Abilene weekly reflector. [volume] (Abilene, Kan.) 1888-1935, 1894-08-30
THE PoPuLIsT SENATE.

THE POPULIST SENATE.
Out Of forty members composing
the last state senate the populis
party elected twenty-three. They
had a strong working majority, ant
are responsible for the acts Of thai
body. They told the people the re-
publlcans had been guilty Of useless
expenditures In conducting the bu:i.
ness Of the senate, and pledged
themselves to practice rigid econ.
omy and enforce needed reforms
What was the result after the cleo.
tlonP They gathered at Topeka,
bringing with them their sons
daughters, nephews, nieces, and
uncles, seeking IN every way to pro.
vide them with fat places. While
twenty competent persons could
have transacted all the work per-
tanning to the senate, they actually
placed one hundred and eight en-
ployes on the pay roll. Out Of that
number eighty-two were relatives Of
senators. Twenty-eight enrolling
and engrossing clerks we're appoint
ed the first Of the session at three
dollars q day each, although but one
bill passed the senate until thirty
ok days after the senate convened.
The engrossing and enrolling work
ofthe senate cost over five thousand
dollars, when . proposition was sub
mitted 10 do the entire work for
three hundred and thirty dollars.
Tho employees Of the senate cost the
state over twenty thousand dollars,
although several populist senators
said they would take a contract to
have the same work done for three
thousand dollars.
In the matter Of appropriations,
their pledges to economizs we're
recklessly dlsregarded. Take the
appropriation for the Industrial
school at Beloit. In Senate Bill
No It's, providing for Its main
tenance, they reduced the pay Of the
washerwoman fifteen dollars a year,
the matron one hundred and fifty
dollars a year, the engineer from
four hundred and eighty to four
hundred dollars a year, and the
chaplain from two hundred to one
hundred and fifty dollars a year,
and then raised the appropriation
for the bank commissioners office,
presided over by John w. Briden-
thai, from fifty three hundred to ten
thousand dollars year. In Senate
Bill No. l9i they reduced the pay of
the night Waterman from two hun.
bred and forty to one hundred and
eighty dollars year, and then rails
ed the appropriation OF the adju.
tant generals office, as shown by
Senate Bill No. All, from twenty
five thousand dollars for the fiscal
year ending June 80, 1898, to forty
Ave thousand dollars for the fiscal
year ending June so, 1891, twenty
dollars more than had ever
been appropriated before for that
office for the same period of time. |
They reduce the salaries Of the four
janitors In the state house, as shown
by Senate Bill No. All, ten dollars a
month each, and then passed a mis-
cellaneous appropriation bill appro.
priating the enormous sum Of one
hundred and twenty-ihree thous-
and dollars, and this was outside Of
the regular appropriation bills
which provided for all the expenses
,f the judicial and executive de-
partments as we'll as the different
state institutions,
They reduced the salary OF the
sewing teacher at the Beloit school
twenty-five dollars year, and thenl
passed a bill creating a court Of
appeals that would have cost the
state sixty thousand dollars a year
The reduction only affected a poor
woman, while the court was created
10 provide places for Webb, King,
Doster Fitzgerald, Nicholson and
Clemens, as judges, and a host Of
'ther lobbyists as clerks, reporters
md bailitfs. The popullst senator
rom Usage county, Senator Jumper,
eft before the close Of the session,
md declared thatthe appropriations
'eing pushed through the senate
we're Infamous and without reason,
md that he wanted to dlsclaim any