The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1899-04-27
GOVERNORS VETO MESSAGE

Concerning Salary of State School Fund
| Commissioner.
Governor Lounsburys communica-
ton to the general assembly accompa-
nying his veto of the bill to increase the
School Fund commissioner salary was
as follows:
| I herewith return to the house in
which it originated, substitute for House
! bill No ITO, IAN act entitled an act con-
| corning the salary of the Commissioner
of the School Fund" and I give below
the reasons which induce me to with
hold my approval
| There are in the state of Connecticut,
within the scope of executive nominal
ton and legislative appointment, two
classes of offices which require from
their .incumbents large service, good
| ability, strict integrity, sound judgment
and experience in those affairs which
| come within the province of their re-
| spective offices. The salaries of these
offices are named by statute, but are
virtually established by the unwritten
law of supply and demand. You will
pardon if by way of illustration, and
! comparison I refer to two specific offices
which respectively fall within the lines
| of these two general classes.
| The judgeshp of our higher courts de-
| mands for it's incumbent man who at
the threshold of his professional life was
obliged to give years of study and work
for which he received no pecuniary COM
pensation whatever. This fact lessons
the number of those who enter the field
of preparation for this Office. The num-
Der of competent lawyers available for
this judgeship is still further decreased
by the fact that, if man is fitted for
the office, he is probably receiving from
his profession an income larger than the
salary of the judgeship. Hence the law
of supply and demand fixes the salary
of the judges of our supreme and supe-
rior courts at comparatively high fig
ure. And so no intelligent man, howev-
er small his own income, wishes the sal
airy of these Judges to be made less.
But If proposition were made to in
crease this salary it would be at once
protested that this increase Is unneces-
sary, because the present salary has
brought to our judiciary talent and
fitness which command universal conf
dence and honor.
The office of bank commissioner falls
within the limits of the second class of
offices which I have mentioned. The
bank examiner of to-day graduated
from the public schools ten or twenty or
thirty years ago, and at once entered
upon course of preparation for his Of
flee, through work for which he received
from the start full pecuniary compensa-
ton. In every large village and in every
city of the state there are those who, as
accountants in some banking or com
mercial house or in some factory, or
who, as men of affairs, are fitting them
selves for the office of bank commission
err Hence, as compared with the de-
mand, the supply of men for this Office
is so great that the salary of the bank
commissioner is decidedly less than that
of a Judge of one Of our higher courts.
And the more intelligent the commits
sioner the less likely he is to feel griev-
ance because his salary is set on a lower
plane than that of judge of the su-
preme court.
The office of School Fund commission
err clearly belongs to the same class as
that of Bank commissioner. and the du-
ties of the one office are much the same
as the duties of the other You have
two bank commissioners whose duty it
is-in addition to some other work as
signed them-to see that the one hum
bred and sixty three millions of dollars,
deposited in eighty-nine different saw
ings banks, are not invested outside the
lines of safety laid down by the laws of
the state 1T is the duty of the School
Fund commissioner to look after the
two millions of the school fund, already
invested, and to make in this invest
ment, from time to time, such changes
as safety or necessity may demand. No
fair-minded man, who knows the duties
and the details of the two offices, and
who expects faithful and conscientious
work in both, will say that the salary |
of the School Fund commissioner should
be one dollar more than that of the
Bank commissioner.
There seems to be a Misrepresentation |
in some quarters in regard to the obli-
cation resting upon the School Fund I
commissioner His investments are not |
trust funds for whose safety he is per-
sonnlly responsible. He is presumed to
discharge the duties of his office faith
fully and to the best of his ability, but
lie incurs no personal obligation yeyond |
that which rests on other commissioners
in other departments. IF he makes hon
est mistakes, the losses arising there
from are charged to the state of Con-
necticut and not to the commissioner.
Any increase in his salary should be |
based on his services and not on any I'M
usual personal responsibility.
1t is the present policy of the state Of
Connecticut to give to this second class
Of offices which ] have mentioned a sal !
airy of twenty-five hundred dollars a
year. Each of the Bank commissioners
receives this sum. The Legislature of |
1897 recognizes this policy in it's institu
ton of the office of commissioner on
building and loan associations when it
set the salary of the commissioner at
twenty-five hundred dollars. The Labor
was established some four
teen years ago with a salary of two
thousand dollars a year, which was in
creased to three thousand dollars in
1889. But the cost of living then was Is
lr 90 per cent, more than it is now, so
hat a salary of three thousand dollars
1t that time was no larger than a sala-
" of twenty-five hundred at, the pres
ent. 1t is safe to say that if a Labor
were to be instituted by the