Lancaster daily intelligencer. [volume] (Lancaster, Pa.) 1864-1928, 1881-06-10

6SSssSW~sS< RSsSISsS8ISt%kIsr \
FRIDAY EVENING. JUNE 10. 1881.
The Bad Work OF Coed Men.
The Legislature of Pennsylvania, which
has just adjourned, has not earned the
award, Well done, good and faithful
servants" as indeed it is not the habit
of our Legislatures to do but this one
was quite exceptional jim its ability to do
its work we'll, and it is especially disap-
pointing to find that men who were Ca
pable of being good legislators could
make no better record for themselves than
their predecessors from whom nothing
very good could have been reasonably
expected. The lesson is that we must
look beyond the mental capacity of men
to discover proper material for our
What that body as whole
especially seemed to need was common
sense. A great deal has been charged
against the honesty of its men,
bers, but very little has been proven,
and in this particular they will probably
compare favorably enough with the
usual class OF oHr legislators. Good
measures were defeated and had ones
werc adopted, and corrupt influence
doubtless had much sway nevertheless,
we are persuaded that the members, with
fewer exceptions than usual, were hon
est. But, certainly, they were a very
twisty lot. Good men acted rs though
they were possessed Of devil, and ap-
parently did unwise things for the spe-
cial purpose of being considered to be
fools.
There, at the head of the list
was Speaker Hewitt, man of fine
intelligence and capacity, with a
good record for honesty, who turned
about and jumped about and leaped Jim
Crow in such fantastic fashion as to
leave people generally in serious doubt
whether he was fool or knave; when in
very truth he was neither he only
made himself appear SO because he
lacked good judgment aud common
sense. And there too, on the other hand
was Mr.. Wolfe with reputation for i'm
pregnable honesty SO well earned that
nothing could shake it. His champion
ship of reform was not effective because
he was unable to work out his aims with
calm good judgment. The speaker and
he came into the Assembly close friends,
but shortly fell to quarreling in public in
a very modifying way, and very un-
necessarily; if they had been equal to
the occasion they would probably have
been able to work together for the good
of the state, as both, perhaps, aimed to
do. The evil reputation this Legislature
leaves behind it does not come alone
from its evil members, but is largely
chargeable to the infelicitous efforts of
its intelligent and well-meaning ones.
Take this salary business as an illus
tration. We find tho members making
common cause in an effort to compel
the state to pay them 81 500 when the
state treasurer, attorney general and
governor construe the law to give them
but $1,000. They dispute the correct
ness of such construction of the
law. Yet it is a construction which
is sustained by the sense of the people
and there can be no question but that
the popular judgment is strongly against
both the right and the propriety of this
Legislative demand. Suppose the right
was otherwise, and that the members
are entitled to their extra compensation :;
can there lie any possibility of a doubt
Of the unbecomingness of their insistence
upon it in the way they have done !?
They have abused, in a wholly unwar-
ranted way, through the report of Accom-
mittee which could neither write Eng
lish, define law. or state facts, the state
treasurer and the attorney general whose
clear duty it was not to permit this
money to be paid if they believed
it to he an unlawful payment.
Their judgment of the law may
have been properly questioned, but Ger.
tainly their motive, could not lie de-
Gently challenged without sustaining evi-
dence. And the consequence is that
these reputable legislators, good, honest
and intelligent as many of them are,
are held in contempt by the people for
what appears to be an unworthy, un-
dignified and altogether small attempt
ut treasury grab. And they have added
to the feeling against them by their
impudent attempt to get this money by
inserting clause in the appropriation
bill directing the treasurer to pay it. to
them, we'll knowing that if the existing
laws did not give it to them they were
powerless thus to legislate it into their
own pockets, in the face of the constitu-
tional prohibition of such a grab. 1t was
q most unseemly attempt, and the treas
urer is wholly sustained by public scnti-
ment in refusing to pay the money.
AFTER somewhat prolonged silence
the NeU Era finds its voice to declare
that it has no information that the in
vestigating committee has abandoned
the hunt for fraud but at any rate
" the NeU Era is not responsible for the
action of the committee" sit has had
no communication with them and none