The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1898-09-25
Our State Bureaucracy.

I.
When Thomas Jefferson drew his IN
dlctment against George III. and his
ministry one count charged that he
had erected a multitude Of new offices
and sent hither swarms Of officers to
harass our people and eat out their
substance" George, today would be
a stalwart Republican. He believed
that the common people were incapable
of taking care of themselves, 50 he pro-
Vided "a multitude Of new offices" and
filled them with his faithful henchmen
! and made the people whose affairs they
managed pay the cost of 1t. The or
thodox Republican also holds to the
incompetency of the people to get along
without guardians. So we have tariff
laws and navigation laws and immi-
grafton laws in the nation. and we
! have, in states controlled by those of
that faith "a multitude of new Offices"
! ever increasing in number, created to
protect the dear people from them
selves. Minnesota, dominated for thir-
ty-eight years by Republicansm, is a
! bright example Of this spirit of cOllec-
tivism. Its bureaucracy is uneXcelled
in extent and completeness of equip
nent. Old George himself would pale
with envy could he come here and view
| it.
Now that there is no national ques-
ton to be answered in the fall election,
! and that the sole practical questions
relate to state government and poll
cies, the voter may we'll ask if it be
! true that the Republican party has
erected a multitude of new Offices
and installed in them "swarms of off,
! GERS to harass our people and eat out
| their substance?" Let us go through
! the corridors of the capitol and out
| into the offices in rented rooms in the
city, into which the overflow of new
offices" has run because the capitol,
| cCmmOdiOus as it is, has not sufficient
rOom and see what foundation there
| is for the Indictment; what specifca-
tions to support the general charge of
bureaucratic government. Let us stop
and ask of each head of bureau, board
or commission some pertinent ques-
lions which the men who pay the fees
and salaries have a right to ask such,
for instance as: What do you do?
How many help you do it? What pay
do you get for doing it? OF what use
to US have you been?
This door-sign reads Public Exam
iner." NJ. D. Kenyon is its head and
has been for many years. What do you
do, Mr.. Kenyon? He checks up the &C
counts of state, county and municipal
fiduciary officers to see that they are
| not stealing public money, and he eX-
amines the financial condition of state
banks to find out if the depositors'
| money is being stolen by cashiers and
presidents and directors or put into
wildcat schemes; purely in the inter-
ests Of the poor depOsitor who entrusts
his savings to these institutions. And
how many help you to do all this?
One deputy, three assistants and two
clerks. And what do we pay you and
them? Kenyon gets $4,000 a year, the
deputy and two of the assistants 81, 800
each, the other assistant $1,625, and the
two clerks divide $1,000 between them.
Anything more? Nothing except
contingent fund Of 81, 500 spent for trav-
cling expenses of the head and his as
! sistants, for postage, subscription, in
1896, to the Minneapolis Tribune, and
washing towels" Anything more?
| Well, there are fees for examining
banks and building and loan associa-
tons, which we collect whether we
make an examination or not. How
much from that? In 1896 bank fees
were 1926, and building and loan as
ISOLATION fees $780, That makes $14,25O
for this bureau.
And Of what public utility is the bu-
reau; what has it done? 1t found out,
five or six years ago, that one Demo-
| cratic county treasurer had loaned a
Republican county auditor $500 of pub
lie money, and it had the Democrat
dismissed, and did nothing to the Re-
! publican. Kenyon, by the way, is a Re-
publican. What else? Why, it found
out, after they had failed, that there
were a lot Of rotten deposit banks in
the state, and, If it knew of their con-
dition before, and it did, it kept the
information safely from the depositors;
just told the governor of it, who put
the reports away in his vault where
no one could get at them. Several
thousand depositors woke up to find
that their money had been stolen by
bank officers who were either rascals
or rascals' tools, and that the examiner
had not examined, or, If he had, had
not done his duty by them. Why did
these banks break? Because their Of
ficers were not honest. Why did the
others not fail? Because their officers
were honest. If a bank examiner can
fnot detect the dishonesty Of the one,
and the honesty Of the other is suffi-
cient protection, Of what use is the ex-
aminer with this $4,000 Of annual cost L?