The herald., 1897-01-27
Appointment Scandal at Sacra.
mentO Is UnraveIed
"lNVESTIGATION" A FARCE
Some Interesting Figures Of Reckless
Expenditure
Legislation Is Still Piling Up-The Bar
bers Want omething-Mahoneys
Anti-Prize Ring Bill.

Especial Correspondence to The Herald.)
SACRAMENTO, Jan. 25-The thirty
second legislature of California will not
pass into history as one specially no.
table for the practice of economy. 1t is
not that kind of a legislature.
INTERESTING FIGURES.
Figures showing the money spent by
the senate in the line of contingent ex-
penses for the third week of the session.
as compared with the third week in
1895, show saving of over $1,000. But
the payrolls of the assembly for the same
periods show an increase this year of
$452.
This increased outlay by the lower
house is due to the fact that Chief Clerk
Duckworth has been running an en-
ployment bureau, for the benefit of his
friends, acquaintance and political
creditors. Everybody ought to know
that the conducting of state employ
ment bureau, especially on broad and
generous principles, is necessarily quite
an expense, though of course it is ne
cessity, otherwise SO patriotic an indi-
vidual as Mr.. Duckworth would not be
engaged in it.
MlAED AN - M u DOLED.
The longer the alleged investigation"
OF the appointment scandal continues
the more mixed and muddled it becomes.
and the less likelihood there is that any
real good will result from it. Reports
both from majorities and minorities of
various committees, statements and
counter statements, assertions and de-
mails, caucuses, debates, charges and
counter charges, all simply serve to blind
tn ,c
probable, if not impossible, the Sitting
of the matter down to point where the
actual facts may be clearly known and
justice done to all parties concerned
AS L have heretofore predicted this
whole business, dignified by the word
investigation" will in the end prove to
nave been stupendous farce.
STILL PILING UP.
Bills, petitions, resolutions and con-
stitutional amendments continue to be
piled up on the clerks desk in each
house. and the various committees have
now so much work on their hands that
they are obliged in many instances to
hold night sessions lasting into the small
hours. Some of the bills proposed are
good ones and should pass. Others are
excellent things to be sat upon. The
committee on public buildings and
grounds is now wrestling with propo-
struction of a
INTERNATIONALLY MANSION.
The bill calls for an appropriation OF
S6o.OlO. Also for the appointment by
the governor of three commissioners to
carry out the scheme. 1t is hardly re-
cess%fy to state that the bill originated
with residents of Sacramento, and that
it contenplates the location of the ex-
ecutive mansion in this city. For be it
known that the people of Sacramento
have no intention of ever permitting a
removal OF the capital from this to any
other place, as was attempted four years
ago when San Jose came into the field
as ca andidate and gave Sacramento a
lively s..are. A legisla ture in session
sixty days or more, every two years. and
state fair once every year are good
things, from business standpoint, as
they bring people and money into the
town help trade and enhance the value
of City lots.
THE BARRIERS WANT SOMETHING
The mania for special legislation, for
Which the American people are celebra.-
ed. breaks out early and often, and
among nearly all classes Now come the
BARRIERS of the state, br at least por-
tion of them, who through a representa-
tive in the senate have caused to be in
troduced bill for creating a board of
examiners to consist of five competent
autocrats of the lather- brush, whose
duty 1t shall be to carry out the provi-
sions of the act under which they will
if the bill should become a law, receive
their appointment. 1t provides also that
every practicing barber Ia the state
shall, within six months after the pass
age of the act, register his name and
place of business and receive a "certi-
ficate" from the board" for which he
must pay fee of 81. The bill further
provides that any person who desires to
practice" barberism within the state
shall undergo the torture of examina-
ton by the said board, and If he passes
through the ORDEAL satisfactorily he