Los Angeles herald., 1890-11-14
FRIDAY, NOVEMBER IA, 1890.
A GOOD MUNICIPAL PROGRAMME.

The movement in the council for a
of salaries is one that should have been
made long ago. 1t is inaugurated now
in response to most urgent public
sentiment, and it should be carried into
instant effect. The officials who were
intrusted with the mission of setting the
machinery OF the new charter in motion
were, unfortunately for the taxpayers,
gentlemen of an expansive and liberal
fiber. They had no picayunish notions
about them, and the philosophy of Poor
Richards Almanac would have sat
poorly upon their stomachs. They
believed in plenty of officials and
liberal salaries. The idea of cutting
their coats according to the cloth never
seemed to strike them. Everything was
to be upon colossal plan, and the
goose that laid the golden egg was to be
lowered with an inexhaustible fecun-
dity. Such things are all very we'll in
theory, but in practice they do not al
ways work well. For weary while the
taxpayer has fardels borne, and he has
groaned and sweated under the burdens
of a weary life. The load assigned to
him to carry has been beyond his
strength: Anyone who will look into
our new city hall will not be greatly
surprised atan era of extravaganza. ema-
mating from that place. 1t is elegant
and even palatial. The idea that
anyone domiciled there should prac-
tice anything so low and plebe-
ian as economy in municipal expendi-
lures would scarcely be entertained for
a moment. AS consequence, the scale
OF salaries Of the principal municipal Of
fcials is something to alright an east
erner from a town of the same size as
Los Angeles. We would be willing to
wager heavy sum that the city attor-
neys OF the cities of Rochester, Syracuse
or Utica, in the great state OF New York,
do not receive over $1,000 per annum.
Here they. must needs be paid $4,000
year. A street superintendent in any of
the cities named would consider his
Office a sinecure, and would gladly
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functionary pockets $4,000 per annum,
and the taxpayers think that our
present able and indefatigable super
intendent would be dear at half the
money. We might 60 through long
list on the same scale of comparison.
By all means, gentlemen OF the city
council of Los Angeles, consolidate
necessary offices, abolish useless ones
and pay common sense, hard times sala-
ries to the officials who shall remain.
There is no reason why the mayor should
receive over $1,000. That sum would
amply pay for any labor, trouble, thought,
introspection, retrospection, or wear or
tear, to which he might be exposed while
holding the Office. While theory can
be invented by which mayor can be
supposed to be devoting most of his
time to the good OF the people he really
consecrates very little of it to the public,
nor is there any reason why he should.
Under the new charter he is relieved of
the criminal business, which really
made the office laborious one, and all
that he is now obliged to do is to write
an occasional veto message and to assist
at certain public conferences. The
members ofthe council ought not to re-
ceive over 5000 apiece. AS far as the
record Of the present council-the first
under the new charter-has gone, it has
established the fact that highly sal
aried city council may develop more
crookedness than councils whose mem
bers received no remuneration. We can
recall councils in which J. w. Potts, G.
G. Lips, Charley Johnston, Mascarel,
and others of our leading citizens sat
without pay, that have never been
equaled in efficiency since.
Yes, Messieurs of the city council,
abolish all the municipal Offices you can.
Consolidate those you cannot abolish.
Reduce salaries on all hands. Introduce
an era of economy. Remember those
two venerable saws, "Better late than
never" and "It is never. too late to
mend"