The Londonderry sifter. (South Londonderry, Vt.) 1883-19??, 1886-02-11
THE WEEK.
In the United States and tho
Old World.
ARIZONA LEGISLATURES.
Many Instances OF Unauthorized II

Many Instances OF characterized Ex-
.travagance.
The Arizona Legislature is in very bad
plight According to official intelligence re-
ceived at the interior department, at Wash
mgton, d, c., its recent session perpetrated
some most remarkable legislation, and in de-
iiance of the plaineSt statutory limitations
Sec, 1883 of the Revised Statutes says: mo
legislative assembly of a territory shall in
any instance, or under any preteXt, eV-
seed the amount appropriated, by. Congress
for its annual expenses The Legislature of
Arizona did not feel like being bound down
to such limits as those prescribed by
Congress, which gave So, $50 "for per
diem of members and officers OF the
Legislature, mileage of members, printing,
rent, extra clerk hire, light, fuel, stationery
and other incidental expenses, hire of porter
of messenger for the secretary's office, and
incidental expenses of secretary'S office, and
including safe for samc,n So ii proceeded TO
make large appropriations ON its own account
Gov Zulick became alarmed at the evident
illcgality of the proceedings, and wrote to
Secretary Lamar about it, Secretary Lamar
roferr, d the case to Asst -Atty.-Gen, Mont
gomery, who has sent his decision severely
commenting ON the proceedings Of the legiS-
lature His decision is very racy, and the
that in no case shall the expenditure for
public printing in any of the territories
exceed the sum of $500 for any one year,
and yet it appears from Gov, Zulicks
communication that there was appropriated
for printing bills, letter heads and other
printing ST., 1888, and for printing daily jour
nails, bills and reports, etc, S1S;}4, making an
aggregate expenditure for printing alone for
the 18th Assembly of Sl9,96150, being an ex-
cess of Sl7, 461. 20 above the bounds limited by
congress. Again, in the face of the said act
of June 10, 1878, enumerating and defining
with great particularly the subordinate Off
GERS of territorial legislature, and fixing the
amount of compensation of each, it appears
that the Arizona legislature in its said 18th
session employed, in addition to those author
lied by said act of congress, no less than 50
clerks, assistant clerks and committee clerks,
beside four pages, two janitors and two door
keepers, at an aggregate cost of S2S, 100 This
troop of subordinateS seems to have been a
remarkable one, both on account of
its numbers and the magnitude of
its salaries | find that the pages (prcsuln-
ably small boys were paid $40 each, and
inasmuch as the Legislature could not, under
the law, sit longer than 40 days, this would
be 81 per day, precisely the per diem allowed
by law to the honorable members of the
same legislature. Again, while the laws of
Congress allow to the chief clerks of the re-
Spectve branches OF the Legislature So per
day, | find an assistant chief clerk and an
assistant enrolling clerk in each of the said
branches-four in all-at n salary OF 500 for
said 40 days service, making SIS rer day,
being just three times the per diem allowed
by law to the honorable members. This GER
tainly seems to have been an extraordinary
display of legislative liberality, especially 50
i'll view of the fact that there is nothing what
ever in the documents before me to show that
said clerks made any division of their salaries
with their muniticent b'nefactOrs 1t further
appears that the higher branch of the Legis-
lature, although consisting Of only II mem
bers, employed no less than 10 committee
clerks, at salaries ranging from $50 TO $40
each These salaries amounted to 50 per day,
and S13. so per day. 1t further appears that
the said Legislature appropriated S3,0i0.SO to
pay for newspapers for the use of its mem
bers. There beingthirty-siX members all told,
this amounted to little over SS5 per mem
Der, being upward of 81 per day each. The
United States statutes is explicit that no APP
preparation shall be made by which members
or officers of the Legislature are paid any
compensation other than that provided by
Congress, and yet the Legislature, in the face
of this law, proceeded to appropriate $40 for
each member of the lower house and 500 for
each member of the higher
The decision of Mr.. Montgomery is that all
the appropriations enumerated above are in
violation of law and void 1t is not known
what action may be taken by Congress in
regard to the matter