Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1880-08-20
State Expenses.

1860; and from the charges of the Demo
cratic campaign speakers one Ignorant OF the
facts would derive the impression that our
State officials were in the receipt OF princey
revenues and were eating the life out of the
Commonwealth. Let lis look at the facts
According to the latest published Report OF
the State Auditor (for 1879 the aggregate
amount paid for the salaries of all the State
officers Governor, Treasurer, Secretary OF
State, Supreme and Probate Judges, Super
and so on through the list-was "a, 900 !;
surely no very enormous sum for sovereign
Commonwealth to pay its servants. We very
much doubt if another State in the Union
can show, proportionately. so low an aggre-
gate Of official salaries
ii. Court expenses constitute by far the
larger portion of the annual cost of running
the Commonwealth 1t is true that they
have greatly increased in recent years-and
to what is in our opinion the principal cause
Of the increase we have as yet nowhere seen
to require extended proof that great pro-
portion of the cost of running our courts is
caused by proceedings under the prohibitory
liquor law BY the original law, enacted in
1852, the expenses of proceedings under it
were borne by the several towns; and fines
recovered were paid into their treasures.
But in 1868 the law was changed and the
State paid the expenses and took the fines !;
and the result was naturally an immediate and
large increase of the cost to the State Of rum
ming the courts.
The officers OF the county courts do not,
so far as we are aware, receive more money
than they fairly earn; and the jurors re-
muneration is none too high. As TO the
judges of the Supreme Court, return to
the basis of 1860" would give them the
princely salary of $500 They now re-
ceive So, 500-a sum. compelled as they are,
much of the time, to live away from home,
barely sufficient 10 comfortably support
them. As reverse TO the picture it may be
said that the eleven police justices i'll New
York city each receive $4,000 year-or
IN the aggregate sum nearly double the
amount the State of Vermont pays all its
officers combined. while each of the Supreme
Court judges of New York receives ST, 500.
or course this is not saying that our court
hardly see where the attempt could begin.
Certainly, SO far as the pay of judges and
officers is concerned, We have yet to see any
plan Of reducing salaries by which the cost
could be sensibly diminished and at the same
time the dignity and efficiency of the court
be maintained. 1t is impossible TO make the
court source of revenue, as some of the
Democratic speakers seem TO think. II is
equally impossible to keep up a court which
would reflect such honor on the Common
wealth as ours has done ever since its estab
lishment, unless its members receive at least
Q moiety of the amount they would earn if
practising before Its bar.
Ill. Still another reason why the State eX-
pepses have so greatly increased in the last
two decades, is the large sums which have
been given TO our rcformatory and charita-
BILE institutions. Thus, in 1860, the cost to
the State Of the Insane Asylum was 5000;
in 1878, it was $4,000. In 1860, the States
Prison cost $4,000; in 1873, 100000. The
militia cost, twenty years ago, $4,000; in
1878, it cost $4,000 and in 1877, SIT, 600. In
the first named year the Reform School was
not in existence; in the last named it cost
SIG, 1000 the same may be said of the House
Of Correction, which in 1873 cost $4,000;
and the Normal Schools, 5000. As the
Watchman well says;
Has this money been stolen or injudicious-
ly expended? Nothing of this kind is alleged.
These institutions cannot be maintained
without money. Abolish them, and the
State tax will not exceed the amount
twenty-five years ago. Set everything back
TO the condition it was in IL quarter OF Il CEN
tury previous to 1865, and the lax will be
even less than seventeen cents on the dollar
of the grand list"
Twenty years ago the tramp was I'M
known. Most of us can remember those
Arcadlan times, when great proportion of
the farm houses were unprovided with locks
sonagc as the modern tramp would have
been regarded rs II curiosity when
vagraucy was almost unknown. But
of late years tie land has absolutely swarm
ell with tramps. In one recent year over
eight hundred Of them were recorded by the
police in this city; and not Il village in the
State was free from their presence. The
records Of the courts will show that in these
latter years at least two-thirds Of the crimes
against person and property were either
committed by tramps or instigated and abet-
ted by them, This tramp nuisance of course
in,rodnceda new element Of expense TO the
State in that it not only increased the costs
OF I'll. counts lat also compelled additional
OUTLAWS Tor rcinrn.aiory and I'ill insiiiu-
from the development. of our railroad sys-
tem and the consequent growth of our larger
places.
Such are some of the facts bearing upon
the question at issue. That some reforms
are feasible is undoubtcd and that they
will be accomplished the past record Of the
Republican party is sufficient guaranty. But
the wholesale charge of extravaganza and
corruption in State affairs is false, and if
true would come with bad grace from the
party whose accession to power, whenever it
gains control, is always marked by increased