Barbour County index. [volume] (Medicine Lodge, Kan.) 1880-current, 1896-03-18

When the Populists have advocated
telegraph lines they have frequently
been met with the objection that it al
ways costs the government more to get
work done than it does corporation or
individual. Now comes the Globe
Democrat, which is very good pluto
cratic authority, and says that such is
not the case. Discussing salaries and
pensions, it says:
THE government does not pay ex-
orbitant salaries to any - it's officers.
Generally speaking, it gets it's work
done at cheaper rates than those paid
b. private corporations for similar SER
vice; and no man has ever yet acquired
wealth from the legitimate proceeds of
Federal employment. Some of the sal
aries probably ought to be increased.
but so long as they remain what they
are, and men accept the offices at such
rates of compensation, no further pay
ment should be made That is to saw.
when public officer dies. Congress
should not hasten to vote a gift or peu-
sion to his widow On the ground that ho
was so lightly recompensed for his
service to the country that he could not
provide for those who were dependent
upon MIN. 1t is sad, OF course, to know
that statesmen frequently die poor; but
that is not a misfortune which falls ey-
clusively upon those who labor in tho
field of politics. Men of all classes and
OF all vocations are subject to this grim
irony OF circumstances; and society
does not undertake to rectify such
wrongs by posthumous increase OF
wages or profits. No claims of that sort
are recognized except in the sense of
charity. There is no law or rule of ius-
tlce or fairness by which the work of
private citizens, however faithful and
useful, is remunerated after they are
gone, and because they have left bank
rupt estates behind them.
The editorial from which the above
Is quoted discusses the widow pension
business so fairly that we give it to
our readers: 1T is impossible" SAYS
the CD, to justify policy on the
part of the government which is thus
absent from the philosophy and prac-
tice of society. Men are not compelled
to accept federal offices. or to retain
them after discovering that they are
Improbable. The government does
not draft citizens into the civil SER
vice, but leaves them free to decline
all kinds of political positions. 1t Of
fers certain salaries for certain forms
of labor, and those who accept do not
| thereby become entitled to any addi-
tional pay in case they spend all they
get and have nothing left at the end
of their days. There may be special
cases now and then in which the yot-
ing of pension on account of the ser
vices of a deceased Federal officer is
warrantable; but surely there is no
general obligation in that respect. In
other words, the mere fact that a man
who dies poor is Federal officer.
either civil or military, does not sig
nifty that his salary or any part of it
should be continued to his family after
his death. His contract with the gov
vernment lasts only as long as his SER
vice, and this method of extending it
outside of the general pension law il
irregular and indefensib1e. The ques-
tion is not one of sympathy, but of
legality and propriety. Men seek these
places anxiously and hold them as long
as possible, and no right of profit ac-
crues beyond the established salary .