The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1892-12-16
FIX THE RESPONSIBILITY.

through the biennial farce of failing to
| place upon the statutes the measures
pledged to the taxpayers prior to the
election. With the limited time, with
but fifty days pay, each individual
member will proceed upon the theory
that the legislature, as a body, and not
the individual members, will be held re-
sponsible for all failures and all the
measures of retrenchnent and reform so
loudly proclaimed from the stump
and pledged by each individual member
to the voters, will fail 10 appear upon its
statutes hen the session adjournS. The
state has outgrown very many of its an
cient and in-considered laws and there
is pressing demand for many important
changes. The voters will not consent to
the calling Of constitutional conyen-
ton; they will not adopt any amendment
to the instrument, while the legislature
find no time to take up and consider any
of the complex problems which
biennially confront the body
And for these and other reasons we viii
probably continue to have patchwork
instead of wholesome and beneficial laws.
In this connection we desire to call at
tention to few of the important meas
ures which demand consideration; and
we trust the older and more experienced
members of the incoming legislature
will give some thought to these sugges-
tons.
The most outrageously unjust meas
IRE upon our statutes is the assessment
and taxation law; and the incoming
legislature can offer no sufficient reason
for not amending it in way that viii
compel all assessors and boards of
equalization to return all taxable
property in the state at It's true value
in money. From one-third to one-half
of the voters who went to the polls
on the Sth of November, last,
pay no taxes; and from year
to year, under the $500 exemp-
ton clause, the number is
increasing. Because of this exemption
and growing out of it we are today con-
fronted with a constantly diminishing
total taxable valuation and an increas-
ing assessment upon those who do not
or can not hide their property behind
the $500 exemption clause and the one
third value assessment idea. IF this law
is not amended it will bear more heavily
upon real estate and more unequally
upon the farmers than it does now.
Every effort of past legislatures to
modify or equalize our fee and salary
law has proven a failure; so
that today one-third of the
counties of the state have special laws
upon this subject, the supreme court
having decided that said amendments
are constitutional, notwithstanding the
fact that the constitution itself declares /
they are not.
Men make fortunes at four years OF
Office holding in this state and when the |
legislature is confronted by an organized |
body of thousand or more we'll paid |
county officials it neglects to amend the
law and cut down its salaries.
There are thirty-five judicial districts
in this state and thirty-seven or thirty /
eight judges, This thing of paying
Judge 81, 500 per annum for holding
court in a district where there are but |
!, 500 voters is expensive, not only in the
paid but in the prolonged terms
of court held in counties where there are |
no people. Kansas cannot afford to pay |
from $50, 600 to $780, 0C annually for its .
public printing and the law should be .
revised on the lines laid down by the /
late senate pension committee. The /
state has outgrown the present law and |
more comprehensive measure should be
enacted this winteI
Fire insurance companies should be
held by law to pay the full face of their
policies when property is burned.
The school book robber trust should |
be broken down in this state by the en-
lctment of law which gives to the |
state the power to contract for all school
books.
The coal oil inspection law should be
repealed. A private snap which pays
thousand dollars per month to an oil in
;pector and bis deputies with
no visible benefit to anybody
else, is fraud. These and other
questions demand the serious attention
Of all members of the coming session
not a superficial investigation--but an
attention which will materialize into
law and we trust the voters will Join the
EAGLE in holding all members of all po-
itical factions responsible for failure TO
accomplish something for the men who
own the property and pay the taxes of
The state.
=-------------=---
an ANTI-BRIBBRY Law NEEDED.