The herald., 1898-11-18
More Objections


ton is reduced from nine members, one
elected from each ward, to five members,
three Of whom are to be elected by the
people from the city at large and two to be
appointed by the mayor, with the approval
of the council.
| Whether it is an improvement to reduce
the number of the individuals who shall
look after, manage and control the school
interests of the city is very questionable,
and why these two appointments, out of ALL
should have been subject to the approval of
the council is a matter of wonder. If the
voters OF the city are competent to elect
three of the members of the board, why not
all?
On the other hand if it is better to have
the mayor appoint any of them, why is it
not best to have him appoint three Ga ma
lority) without the concurrence of the coun-
ell, so as to have the control in the hands
OF good and honest men for a certainty.
Why was that contradictory policy, which
is so manifest, incorporated intu the pro-
posed charter, viz, that in regard to ap-
pointments and removals by the mayor? If
he can be trusted to make appointments, he
surely ought to be trusted to remove them
without question. Without that right, we
gain nothing by the change. Why, then
should the board have INDUCED in such
make-beleve concession to the advocates of
the bestowal of autocratic power on the
mayor?
The salary list has been increased at one
dash $45C0 by giving the board of education
$500 each year. One additional as
sistant superintendent of schools is
created for the present, at sal
ary of $2lG0, making $500 increased
expenditure for salaries certain, with pos
siblity of a great deal more under the un-
limited range given the council and school
board as to salaries not fixed by the pro
posed charter. For one instance. it is pro-
vided that the school superintendent "shall
receive" not less than $1,000 per year. -Four
of the salaries have been lowered S400 each
but the remaining salary list of the present
m-time-hatched charter remains uncut
Disregarding the fact that the country,
financially speaking, is upon gold basis
and that under it property values of every
kind, including the products OF the farm. the
shop and the loom, have declined,
the main portion of the salaries
remains at the boom-time figure,
when fancy ran free and everybody believed
himself an Aladdin with his lamp. The sal
airy of the mayor remains uncut, at $4,000, al
though it is larger than the salaries of the
governors of half a dozen states. The salary
of city councilman remains at $1,000 per
year, although no more than one-fourth Of
his time is spent in and about municipal af-
fairs, and the whole business of the council
might be done at night sessions, as it is in
| st. Louis, where the salary is but $500 a
year and the city is five times as large. The
boom time salary of chief of police (S30O0)
md hiul, hot &c n 1,a,,-
tenant colonel in the United States army,
while it is confidently asserted that a good
and efficient man can easily be had for half
that amount.
1t cannot be expected that the great mass
of the working taxpayers, who have seen
their small incomes shrink with the values
of their small properties, can look with COM
placency upon a new charter that does not
cut down the salaries of those who feed at
the public crib, to correspond with the stag
nant and changed business conditions of the
country, but increases the salary list in
stead With the mayors salary at the NOM
inal sum of $500 and that of councilman at
$500, we would have a better class of men to
| fill these offices-men not there to make a
| living out of public station, but for the honor
and the good they could do the community
and themselves as a part of it. Why the
members of the board of education should
be made salaried officers, while the six re-
naming boards are made to serve without
compensation, is not evident. 1t seems to
| be an office for which there is no lack of can
didates under the present charter, that gives
no compensation, and creating a salary for
| them surely will not make the aspirants any
less in number nor improve the quality.
For all public officers, where daily and con-
tinuous attention to the duties Of the office
is required, reasonable and just compensa-
| tion should be given. 1t is false notion that
cXtravagant salaries to public servants, far
in excess of what is obtainable by them in
the private industrial world, gives better
public servants. High salaries set too many
on the rampage for Office, not because of
their superior qualifications or the good they
can do the public, but for the money there
is in it.
| 1t is matter of surprise that an effort
was not made in the direction of retrencll-
ment OF expenditures by the consolidation
of some of the offices-for instance, treasur-
er and collector, by making all taxes payable
directly to the treasurer, as is done in Kan
sas City, the proper check upon the treas
urer being had by requiring the treasurers
receipt to be presented TO the auditor for
him to countersign and keep record of its
amount.
Section 81, making the charges for city
water for domestic purposes lien upon the
land upon which it is used, is of very doubt
full propriety 1t will be very mischievous
and annoying in its results, especially to the
owner of property held for rental 1t adds
another to the many things now required to
be looked up before certifcation of titles,
and involves the careful custody and stow
ing away of water rate receipts for an indeti-
mite period; would tend to make the water
overseer lax in his collections, and was
needless. The present right to cut off the
water supply if rates are not paid in ad-
vance surely is sufficient. But space VIII not
permit further mention of things objection
able, nor of the many good features Of the
proposed charter IRA HALL.
Los Angeles, October 90, 1898.
Dangers of Annexation
To the Editor of the Los Angeles Herald
It was my privilege during the last days of
congress, just adjourned, to listen to a
speech in the senate by Mr.. IIoar of Massa-
chusetts, than whom there are few states
men more learned, more conservative, more