Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1889-04-22

answer yes; others answer no. Some say it il
not possible for the Legislature to adjourn be
fore the 10th, or even later. But it will take a
| two-thirds' majority of each branch to prevent
an adjournment at the time now appointed
and two-thirds majorities are not to be had fol
the mere asking. Members are becoming
anxious to get away to their business, and to
such as these legislation that looked very inn
portant a little while ago looks much less i'm
portant now and after May Day will look even
less SO.
Time and the Excursion to Gotham.
The New York trip will knock out some val
liable time, in spite of the extra work on Fri
days and Mondays. Extra work on these days
might have been done to good advantage even
had there been no New York trip. Another at
tempt to prevent it is likely to be made to-mor.
row night, when original resolutions will be in
order.
POst-Legislative Labors.
A large number of commissions will do busi-
ness after the adjournment of the Legislature.
| A commission to revise and consolidate the
road laws of the Commonwealth is not the
least important of these A commission to
prepare a code of insurance laws is another. If
all goes well, commission will select a route
| for ship canal to connect Lake Erie with the
Ohio, and legal commission may get chance
to prepare rules of practice for the courts of
the Commonwealth. There will be no COM
mission to prepare a uniform series of text
books for the schools of the Commonwealth,
or any part of them, though there was con-
siderable effort in that direction.
Looking After Public Institutions.
A part of one important commission has al
ready been appointed. 1t is not called COM
mission, however, but is termed joint COM
mittee Senator Mylin, of Lancaster, gave
birth to the idea, and he, with Senator Rey-
burn, has been appointed on the COM
mlttee on behalf of the Senate.
The members from the lower branch
have not yet been appointed. The duty of the
committee will be to examine all the penal and
| charitable institutions of the State, the Nor
NAL schools and other institutions getting
money from the public treasury. Senator
Mylln says the Appropriations Committees of
the two Houses have not the time to go over
these institutions as they should be gone over.
| He thinks they should be held to stricter ac
count than they are, and that uniformity in
| the keeping of accounts should be insisted on.
Much OF the time of members of the Appropria-
| tions Committees is lost on the biennial visit
| in learning the method of bookkeeping. The
only place where this was not the case was at
the Soldiers Home, in Erie. There everything
was as plain as it was possible to make 1t and
| everything was accounted for. In the opinion
| of Senator Mylin it is the best and most sys-
| tematically conducted public institution In
the State.
Mixing Moneys Up.
At many institutions sustained or aided by
the State it was discovered that very loose
system has prevailed Money given by the
Legislature for specific purpose has gone into
the general fund, and it is very difficult mat
ter to discover whether all or only portion of
it was used for the purpose for which the Leg
islature intended it. In some cases it is appa-
rent that the whole sum has not been so used,
all of it not being necessary for the purpose,
and the unexpended balance has been covered
into the general fund of the institution. This,
it may be said, is practice of long standing.
1t has been assumed by the officers
that the money given by the Legisla-
ture is given absolutely, and then that
if by economy any part of an appropriation
could be saved from the object for which it
was originally intended, they were perfectly
free to apply it to anything else. A different
view is taken by level-headed gentlemen who
have charge of the legislative end of the public
purse, and managers of public or seml-public
institutions have already been given to Under
stand that hereafter, when money is voted
them for particular object, any balance re-
naming after the purpose of an appropriation
has been accomplished is the property, not of
Dearden, of the House Appropriations Com
mittee, and several of his fellow members on
the same committee who had the experience of
last session before them, were prepared to deal
with this matter this year, and number of in
stitutions that came for regular biennial allow
ances have found the amount of their demand
reduced by the amount of the balance of the
last appropriation unexpended for the purpose
for which it was obtained
New System Needed.
Senator Mylin has seen this same thing, and
the committee appointed under his resolution
is intended to permanently correct this matter,
and among other things, to devise something
like uniform system Of bookkeeping for the
institutions sustained in whole or in part from
the public funds. The Senator is also of the
opinion that a new Executive Department to
control the penal and charitable institutions of
the State might save much money TO the Treas
ury by carefully guarding expenditures.
r. =
Soldiers Orphans and Border Claims.
A very important commission to be appoint
ed by the Speaker of the House, the President
pro tenn. of the Senate and the Department
Commander of the G. A. R. will be the Sol
diers Orphans Commission. 1t will have COM
plete control of the orphans now in the schools,
and it is already promised for it that it will
close all the schools and otherwise dispose of
the children.
A commission in which the Grand Army men
will also be interested is the one to press upon
Congress the claims of citizens OF the border
counties who suffered losses during rebel raids.
Captain Skinner could not obtain the Legisla-
ture's approval of a law permitting these peo-
pie to sue the State, but he accomplished no
small thing when he induced it to throw its
whole weight and influence into the attempt to
have Congress foot the bill 1t is seldom claim
ants go to Congress with the official approval
of great Commonwealth. Democrats just
now look on Captain Skinner with much favor,
and he looms up strongly among them as
candidate for Governor.
A Legislative Camp Fire.
The campfire to be held in the Opera House
on Thursday night will be participated in by
the Governor and all the other soldier survivors
of the late unpleasantness between the States
who are IN the departments and in the Legis-
lature. They and their friends will furnish the
speeches, rectations and songs that will form
the entertainment. One of the entertainers
will be Hon. John Rose, of Cambria, who as a
whistler can give Mrs. Shaw many valuable
pointers. His high notes are clear and bird
like, his low notes are as melodious as the
tones of flute, and his trills are simply en-
trancing.
ALawyer's Attack on the Judges.
Hon. Henry Hall has made himself solid with
the granger element of the legislature and
many others by his attack on the judges SAL
ary bill, but many things he said about the
judiciary shocked many and grated harshlv on
many ears. Coming from a lawyer, and the |
Chairman of the General Judiciary Committee |
of the House, the words were of more weight |
than had they been uttered by another.
Waiting on a Larger Salary,
The term of the Superintendent of Public