The daily Cairo bulletin. (Cairo, Ill.) 1878-1???, 1881-05-05

equally attractive to criminals and gives
them an easy opportunity to eyade hin.
Cities that have uniformed police are most
ly large cities, who can afford to accom-
modate the strangers that come into their
gates by making their officers easily recog-
nizable and at the same time obviate
the evil effects OF the uniform by
employing number of secret detectives
who are allowed to wear whatever they
may please,
The new city council is now thorough
ly organized and prepared to enter upon
the discharge of its duties, The people
will expect from it several reiorms--several
Improvements upon the modes OF conduct
ing the affairs of the city. 1t will be ex-
pected from them, among other things, that
they will curtail the expenses of the city,
in one direction at least. We do not wish
to be understood as ntmating
that TOO much money has been
spent in years gone by for
internal Improvements, or in the form Of
salaries for officers. The few thousand
dollars appropriated for the purpose of
paving the streets, keeping up sidewalks,
improving the levee, building sewers, diet
ing prisoners, etc, was not any more than
ought to have been expended for those pur-
poses. The little one thousand dollars a
year paid the mayor; the insignificant six
thousand dollars appropriated for the po-
lice force of the city during the year; the
triflng sum of five thousand
dollars paid to other faithful
and efficient officers of the city, including
the health officer, treasurer, corporation
counsel, city clerk, street superintendent,
ETC. these are all little petty expenditures
that the city council must make ana pro-
vide for. Not one Of the officers ought to
be expected to do their work for less than
what they now receive, for they are wor-
thy Of their hire and the work they are
expected to perform is worth every cent of
what they receive. Knowing all this THE
BULLETIN would be the last to favor any
reduction whatever in the matter Of appro-
priations for internal improvements, nor in
the salaries of the city officers unless it
were that Of the councilmen and the city
attorney. But look in another direction,
you, whose duty it is to guard well the in
terests of the people of Cairo-who are
being so munifcently paid for distributing
the funds of the city IN the way in which
they will do the most good! Look down
the capacious NAV of the press, which swal-
lows up the enormous sum of SIXTY DOLLARS
every year for doing the city printing.
Think Of it! six hundred dimes-six
thousand cents, just for laying before the
people of the city the acts Of the city
council, etc, during short term of twelve
months One dollar and seventy-fve cents
is paid by the people Of the city for the
publication Of the proceedings Of every
council meeting, taking up only two or
three or four columns in the paper, too. 1t
is outrageous, and the first aud most i'm
portant duty of the present coun-
Gil is to cut down the printing bill.
Everybody knows that sixty dollars is en-
hrely too much to pay for publishing the
of twenty,four regular and
eight or ten special meetings Of the city
council; the mayors little three column
inaugural address, half dozen veto mes
sages and annual messages; three or four two
column opinions of the corporation coun-
sci twenty or twenty-five little half column |
ordinances, contracts, advertisements for
bids, committee reports, etc, etc, etc, etc.
We insist that the amount |
paid for this work is an inexousa-
able waste Of the peoples money!
'quandering of the public funds. To tell
the truth we fail to discover any "good and
sufficient" reason why the newspaper
publisher should be allowed anything at
all tor publishing the doings of the coun-
ell. 1t appears to be universally acknowl-
edged fact that he steals his printing office,
cheats the paper manufacturer, evades the
.ax-gatherer, bulldozes the compositors,
paralyzesthe landlord and lives on the prom
ses Of those he pulfs free of charge. Why,
hen, should he receive any compensation
or the city printing! Echo answers, whya
The council might make another attempt
% make a bargain with the publishers, and
f it finds that they will persist in their ex-
demands and absolutely refuse
% do the little city printing at reasonable
figures, then it knows what it can dot
,an have the city clerk post copies Of the
proceedings onto the telephone posts. This
would probably bring the obstreperous
49,; N t,r, to t..,,,a AVID In thn p,oa nt;mo tha |