Lancaster daily intelligencer. [volume] (Lancaster, Pa.) 1864-1928, 1881-03-25

AOtSI0oILL EtSlIIIt9EItItks
FRIDAY EVENING. MARCH 25, 1881.
Lame Argument, but Good Sense.
We believe in the strict construction
OF written constitutions and there is no
that Attorney General Pal
mer is a strict constructionist of the
strictest kind. We would that he could
favor the Legislature with some further
interpretations that might have the ef-
feet Of putting life into the plain letter
of the constitution in many of its pro-
visions which now are inert if not
dead. We will not deny the at
torney-generalH conclusion that the
direction Of the constitution that the
members Of the General Assembly shall
receive such salary and mileage for reg
ular and special sessions as shall be
fixed by law, and no other compensa-
tion whatever" prohibits them from
receiving salary of a thousand
dollars per session and ten dollars day
for each day not exceeding fifty that the
session shall extend beyond hundred
days. The attorney general decides thus
upon the ground that a per diem COM
pensation cannot properly come under
the term SALARY" used in the constitu-
tion, salary in his judgment being ian
annual or periodical payment for serv-
ices" We do not think that ground is
very solid. The conclusion is good
deal stronger in its good sense than in
the definition upon which it is prOpped.
We do not think that it can be fairly
held that a per diem compensation is not
asalary. 1t is true that in the ordinary
usage salary is not paid by the day but
it may be and it is hardly the fact of
the daily payment that distinguishes a
salary from wages. Webster definition
of salary, quoted by the attorney general,
Is :' an annual or periodical payment for
services, a stipulated periodical recon-
pense." That definition applies to both
salary and wages. A payment by the
day is certainly a "periodical payment
for services, !" as is also one by the week
or month. In manufacturing estab-
lishments and on railroads employees
are paid some by the month, some by
the week. and some by the day. Some
are paid by the "piece,' or by the
trip or the pound but whenever
or however they are paid their
compensation is usually spoken of
as wages, unless they are officers of the
company, or clerks, when salary is the
term generally used; and that, although
the pay day is the same all around. Tie
Legislature used to be compensated en-
tirely by the day, yet no one ever thought
of speaking of the " wages" of a legis'
latOr nor when congressman used to
receive a per diem was it spoken of rs
wages. 1t is the character of the ser
vices and the servants, and the period
for which their services are engaged,
which control the designation of their
emolument, much more than the stated
times at which their compensation is
paid them.
We do think, therefore, that the at.
torney-general's argument in support OF
his decision is Of very attenuated CHAR.
acter, until he gets down to the intent OF
the trainers Of the constitution and the
evil which they desired to redress. He
makes it apparent that the word salary
was used in the constitution with a de.
sign that it should be construed not to
authorize per diem payment to the
Legislature. The debates show that the
members of the convention considered
it to be All evil SO to provide compensa-
tion for the Legislature as to make it to
its interest to continue long sessions
Therefore they declared that they should
be paid by a salary, and evidently in
tended that it should he a lump sum
for a session independent Of the
term of it's duration. The attorney.
general is, therefore, constituting the con.
stitution rs its trainers desired, and as
good sense would make it. If the Leg.
islature may decree per diem compensa.
tion for fifty days it may so decree for
every day in the year. If Mr.. Palmer
had rested his case upon the intent of
the constitution as fairly gathered from
the evil sought to be remedied by its
trainers, as found in their declarations,
his opinion would have been strong
enough to stand. 1t is not aided by his
appeal to the ordinary Interpretation of
salary.
ACCOUNTS differ as to how the nomi-
nations of persons to fill the federal
Offices in New York will affect the Re-