The record-union., 1896-12-29
THE PROPOSED LEGISLATIVE AT
TACHE LIST.

At the last session Of the Legisla-
ture the Record Union" protested
against the willful waste Of the money
of the people in the employment Of a
regiment Of useless CLERKS, porters and
hangers on. A year ago this journal
took up the matter again, and in detail,
position by position pointed out that the
excess Of employees about the Legisla-
ture is little short Of robbery, and that
there is not even the slightest excuse in
the form of work for two-thirds Of them
to do.
Very recently we again referred to the
matter and compared the contingent ex-
penses of the Senate and Assembly with
those of the Legislatures of several
other States, and proved that the Cali
fornia Legislature exceeds by over 200
per cent. any other legislative body in
the number of attaches and the amounts
paid them At the last session of the
Legislature a committee of hold-over
Senators was appointed to look into the
matter That committee has made its
report and recommends the reduction of
the Senate attaches from 40 to 81, and
the reduction Of Assembly attaches from
152 to 63.
This is an excellent beginning and
does the committee great credit Indeed
we cannot but admire its courage in this
duty-doing in the face of what we know
to be an enormous pressure brought to
bear to continue the old extravagant
and pilfering system. since 1t is simply
pilfering from the public purse to en-
ploy attaches for whom nothing what
ton for the money drawn from the
treasury by them.
But the committee has not gone far
enough, and more than that, has been
ingly inequitable and unjust discrimina-
tions In the matter Of salaries. 1t has,
with what reason we cannot discover,
reported in favor Of reducing the per
diem Of necessary attaches Of whom the
highest skill and greatest labor is re-
quired and of retaining at the maxi
mum the per diem Of some who have the
least labor to do and Of whom the least
ability is required. In addition they
have retained attaches who are abso-
lutely useless and imposed duties upon
others.
The last Senate had five Assistant Sec
retaries; the committee proposes that
there shall hereafter be three 1t is in
sisted that two are enough. Three Sec
retaries, a chief and two assistants, are
ample in number and can easily take
care Of all secretarial duty of the Sen
ate and have leisure at that. If three
are to be retained. then there is no use
whatever for Minute Clerk and two
assistants. One Minute Clerk can keep
the minutes of the Senate, since all orig
inal documents are sent direct to the
printer, and there is nothing to do but to
make the brief connections between the
presentation Of papers and the insertion
of roll calls and motions, which last are
kept by one Of the Secretaries.
Why there should be more than one
Journal Clerk it is impossible to con-
lecture. The journal is no longer writ
ten UP. The duty of the Journal Clerk
is no more now than the placing to-
gether Of the minuted daily journals as
they come from the printer, supervising
the Minute Clerks copy OF course,
prior to its going TO the print. One capa-
bic man can do this duty with perfect
ease If he should be disabled tempor-
srily. one of the Assistant Secretaries
or Minute Clerks, IL more than one be
retained, can easily do the duty AS
suredly with three Secretaries and three
Minute Clerks. there is no earthly use
for an Assistant Journal Clerk.
And the same may be said of the