The record-union., 1891-02-27
ONE SPECIES OF PUBLIC Dis
HONESTY.

1t has grown to be custom among
legislators to support all appropriations
for institutions located in counties repre-
sented by them. State institutions, as
the State Prison, State Asylums. the State
University, Normal Schools, State Agri-
cultural Society, must be located some
where. There are State institutions
located in eleven counties in this State,
leaving forty-two counties destitute of
these institutions. 1t would be far better
| for the State if they We're all located in
some one county, because the representa-
tives of the eleven counties in which
these institutions are located are making
the foolish mistake of supposing that
somehow the institution belongs to the
county. Each of these institutions de-
serves an economic appropriation for its
support, if the institution itself is de-
manded by the DEGREES of modern civil
ization. But the representatives from the
counties containing them deport them
selves very much as if no other part of
the State were interested.
This is an impertinence that should be
resented. The representatives of a
county wherein is located a State insane
asylum ought to be told by the rest OF the
members that the accident of it's location
there does not place them in any relation
to its interests differing from that sus-
tanned by all other members of the
Legislature. The Assemblyman or Sena-
tor who returns to his constituents with
the boast that he secured extravagant ap-
preparation for an institution located in
his county, simply because the money
would be expended among his con-
stituency, has the instincts of pirate. If
one single eXtravagant dollar was secured
to be appropriated by him simply be-
cause it was going to be spent among his
constituents, he puts his whole constit-
uency in the attitude of having robbed
the State Treasury for their benefit.
When, therefore, a member of the AS
sembly or 4 Senator claims as virtue
before any public audience that he has
secured appropriation for institutions To-
Gated in the midst of his constituency. in
excess of the reasonable and economic
demand of those institutions as public
institutions, he should receive rebuke
rather than applause. His boast is an in
suit to the honesty of his constituents,
because it is the equivalent of boasting
that eleven counties in the State have
succeeded in robbing torty-two.
The public institutions of the State also
should be divorced from this species of
advocacy. When the mar from Marin
claims that some special consideration
should be extended to the State Prison,
or the man from Sacramento claims that
some special consideration should be
given to the State Capitol, the State Agri-
cultural Society or the State Prison at
FOLSOM, or the man from Napa asks for
an appropriation for the Napa Insane
Asylum on the ground that it is located
in Napa County, they usually and justly
incite spirit of hostility and resentment.
The broad consideration is that State in
stitutions must have locality, but legisla-
ton concerning them should be delocal-
lied. 1t will be much better for the in
stitutions and better for the people of the
State when this higher consideration of
the true relation of things obtains among
legislators.