Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1892-08-06

The New Age grows quite hysterIcal over
the fact that the salary of the State Libra
rian has been increased, since the days of
Fusion rule from $500 10 $1,000. The mu-
nifcence Of Fusion craftsmanship a. here
exhibited j, certainly striking. Here was an
official charged with the responsibilities Of
an important State departments Obliged to pay
city rental, and city prices for all he con
.umcd, and receiving the enormous sum OF
almost one dollar and fifty cents per day
for his valuable services Notwithstanding
the fact that this is position that can only
be properly filed by an official of culture
and ability it is narrowing in the extreme
10 contemplate such layishness
Just think of it. the head
of State Department receiving
the sum of $500 for only one years
work What a temptation he must have
been under to embark in riotous speculation
with his surplus funds In view of such a
surfeii OF official emolnment il is indeed in
comprehensble Why the wicked Republicans
should have increased the pay attached to
the position, They may have felt, perhaps,
that u diet Of goldfish and
crackers should no longer b. made con
diti0n 10 the occupancy of this Office.
1t is by no means certain, however, that
humanitarian considerations had anything
TO DO with the matter. II may have been
that, having viewed the depleted condition
of the State library, the members of the
Legislature were convinced that IT would
be- on the whole the wisest and most eco
notnical plan to pay little larger salary
aud thus remove somewhat the temptation
whose hungry faces haunted the State
departments during the cheese-paring era
of Fusion aseendency, to exc out their
seanty earnings by apprOpriating 10 their
own use more or less of the property of the
STATE The pIckings and stealings," to which
the Age refers with confidence that
seems inspired by u full knowledge of the
subject, were mighty consideration in Flu
sion days Like a class of workers at sum
mer hotels whose 'purq' is greatly in ex-
cess of their regular pay, there was scram-
bic in those days for official places, not SO
much for hat was in sight. as for what
might, in the loose and nnbusiness-like
methods then in vogue, be put ont of sight.
Hence it comes about that, by dealing with
the surface of things the Age is apparent
" able to show that there was a saving TN
der Fusion sway Of $500 on the salary of
the State librarian. 1t neglects to inform
its readers that the State has paid out a
number of times that amount to restore to
the library large number of valuable
volumes that mysteriously disap-
peared during the time that
the Fusion government was in power.
There is point at which economy ceases
and meanness begins. A great state cannot
afford to cross this border line. As the
Journal recently stated, there is not an
other state in the Union, of corresponding
size. here the salaries of officials are rs
low ~ they arr in the State of Maine;
neither is there state that has a more
faithful and efficient body of official work
ers. In the face of these facts Democratic
buster and Misrepresentation will count for
nothing with thoughtful voters.