The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1896-10-28
As TO the Railway Commission.

to pare down the per-diem of the rail-
way commissioners and their clerk
will not satisfy any rational demand for
a reduction of expenses in this depart
ment of state expenditures. Reform
should go deeper. 1t should take
different direction. If the law is not to
be. amended or reconstructed to give it
the scope and efficiency originally con-
templated, the executive force should be
reduced to single commissioner. For
the duties exacted by the existing law,
or performed under its commands,
three commissioners and clerk seem
to be force superhuously large. Their
compensation, also, seems to be out OF
proportion to the value and importance
of the services rendered. The execu.
tive power of the law, and the execu-
tive's services and compensation, should
be brought into a reasonable and
business-ike relation. Or, if reform
takes the other direction, the law should
be reconstructed in accordance with
the original purpose, and commission
of competent men, with adequate COM
pensation, provided for its execution.
We assume that the latter alternative
will not be adopted, but that the law
will remain substantially unchanged as
to the duties it creates and the powers
it conveys. This law was passed in
1886, and no amendment of great i'm
portance has since been made. For
the performance of it's duties and the
exercise of it's powers it is difficult to
see why an expensive three-headed
commission with costly clerical APP
pendage is needed, any more than for
the inspection of the banks or the su-
pervision of the educational affairs, two
marked instances in which very i'm
portant interests are efficiently admin
istered, at comparatively small expense,
by single official for each department.
Since the enactment Of this law, ten
years ago, it has cost the state, as ap-
pears by the auditors reports, the sum
of 500, 345 "a, distributed as follows: For
the biennial term ended in 1888,
81 1852; ended in 1890, $S,675 81;
ended in 1892, SIS, 776 70; ended in 1894,
$S,939.37; ended in 1896, So, 55S o.
total, $3.50 ,345.84. This expenditure is
classified by the auditor as expenses of
the railroad commissioners, and covers,
presumably, their per-diem and other
expenses, excepting the cost of print
ing their biennial report. Only in 1894
is this item specified separately, costing
for the biennial term ended with that
year $1,63472. The average cost Of
printing this report probably exceeds
$1,000 biennially. Five reports have
been printed, so that the aggregate cost
of the commission, during the ten
years of its existence, exceeds SAC, 900,
and is probably nearer $40 900.
If any benefit to the state, common
surate with this expenditure, has re-
suited from the services and expenses
of the commissioners, it is not at all APP
parent to the average citizen and tax
payer. The,commissioners most dis
tinctive service seems to be, in the case
of railway accident, to sit as a cor
oner's jury. But this service comes
high at "a 500 year. The need of an
expenditure of from 81 900 to 81 600,
biennially, for printing an elaborate
publication of railway statistics and re-
port of inquests held, may be apparent
to the printer who gets the job, or 10
the ten or a dozen statesmen who may
read the report from cover to cover,
but it is doubtful if this expensive doc
ument serves any other useful purpose.
It's most popular use, unquestionably,
is as brlck-bat at mock sessions of
the legislature. "Thick as leaves in
VallambrosaIstre wn," it's pages covered
the floor of the house of representatives
after one of those midnight revels.
1t is desirable TO reduce expenses
when the reduction is reasonable and
| justifiable. That is the case with the
railway commission, under existing
circumstances. But the way to reduce
is not by pairing down the wages OF
the members. Pare down the COM
missioners themselves. Constitute one
man a railway commissioner. Do not
pick out a butcher, baker or can.
dlestck maker" for this officer. Sc.
lect him on the same principle that the
inspector of finance is chosen-because
he knows something about banking; OF
the superintendent of educauon-be
cause he is an expert in school affairs
Expenses will thus be reduced and the
efficiency of the office increased.
The Election Returns---C Comment and
Suggestion.