, 1889-07-07
QUESTION OF EXPENSES.
concluded from First Page.J

concluded from First Puge.l
Warren's estimate of s25. $50 as the aver
age Of the annual appropriations by the
general government for the needs of the
territory. No reasonable man, however,
will contend that the total of 500, 900
acres would. or could, be leased immedi.
ate and for a period of FIVE years. 1t is
fair. 1t seems to me-, to assume that not
exceeding seventy-fve per cent of the
lands conveyed by these grants could be
leased continuously, and that consequently
the receipts derived from the same, to-
gether with the interest upon the five per
centum received, would aggregate proba-
bly, $4,000. Accepting this estimate,
there is a deficit of $40, 900 as against the
governors wi figures.
SOME TATE EXPENDITURES.
| am not prepared. however, to admit
the premises upon which Governor War
rem bases his argument, nor the truth of
the differences which he draws. The
question is not whether the people will be
called upon, in the support of a state gov
eminent. to pay a greater or less number
OF mills on the dollar than we are no1
paying, but is, will they as a result of adj
mission pay a greater tax than If the ter
rltorial form OF government should con-
tinue.
An examination of the general appro-
priatIon bill of the tenth legislative Assem-
bly,, shows that the total of ap~propTia.
tions by the last legislature as salary for
territorial officials. and the proper conduct
Of their several offices, and for such other
purposes as may be regarded as fixed
charges, and for which provision must
regularly be made in future, land exclud-
ing all special or unusual appropriations,
amounts to one hundred and twenty
thousand dollars. or at the rate of sixty
thousand dollars per annum The aggre-
gate amount now paid annually by the
general government ON account of the
governors office, the secretary's Office,
and the three judges, is above fifteen
thousand dollars. With the transfer of
these five officials to the state, we would
thus have seventy-five thousand dollars.
Presumably the new state would provide
for an additional Judge. first, because of
the necessity for n more speedy admins
tration of justice, and secondly, that the
supreme court of the state might in every
case consist OF three Judges who had
taken no part in the hearing of the case
in the court below. Some such method
must be adopted or else the vastly more
expensive alternative of creating a separ-
ate and distinct appellate court. There
would necessarily be in addition, some
official in attendance upon the supreme
court of the state, when in session, to dis
charge in nart the duties now deyolying
upon the United States marshal, and the
additional cost for such fourth Judge and
court othcer, we may reasonably calculate
would easily bring the total up to eighty
thousand dollars.
LEGISLATIVE EXPENSES.
l approach the question of legislative
expenses with some hesitation. Any at
tempt to forecast the future involves
necessarily more or less uncertainty. No
one can in advance tell what the constitu-
tional convention may, or may not, pro-
vide for. No one can in advance hazard
an opinion as to the economies or extrav-
gancies Of future legislatures. 1t is fair
however, to assume, first: that the pres
ent official machinery of the territory is
necessary and essential to the proper and
efficient administration of government
and that the new state could not do with
a smaller complement of officials, and sec
ondly, that the legislature of this state
would, in all probability, be somewhat
larger b the present territorial body,
which is composed of twenty-tour mem
bers in the house and twelve in the coun-
Gil. The general government paid out on
account of our last legislative assembly
twenty-five thousand five hundred dollars.
The appropriation from the territory, Tor
meeting extra expenses incurred in the
way OF additional clerks, messengers,
door-keepers, etc, was some two thous-
and five hundred dollars, making a total
of twenty-five thousand dollars. Assum.
ing that the legislature of the future state
would be increased over and above the
present territorial legislature, sixty per
cent. in membership, the legislature of
the young state would consist of forty
members of the house and twenty in the
council. Allowing the same ratio of ex.
pense per member. we should expect TO
pay out biennially forty thousand dollars
upon account OF legislative expenses, or at
the rate of twenty thousand dollars per
year. This, added to the eighty thousand
dollars above noted. would give us a total
annual expenditure of one hundred
thousand dollars by the state, as against
sixty thousand dollars at the present
dmc. III buc llRul Ol THIS conclusion,
Judge Carey's declaration, while perhaps
entertained as an honest opinion, stands
as a bold and reckless assertion without a
shadow of foundation in fact.
STATE GOVERNMENT MORE EXPENSIVE.
Let Us then proceed on the very natural
prdicate that an complete and efficient
state government will be more expensive
than than the crude and imperfect terri
torial one. Let us admit that it will cost
$40, 600 more a year to sustain a state
government as comprehensive as the
present territorial one. Are we prepared
to assume the burden2 The taxable prop
erty of the territory, as returned by the
assessors OF the various county's aggre-
gates $50, 900, 900. This is VIGOROUSLY
inaccurate, too low, by at least 335 per
cent, which error whould be speedily cor
rected, under a state law, and the super
vision of an auditor, elected by and re-
sponsible to thetaxDayers. To raise S40.-
900, the predicatsdf increase in the cost of
a atata uoyarp,na,t wo,,ll ,noo.s,to,o a.