Wheeling Sunday register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1882-1934, 1895-02-03
HOW UNCLESANISR0BBID
EXTENT TO WHICH TEE NATIONAL TREASURY
Is PLUNDERED
By those Whose Sworn Duty it is 10 Guard It.
All Branches Of tie Public Service Admins
tered in Grossly Ezravagant NanlT-How
Vast Sans Could DO Saved Annually.
Special 70 ne Rsg,.ss-.

Special 70 sts Rs7s:se-.
WASHINGTON, D. c., January 81
No one who mas not given the subject
special research, can have any adequate
idea OF the extent TO which the national
treasury is annually plundered by those
whose sworn duty 10 is TO guard it.
There is no branch OF the public service
which is not administered in q grossly
extravagant manner, and IN which hun
dreds Of thousands Of dollars might
not be saved il the affairs OF our govern
ment were conducted with the same
sagacity, honesty and economy with
which private individual OF good bust
ness capacity would conduct his own
personal concerns.
Every government official in Wash
ingtou, from the highest TO the lowest,
seems 10 think IL q matter Of simple
justice that the government should pay
higher prices for material and higher
wages for labor aud service Of every
kind than any private individual or
iru, and that 10 is his or her moral duty
20 see that il does so.
Take Congress for example. When
[. T.
the Senate will number ninety mem
bers, while the House Of Representa-
tives as at present constituted has $50.
Each Of these men receives from Uncle
sam S., 900 per year. II they were, as
s rule, such men as should be selected
for the high and holy duty Of making
laws for the governing Of siXtyfve mil
lions Of people perhaps this salary
might not be very excessive, though
even then it would be very question:
be whether the amount OF service rem
dered is not wholly inadequate to the
com pensation. Congress never assem-
bles before Decem Der and usual ~ ad-
journs in June. Its daily sessions ex-
tsnd only from twelve o'clock noon to
SIX o'clock az night. Five thousand
dollars for six hours work daily during
six months in the year is certainly S
very liberal salary.
Ia country like Great Britain,
where the "snow Of hersldry and pomp
OF power" take precedence Of
every other consideration, the ma
tional legistorS receive no re-
muneration whatever Why, then,
should ours be paid? The answer would
be that If they we're not they might be
even more susceptible than they ars
uoW-lf that DO pOSSibe-tO corruption
aud bribery, and would be more apt TO
prostitute their Office for gain. Again,
10 would be answered that the great
majority OF our countrymen would not
be able, financially, to suspend all other
business aud freely give their services
TO the State.
The first of these answers is met by
saying that the people of these United
States should never so disgrace them.
selves as 10 elect TO Congress any man
who could possibly be Influenced 0y
bribery or a desire for gain.
The second is disproved by the fact
that one branch Of our National Legis-
lature-the Senate-iS already q plu-
Iocracy, pridlng itself on the fact
that the majority OF its members are
milIioneires, men who have spent sew
eral Jimss the salary for their entire
term of Office TO secure their election,
while large majority Of the members
of the House are openly engaged or have
large financial interest in sOufe out
side profession or business. The aboli-
tion OF the salary attached to the Con
greSsional office wonld tend more than
anything else TO make the people more
careful in their choice of Congressman,
aud would cause better class of men
10 Oe sent 10 Wasa i9gton.
TIE abolition Of this salary would be
an annual saving OF 50, 600, 600. II this
be thought too radical, why not reduce
the salary TO three thousand? Still q
very excessive compensation for the
service rendered, yet an annual saving
OF nearly one million dollars TO poor,
cheated, robbed Uncle Sam.
But not content with depicting the
treasury OF an annual five thousand
dollars eSch-a SUN very trfling 20
most OF them, and for which they have
not the slightest real neceSsty-mauy
OF these senators and representatives.
are not willing TO faithfully render the
service for which they draw this excess
sive com pensation. Those remaining at
their post during an entire session
may be counted on the fingers of
the hands. While the poor farmers aud
other toilers are paving Congress be-
tween two and three millions of dollars
annually TO legiSlate for them, many OF
the Syoaritic members of that body,
Instead Of being at Washington, are at
tending 10 their own private business