Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1881-01-07
1ARnp nn puBI1c WORKS.

a bill has been introduced in the Legis-
lature providing that all labor on public
works shall be hereafter done on the days
work system, and that the day shall be Of
eight hours. Measures of this kind are
certain to find many advocates. and politi-
clans are frequently afraid to show any OPP
position to them lest they should lose pop
ularity. But it is necessary to point out
that the questions involved concern the
disposition of the peoples money, and that
whatever measures tend to foster extrava-
gance, play into the hands of partisan cor
ruptien, or create artificial standards of
value for labor, are to that extent imposi-
tons upon the whole body Of taxpayers.
Those who demand that the State shall es-
tablish special rates for the employment
and payment of labor commonly forget that
the State is merely an abstraction, and
that what is really proposed in all such
cases is that the people in their collective
capacity shall pay more for labor than it is
| shown to be worth in the open market
Now the people collectively are no more
able to afford such extravagant and unbusi-
nesslike proceedings than are the people in
diyidually, nor can their representatives. in
the Legislature be justified in committing
them to any such arrangements. The obvious
ground Of the demand that public labor
shall be done by days work instead of by
contract is that the laborers can make
more out of it in the former way than in
the latter. The contract system when
properly supervised is the more economical
of the two for the State, and it is not
little singular that the very men who have
been clamoring most loudly for increased
economy in governmental expenditures
should be foremost in urging measures of
the kind under notice. When the Consti-
tutional Convention was sitting, and the
question of the salaries Of State officers
was under discussion, it was asserted that
the State ought not to pay these officials
more than clerical positions of similar re.
sponsibility were worth in private bust
ness The salaries were fixed in accord
ance with this rule, yet now those who
most approved the application of that rule
desire to set it aside for the special ad-
vantage of the workingmen. 1t IS very
well known that in the present condition
OF politics such labor bill as has just been
introduced would place in the hands of
municipal rings power for evil analogous
to that which Tweed exercised in New
York 1t would. for example, enable
corrupt politicians to double or treble the
normal cost of such buildings as the new
City Hall in San Francisco 1t would en-
able them to keep a small army of ward
strikers and fuglemen at the expense of the
taxpayers, and would prevent reform by
the free employment of the means of the
victims of corruption. Nor is there
any solid argument in support OF the bill,
aside from these considerations. There
can be no reason why the public should
be called upon to pay higher rates for Ia
Dor than individuals pay. The State is
not wealthy entity, deriving its revenues
from some special and peculiar source.
Every dollar that goes into the public
=, treasury is taken from the pockets of the
people. Every citizen who pays taxes is
therefore personally interested in seeing
that the funds to which he is forced
contributor are economically expended,
and that no higher than the current prices
are paid Tor anything that the State re-
quires.