The Republican journal. [volume] (Belfast, Me.) 1829-current, 1885-03-19
Our County Affairs.

The burning of the county house, or sheriff's
residence, last Saturday morning a total
loss and will add to the financial difficulties
under which Waldo county is now laboring.
No steps can be taken toward rebuilding until
authorized by the Legislature two years hence,
but meanwhile the Sheriff must be provided
with suitable quarters. The total debt of the
county. as stated in Representative Libby's
communication recently published, is s., 54S IA,
or nearly the limit of $4,000 prescribed by
statute, and the loan of $1,000 authorized at
the late session of the Legislature will prove
but a temporary relief. The Waldo county
delegation, to whom the matter was referred,
no doubt acted as they thought for the best,
but we believe it would have been wiser course
to have allowed the assessments asked for by
the County Commissioners, and which would
have permitted the payment of the debt, rather
than to cut them down to only sufficient to
meet current expenses. The debt has been IN
Cured and must be paid sometime, and the
longer it is running the greater the sum to be
paid in interest.
In looking for leaks our delegation directed
urer They found that this official has cost the
county for number of years past from 500 to
$1,000 per year. and a bill was passed limiting
the salary for the future to $500 per year,
other counties oflike size paying their treasurer
from 500 to $500. This is very well, so far as
it goes. The journal has frequently shown up
the evils of the fee system anu advocated the
.,it,,
officials 1t does not however, believe in max
ing distinctions. All should be placed on the
same footing. Nor does it believe in system
CT economy APPLY described as saving at the
spigot and losing at the bung. All officials
should be fairly compensated for the amount of
work required of them. No sinecures, but
fair DAYS wages for 4 fair days work As the
Fairfield journal (Dem) recently said: The
luuaics o. the Scion Chase stripe cut down the
salaries OF ate and county officials in the leg
islature of ISIS which was simply bid for
the votes of coun,y rustics ard not in the inter-
est of economy. The result was class Of
cheap politicians ,-ept it. We say get good
men to fill the offices and pay them well, or
abolish the offices"
This is certainly true of Waldo county, and
the result is debt of nearly $4,000, on which
interest must be paid for two or three years to
come. And this condition of affairs is directly
due to the cutting down of salaries with the re-
sulting extension of the pernicious fee system.
The main leak was not, as we have repeatedly
shown. in the Treasurers office. but in the
multiplication of criminal costs, amounting YEAR
" to nearly one-balf the assessment, and I'M
justly bringing odium as we'll as pecuniary bur-
dens upon the law-abiding citizens of Waldo
county. Even the Prog. Age, which at the out
set opposed reform in this or any other direc-
ton, finally shamed into a tardy denuneia-
ton of the methods of its own friends and al
lies in depicting the county treasury True,
this step was taken after the editor Of that pa
per had been repudated at the polls, and had
seen, as the result OF his leadership. fusion
majority of some three thousand in Waldo
county succeeded by Republican victory and
even now his sincerity may be doubted. For
tunatey he 40 longer has influence iii our
county affairs and the paper he uses solely as a
means of advancing his claims for office, with
its waning circulation and lack Of all the al
tributes that mark newspaper, is in similar
plight. In September last the county wa, in
part redeemed from misrule. and next year the
work so auspiciousy begun Will be completed.
Then we may look for wiser administration
Of affairs. for real reform. and the stopping of
the leaks which have placed the county under
It's present burden of debt.