The Cambria freeman. [volume] (Ebensburg, Pa.) 1867-1938, 1881-04-01

THE Attorney General of the Common
wealth, Henry ". Palmer, astonished as
we'll as thoroughly disgusted the members OF
the Legislature one day last week by furnish
ing the State Treasurer and Auditor Gener-
al, at their instance and request, with a
written opinion in which he decides as un-
constitutional that portion Of the act of AS
sembly Of 1874 which provides for extra pay
at the te Of ten dollars per day for one hun
dred days, prorjded such time shall not ex-
ceed fifty days at any one session. After
giving his reasons for arriving at this cOnclu-
sion, the Attorney General sums up the
whole question by saying "The cOmpensa-
ton for a session, long or short, is, as fixed
at this time, $1,000, and no more" The
opinion is too long for us to publish, but
while we have no doubt at all about the en-
tire correctness of the Attorney Generals
conclusion in regard to the unconstitution-
ality of the ten dollar per day clause Of the
act of 1864, we feel just as certain that he is
not the proper person to decide such a ques-
tiOn in this summary manner. 1t is mat
ter fOI the Supreme Court of the State to dis
pose of, and we trust it will vet reach that
tribunal and that the view taken by the At
tOTney General will be sustained by that
Court, thus putting quetus to the curse of
legislative sessions running through fire
months at a frightful expense to the people
and without any adequate compensation. 1t
is plain, we think, that the members of the
Constitutional Convention intended to cut
up by the roots the vicious practice of per
diem pay as applied to the Legislature, when
they provided that its members shall receive
such salary as shall be fixed by law, and
the great mistake in the act Of 1874 was that
portion of it allowing the members ten dol
lars day for ffty days beyond one hundred,
if they should remain in session that length
of time, which they viii! always find it both
convenient and necessary to do Just as long
as that clausein the act stands unrepealed or
without being declared unconstitutional.
The present Legislature has been unspar-
ingly denounced by the newspaper press for
its shortcomings and its waste of time, but
it is not a bit worse than each future Legis-
lature will prove itself to be until one of the
two remedies we have mentioned is applied.
With salary fixed at n thousand dollars
session, no matter whetherit is long or short,
and withoutany provision inviting the men,
bers to extend it fifty days, and thus receive
determined to discharge the duties imposed
upon them by their constituents by holding
sessions sir days in the week instead of only
four, as they now do, and they will get thro
with all the necessary business inside of a
hundred days in far more creditable and
satisfactory manner than can be done in one
hundred and fifty days, to say nothing of a
saving to the State treasury of at least $780,
600. 1t the State Treasurer refuses, as it is
said he viii, to pay the members more than
q thousand dollars, which means a session of
hundred days, Notwithstanding they sit
ten, twenty, or any other number of days
beyond that time, they will of course try to
compel him by judicial proceedings to do so.
Hence there is a pretty certain prospect of
having the cOnsitutiOnality OF the latter pOT-
ton of the act of 1874 which has been OBJ
jected to by the Attorney General, Judicially
determined.