Los Angeles herald., 1892-07-15
rHE CITIZEN AND HIS OProRruNlrr.


The voters of Los Angeles city and
county are citizens first and partizans
afterwards. They have not the slight
est notion Of sacrificing local good gov
eminent to ravings over the politics
that may be involved in electing sher-
ifs, recorders and supervisors. On ma
tional issues they are reliably partizan
in most cases. But what has sheriff,
mayor or county recorder or super
visor to do with the tariff or the force
bill? Yesterday we published an array
of figures which showed the enormous
expenses to which the taxpayers of Los
Angeles county are put in administering
their government. They amount to
largely over four thousand dollars a
day, and sum up nearly a million
and a quarter of dollars yearly. This
is, of course, independent of the city
outlays, which are also on ri ght royal
scale. When the Angelefio has got
through paying the various imposts to
which he is subjected he finds his
pocket-book very. much depleted, even
though his bankFaccount be large. 1t
would puzzle any one to know where all
this money goes, although the taxpayer
can get a melancholy satisfaction by
looking over the auditors report. Why
administer the affairs of the county of
Los Angeles? No wonder that the men
who absorb these vast amounts-mainly
members of the Union league-should
have talked about building gorgeous
club houses. The imagination is apt to
run riot under such circumstances.
Now is there any earthly reason or
necessity for such high-fying scheme
of extravaganza? Does it do anybody
any good to pay twice the amount of
taxes that are really required to give the
people an efficient administration of our
local affairs? OF course it does the
office-holders good, but we are not con-
sidering them in this connection.
F, Is it not about time to cry "down
brakes?" From the purchase OF a high
priced clock, that will not run, down to
enormous outlays for the personal ex-
penses of the supervisors, everything is
on scale of colossal magnitude. No
body can do anything without the aid
of innumerable deputies, whose princi-
pal duty is to fall over each other. With
the worst roads in America, the outlays
for our highways are ridiculously ex-
cessive. The district attorneys Office is
thronged with deputies, with the result
that the miscarriage OF justice has never
been so great as now. The number of
people who are allowed to go unwhipt
of justice is something really discourag-
ing.
The point is an interesting one to tax
payers as to where all this extravaganza
shall stop if it is not checked? If the
same men who have swollen our taxes to
such enormous proportions are. contin-
ued in Office, where will be the barrier
to prohigate outlay?
Have the people arrived at a point
where they will apply remedy? We
think they have. Patience has done its
perfect work, and long suffering has
ceased to be a virtue. The thing is so
easy of remedy that it would be crime
not to apply it, and it consists simply in
turning the tax-eaters out. A formida-
BILE bureaucracy is being created in our
midst. Let these gentlemen recover the
lost art of earning their own live,ihoods.
Once deprived of the opportunity of
cinching the public, they will brace up
and earn their own livings. They have
no proscriptive right to a billet on the
people of Los Angeles for food and lodg-
ing. When they know they have to
work they will become reconciled to
their fate, and the people of Los Angeles
can then breathe more freely.