Omaha daily bee. (Omaha [Neb.]) 187?-1922, 1905-12-20
purrHE COUNTY oNA BUSINESS BASIS

PUT THE COUNTY ON BUSINESS BASIS.
Great pressure is being brought upon
the Board of County Commissioners to
stave off action on a resolution intro.
duced 10y Commissioner Brunng TO re-
duce the price of feeding county pris
oners from - to 80 cents per day. The
pressure comes under the plea that the
agitation is inspired by personal and
political hostility on the part of The
Bee to John Mcdonald, the newly
elected sheriff. This plea is absolutely
baseless. The Bee has always advocated
that the affairs of the county should be
conducted on business principles.
The agitation foN the change from
the fee system, by Which the Office of
the clerk of the district court was made
a salared instead of fee office. was
begun by The Bee during the incum-
bency of Frank f. Moores and finally
terminated after Il fierce fight by an
act of the legislature limiting the in
come of the district court clerk to $1,000
a year. Even that salary is extravagant.
The bill as it passed the house fixed the
salary at $500 a year. but was
amended by former Senator Van Dusen
to a salary of $1,000 in expectancy that
it would fail altogether and the old sys-
TEN would continue.
The agitation for the abolition of the
Jail graft was begun by The Bee while
John Boyd was sheriff and has con
tinued ever since. The fact that the
price of feeding prisoners in the county
Jail was reduced from 4j TO 30 cents
per day during the second term of
Mcdonald shows that the agitation was
not inspired by malice or political ami
mostly.
There is no more good reason
why the sheriff of Douglas county
should have an income of S10.-
600 a year when the law limits it TO
$500 year than there was for the
old fee system by which the clerk of the
district court was enabled to earn from
$4,000 to $25. 900 year.
The proper time to lop off the county
Jail graft is now anf the present board
should not shirk its duty. If the change
is put off until the new board takes its
place new complications will arise and
greater pressure will probably be
brought to bear upon the new board
than upon the old board to perpetuate
the system that imposes upon the tax.
payers of Douglas county a contribution
of more than $1,000 year towards the
income of the sheriff.
It is pointed out that the law allows
the sheriff to charge Is cents a day for
feeding prisoners who are only six days
In Jail and leaves It optional for the
county to pay 40 cents per day for prls-
oners who remain in Jail longer than
that period. The law was designed TO
cover the entire state. In nine-tenths
of the counties the sheriffs do not feed
more than half dozen prisoners at any
reasonable compensation. but in Doug
las county it is a downright imposition
TO charge A. cents a day, when the cost
of feeding prisoners in the state peni-
Tertiary Is only II cents per day, the
state, like the county, furnishing the
fuel. the kitchen help and all para
phernalia excepting the provisions.
Nothing in the law requires the sher
if to do the feeding of prisoners. The
correct policy in reality would be to let
the contract for feeding them to the best
bidder. unless the sheriff is willing to
accept a reasonable price, based on that
now paid for feeding city prisoners.