with jump In bringing for
ward bill to furnish Senators with
private secretary apiece at the expen
of the public His argument in behalf
| of the measure ~ so absurd that in the
mouth of the average member OF Con-
gress 1t would be passed by with asmile,
Ike Mr.. Wright's famous hill to divide
Uncle Sans real estate among his mil
hons of poor children but coming from
a man not given to hobbies, and Of some
influence in the national Legislature, 1t
may be worth while to puncturs H. Mr..
| Lamar's reaso ,scm mi OIL cially stated, are
| that a Senator has much more work to
do than he can accomplish without help;
that he has MANY calls tor money for
charitable and other purposes which in
| the aggregate relieve him of the bulk Of
his salary; and that now and then n
Senator, himself at least, actually pays
his way on street and other railways and
into the theatre. He has gone into the
subject so far as to discover that pri
vate secretary may be had in the market
at fifty dollars month, which he thinks
would be very trifiing charge on the
government.
/
expense. The Senate il composed Of
seventy six members. If each of them
shall have a private secretary, as Mr..
Lamar proposes, and admitting that the
low figure fixed by him would secure the
able amanuensis necessary TO the happ-
ness of q fastidious Senator, the charge
upon the government for the sevcnty-six
Iprivate secretaries would be $500 a
month, or, in round numbers, S4b 900 a
year. The high-toned Missippian must
admit that this Is very pretty sum to
pay in order that he aud his associates
Imay have an hour or two more every
day to drive up and down Pennsylvania
avenue and around Rhode Island Circle,
or to prone made in the sumptuous draw
ling-rooms of Washington hotels. But IT
such a bill was passed by the Senate does
anybody suppose that it would get
through the House without an amend
men. granting the same favor to the
members OF that body, already restive
under the contrast between the privile-
ges and perquisites of Senator and
those of n Representative? A member
of the lower branch usually spends his
first years salary in getting elected, and
is fortunate If he comes out purse-whole
at the end OF his term of two years,
whereas a senator, drawing the same
SALARY, has six years in which to square
election accounts and without being very
parsimonious 10 lay by something for a
rainy day. Under such circumstances a
Representative could make out very
lgood case and would scarcely resist the
Temptation to vote himself a secretary.
There are two hundred ard n nety-three
Solons in that body. A secretary apiece
for them, according to Senator Lamar's
quotations, would cost sl4 $50 month,
or Sl75,S00 year, making necessary a
total annual appropriation of S225, 900
for this new branch of the public service;
for which the government would receive
no return whatever, except rel1ef OF the
pressure upon the Congressional brain.
The price is too high, Mr.. Lamar. The
government can use its money to better
!. advantage than in paying clerk-hire for
its Patterson's and kellogs and the like,
who are far too costly already, or for its
Sharons, who give the pubic business
, one day in a year and make their mil
loas in the meanwhile, or even in ena-
bling worthy men like yourself to put
an extra quarter into the poor-boX al
church or buy another reserved seat al
the theatre. As il is, the people OF the
United States, poor As they are in the
man, are taxed, and taxed heavily, tC
lyay you and your fellow members five
thousand doilors apiece outright ever,
iyear, besides supplying you with mos
luxurious chambers for work, station
iery," with all that the name implies Il
: the legislative mind, and "extras" tina
would make the average hotel clerl
blush with modification that he neye
q thought of them A salary grab bll
changed the occupants of half the seat
in Congress private secretary bil
would work even greater wonders. Bet
ter pay for your own secretary or lie
levery man be his own.