Smyrna times., 1898-06-08
ECONOMY OF LEGISLATORS.
Charged the State Full Rates Including
Payment for Days on Which They
Did Not Hold Sessions.

The General Assembly is at lsst
thing of the past. The people could
scarcely realize that the long session
was over and the members had Joined
the great army of ex-oficials in this
State. It is doubtful if there was
ever more satisfaction expressed
over any ordinary event than there
was over the adjournment of the Gen
eral Assembly.
The body cut the bills of nearly
all of the people who had claims against
the State, but they paid their own bills
and took mileage from the State, when
any member of whom there is any rec
ord, travelled upon pass. In calcu-
lating the number of days for which to
receive pay, the members counted the
total number from the day of going
into session until the day of closing.
This is the old custom and has been
followed for years, but it might have
have been supposed that Legislature
so in favor of economy, as the one
which has just adjourned, would have
taken pay only for the days of actual
session. From January II, the day
upon which they went into session,
until the day CT adjournment there
were twenty Sundays and nineteen
Saturdays, upon which no sessions
were held. This makes a total of
thirty-nine days upon which no work
was done. For thirty members this
would make ITO days, and at SO day
this would amount to $3.50. This
amount might have been saved to the
State had the members been really in
favor of saving.
The Legislature has been a very
costly body. The total cost was in
round numbers $4,000. This does
not include the money which was
spent for various appropriations made
by laws passed by the Legislature
or the money spent in getting the Del
aawre Regiment into shape for active
service of the government. The
amount mentioned is for the mere ex-
penses of the Legislature and for the
allowances made by it.
AS stated a number of bills, but they
might have been disposed of within
one-third of the time if the proper plan
had been followed. The corporation
bill, which was the most important of
all of the measures before the Legisla-
ture and which would have brought in
from $4,000 to $780, year if it had
been passed, was defeated because
some one imagined that the Delaware
Railroad Company was behind the bill
which the Senate insisted on passing.
This was the bill which gave the mem
bers an excuse for remaining so long,
and yet it was defeated.
The bill to create State Board of
Agriculture was defeated in the House
for the simple reason that certain of
the members could not tack to it clause
which gave Dover fair an appropriation
from the State for five years. When
they found that the State could not be
made to support the Dover fair, they
killed the bill. This is but sample
of the kind of legislation which was
passed or the passage of which was at
tempted.
It may be said to the credit of the
body that it passed fairly good election
and registration bills, but the reason
for this was by no means compliment.
tary to the Legislature. The only rea.
son why worse bills were not passed
was because the Democratsin the bod.
les could not agree on the measures
and had to do the best that they could
The only bill passed to bring revenue
to the State was the Adams bill to tax
investments, which has at last been ap
proved and gone into effect. The city
of Wilmington benefited under that
act because the Senate insisted tina
one-half of the amount of tax collected
in that city should go to that city
The house never intended to give Will
: mington this concession, butwas eithe
: compelled to agree to this, or see th'
:. bill killed. The whole session appear
a ed to be a kind of hold-up game be
+ tween the House and Senate.
The two houses agreed to hire