The record-union., 1899-03-30
A COOL PROPOSAL.

The law of the State requires the pay
ment of $40 as a condition precedent,
among other imperative conditions, to
the disinterment or removal of the re-
mains of any adult person from the
grounds Of any burial plat or cemetery.
This money it is provided shall be kept
by the Treasurer in a separate fund,
to be known as the eXhumation fund
and shall be used only for exhumation
purposes and for inspection of metallic
cases in which all disintered bodies
must be inclosed before removal from
The grounds. And it is also required
that the Treasurer shall keep distinct
account of such fund and regularly re-
port the same.
1t will be seen that this income Is i'm
portant as a factor in the support of
Mayor notified the proper Chinese au-
thorities that the bodies of some 400
Chinese lying in one Of the Sacra-
mento cemeteries must be removed. The
transport the bones to the Flowery
Kingdom. Thereupon there came from
San Francisco a lawyer representing
the Chinese companies who sought to
have the fee for disinterment and re-
moval vacated, the work of disinter-
ment to be done by Chinese and without
cost to the city. For a time the Mayor
was kindly disposed to some reduction
of the fee if it could be accomplished
lawfully, but we understand that he
abandoned the idea when the law was
fully examined.
Now comes Trustee Tebbets with q
resolution in the Board of Trustees pro-
posing to forego the collection of the
fee for disintermant, the Chinese to
90 the work, reincase the remains and
remove the bodies Even if that could
be lawfully done. it would be cheeky
procedure. By what authority does the
self-sufficient Trustee assume to va
cate and waive aside q solemn statute
of the State? How can any municipal
board put on one side. the State law re-
quiring the permit of the Mayor and
the Health Officer to be granted as a
condition precedent to removal and the
payment of $40 permit as another
condition. The same law makes it a
crime to evade these provisions or to
remove body and transport it through
the streets without such permit, nor
can any transportation company re-
ceive and carry such remains without
the presentation of the permit, for
which the $40 must be paid for each
corpse
If revenue provided for the city can
be thus cast away by resolution, then
Trustees become greater than the peo-
pie. 1t is easily seen that such prac-
tice would open double doors wide, and
all the, windows of prudence also. to the
rawest kind of peculation and fraud.
What better thing would a party want
who has large revenue to pay in, than
to secure the passage of a resolution
forgiving him the payment, and how
much could he afford to put up for
such an accommodating usurpation of
power?
Possibly Trustee Tebbets did not
realize where his resolution inevitably
leads TO- and what evils it might breed
as precedent However, it is still
more probable that this Trustee, who
has assumed of late to lecture people
roundV who do not happen to agree
with him concerning municipal matters
was simply ignorant of the fact that
even as high and mighty an individual
as a Sacramento Trustee has not the
power to suspend the State law. or to
bid the sun toistand still while he takes
his ease in the shade.