The Carbon advocate. [volume] (Lehighton, Pa.) 1872-1924, 1883-09-15
Our Washington Letter.
TFRoM OUR SPECIAL CoEREsPoN DENT ]


and oleomargarine upon the treasury OF
the United States. and who receive sal.
aries ranging from SIS per month to
$50, 900 per annum, the compensation Of
the President. So much has been said
concerning the extravagant salaries paid
to our higher government officials, in
connection with the civil service reform
discussions, few comparisons between
the salaries paid in this country and
those paid to officials in similar stations
In England may be of general interest.
For instance, Lord Chief Justice Cole
ridge, now visiting this country, receives
a salary twice as large rs that of tie
President of our fiftv-five millions OF
people, and nearly ten times larger than
that received by the chief justice of the
United States. The lord mayor of Lon
don and tho lord lieutenant of ireland
each receive salary larger by $4,000
per year than that received by our chief
executive, While we pay our ministers
to London and Paris and Berlin Sl7,5OO
per annum, and consider that the very
exaltation of extravagance, the ambassa-
dors accredited to this country from
those nations receive nearly, if not quite,
three fold more than we pay, and the
Russian minister receives more than -four
fold the extrRvagant figure that has kept
us in grumble for thirty years. To our
second-class ministers, such as represent
us at Madrid and Vienna and Rome, we
pay $4,000 per annum, while England
pays to her representatives 10 those
countries s27, 500.
There is yet another class of ministers
to whom we pay salary of $40, 900, such
as those who represent us in the South
American States, and England makes no
distinction between them and the Aus
trian and Italian missions, so far as COM
pensation is concerned. And so it is
with our consuls and OUT secretaries of
legation and other attaches, TO whom we
pay the maximum salary of SIS, 600, and
England perpetuates hers through life
time by giving them just double that
sum. We pay our cabinet officers SS, 600
per annum. which is just about the
amount the English premier receives per
month, and the comptroller of the treas
ury works for the same amount, S5, 600
per year, that the chancellor OF the Eng
lish exchequer receives per month. The
postmaster at New York gets IS. 200 per
annum, and his confrere at London gets
as many pounds, or nearly fve times as
much, while the same officer at Liver
pool, Manchester, and q dozen other
English citi' s,receives more than double
the cotnpeEsation Of the postmaster of
our metropolis. The general of the army
gets $l3,500 per year, which would
scarcely be considered pin-moncy for the
lead of the British army; nor would the
admiral of the English navy be able to
keep up the dignity of his position upon
such pittOnce as the S1l 900 per year
that we dole out TO the head Of our pow
erful sea forces.
With most of the officials to whom we
pay what we are prone to consider ex-
travagant salaries, there is an absolute
struggle for existence, because of the
demands upon them for hospitalites, Of
fetal courtesies, and all that sort of
thing. In fact many of them, and par
ticularly the cabinet officers, expepd
much more than the salaries they re-
ceive every year in responding to these
social requirements. None of them, not
even the President, is expected to lay by
anything for a rainy day out of these
salaries, and we all know with what
pitiful disdain the whole American peo-
pie look upon recently retired Presi-
dedt, who is suspected to have econo-
mised in the household expenses of the
executive mansion so to salt down about
one-half of his entire salary. There is,
Of course, no good reason why We of this
plain, democratic, modern republic
should especially emulate aristocratic
and wealthy England in the matter of
official salaries, no matter how powerful
or well able we may be to do so. These
comparisons are made simply as a matter
of interest Yet we ought to pay hi ID
n 10 10 oil "a
demands of life in their positions, though
it is curious fact that, inadequate as
present salaries are said to be, there Is
no difficulty in finding any number OF
men willing aud anxious to take the
places. 1t is, however, fact that if We
carry the subject a step farther, and
make comparisons between official salar-
les and those in commercial life in our
country, we shall find the discrepancies
almost as great in some of the higher
grades. There are presidents of insnr-
ance and railway companies who receive |
salaries as great OF greater, than that of
the President of the United States; and |
in many other positions where integrity
and high order of ability is required,
much more is paid than for correspond
ing service under the government. But
when we come down to the lower grades,
such as clerkships, etc, which comprise
the great mass of the 1l0. 600 above re-
ferred to, we find that salaries average
considerable better than in commercial
positions; so that in the aggregate Uncle
Sam pays his servants as much as, or
more than, the same number of men of
equal character and capacity could com.
mand in salaries in any other walk of
life in this or any other county.
DON PEpRo.