St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1895-02-13
sCRAPE THE BARNAcLEs OFF

SCRAPE THE BARNACLES OFF.
No more glazing illustration of
what paternalism in the concrete, as
we'll as in the abstract, is could be
desired than is the provision in this
state for the inspection of illuminat-
ing OIL From it's inception to the
present day it has been a fraud,
wearing the guiSe of public benefit
and safety 1t exists in the pretense
that the lives of people using illum-
mating oil were endangered by the
greed of the oil companies which led
them to put an inferior and eXplos-
i've quality of oil upon the market.
The occasional lamp explosions were
exploited to demonstrate the neceS-
sity of state inspection. The system
was esta blished. Provision was
made for inspectors and deputies,
and what was the prime object?
Fees. No provision was made for
the report of this officer showing
what fees were collected.
Investigation revealed the fact
that this inspector, performing du-
ties requiring no intelligence that a
lad of Den years does not have, was
getting fees exceeding in amount
four times the salaries of the justices
of the supreme court. Then fol-
lowed legislation, the ultimate re-
suit of which, as determined by the
court, was to render the office almost
worthless. For two years or more
we had an oil inspector but no oil in
spection. The public continued the
use of oil, and perceived no differ
ence. In fact, there was none.
The qualities that rendered Oil so
explosive were found to be so valu-
able for other purposes that the re-
filming companies eliminated them
before putting the oil upon the mar
ket.
But an office that had so much
official patronage to dispose of,
which yielded so handsome sum
to the incumbent, who made such
handsome contributions to the cam
pdlSIl luIloo VI IliC POI ~ NOSAiN nv y
be left in that condition. 1t was
rehabilitated in '93, the. fees have
been restored, and the present in
cumbent is said to have Melted
$40 900 last year as his share of this
robbery of the consumers of oil; for
robbery it is, they having in
the end to pay it. The former law
was construed by the courts to give
fee for the single inspection of the
quantity contained, whether it was
in a barrel or in a car tank. AS the
great bulk of the oil brought into
the state is brought in tanks, this
decision cut out all the fat. The
present law provides that the in
spector shall be paid by the barrel,
whether the oil is in a barrel or a
tank. This enables him to receive
for the inspection Of a forty or fifty
barrel tank as much as he would
receive if he inspected forty or fifty
barrels separately.
Representative Jacobson has in
troduced a resolution calling for a
lSpOl VI lliC ISSo 1SCCINSo NY llllo
and some other similar sinecures,
and we hope that it is the entering
wedge of a movement which will re-
suit in the obliteration of these
shameful, disgraceful barnaeles that
fatten on the state. 1t is a shame
and scandal that any officer
should receive as compensation the
$4,000 a year that the oil inspector
pockets, and the $4,000 to $4,000 a
year that the surveyors of logs re-
ceive. But these are only the ripe
fruit of the attractive flower of
paternalism. Always and every
where it comes with plea of public
benefit and utility upon it's lips,
with it's greedy hands reaching into
the public pockets.