The morning call., 1895-02-20
LEGISLATIVE EXTRAVAGANUE

Legislative extravaganza has long been
one of the noted evils Of State politics. 1t has
| assumed many forms and phases. Some
times it has been merely the waste of care
lessness or ignorance and at other times it
has been a deliberate plundering of the
treasury. The people have complained of
it, rebuked and denounced it again and
again. Nothing seems to have done any
good. Each succeeding Legislature has
been worse than its predecessor until now
the evil has become so great that some
thing more than vague general denuncia-
ton is necessary to check it.
The CALL, as Republican newspaper
devoted to the great principles of Repub-
licanism and having the welfare of the
party at heart has urged the representa-
tiyes of the party at Sacramento to keep
their pledges to the people and assure the
supremacy of the party in coming cleo
lions by carrying out the policy of economy
to which it and they were committed in
the last campaign. These urgings have
been in VAN. This morning, therefore. we
take another course. We lay aside all
generalities and deal directly with indi-
viduals. We publish the names of the
attaches that the legislators have foisted
upon the State treasury in repayment, per-
haps, of campaign debts and call attention
to the numbers of them that are useless
and to the work which they do not perform.
We make this exposure of legislative
extravaganza in the interest of the people
and in the interest of the Republican party
alike. We do not intend that set of leg
islators, calling themselves Republicans
and getting into Office on Republican
platform, shall plumber the State and dis
grace the party with impunIty. No parti-
sanship can lead us to favor or even toler-
ate, by silence, such barefaced robbery of
the taxpayers of the State as is shown in
the appointment of this idle horde of
hangers-on. There is no pretense of doing
any work on the part of many of these at
taches. There is literally no work for them
to do. Their presence in the Capitol is a
scandal-an offense to every decent citizen,
and the taxpayers of the State should see
to it that the men who put them there are
made to feel the weight of public indigna-
ton.
We do not overlook the fact that there
are sincere and honorable men in both
houses of the Legislature who have kept
faith with their constituents and fought
hard to establish the true principles of
economy in legislative work They have
endeayored to retrench in many ways, and
notably in that of reducing the number of
attaches. These men deserve the respect
of their constituents, and will not fail to
receive it, though their efforts have been
futile. The men who have taken the oppo-
site course, however, will find that the day
of reckoning is nearer at hand than they
imagine. These are hard times for the ma
jority of taxpayers of California. Prices
for all products are low, work is scarce,
money is hard to find, many an honest and
industrious citizen hardly knows where to
raise the coin to save his home from Sheriff
sale, or even in some instances to get food
for his family. In times like this legisla-
five extravaganza becomes criminal, and as
such we denounce the conduct of the men
who are now rewarding their political
henchmen at the expense of the contiding
taxpayers who elected them on distinct
pledges of economy and honesty.