Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1906-02-24
Legislatures Expensive.


The 1855 lawmakers in the United States
cost lots of money, without doubt but no.
body has ever figured up how much, and
probably nobody ever will
In New York the members of the assembly
and senators used to get S15 a day each,
with the idea that the session would last
on an average of 100 days.
This limit was overrun so often. however,
that a change was made some years ago
the payment for each session being ilxed al
81 500 for each of the 200 senators and as
semblymen,. or just 100000 year In saia-
ries for the lawmakers themselves Ihese
salaries, of course, are only beginning IN
the annual cost of the lawmak1ng mill
there are legislative employees of many sorts
and grades; all have to be paid, ana the
grand total would be fortune every year
for anybody with notions of wealth below
the multi-millionaire level
In most other states the pay is py the udS >
ranging from 50 in Kansas and some other
states to SS in Florida. Pennsylvania pays
81, 500 session, like New York: Massachu-
sells, $3.50; Illinois, 81 600; New Jersey, SJoo'
Wisconsin $780, Mississippi, $500; ONO
5000: Iowa, $3.50; Washington. $500, and
Maine, $3.50.
Such investigating committees as me IN
surance committee, whose report is now up
in the New York legislature, are fruitful
source of cost, and years when such lnVes-
LEGATIONS are made the lawmaking expense
is increased in New York by many thou
sands of dollarS-a much greater sum, no
doubt that such investigations would cost
were they carried on by one of the perfectly
organized great business corporations Such
as the Standard OIL or the Pennsylvania
Railroad Company.
whole treatise might be written on the
fact that while any big corpora ton unless
1t is an insurance company-can do almost
any business cheaper than II can De dohe
by an individual or a small frm, whatever
is done by q state is almost always cone at
an enormously wasteful cost.
Capitals and Capitols.
The meeting places of the various state
legislatures are as diverse as well can be
imagined. Massachusetts chose Boston for
her capital when she was an infant colony
and Boston was little raw colonial settle
ment Since then Boston has become the
states metropolis, and We're the. city to con-
solidate to itself everything round about. as
New York Chicago and Phila delphia have.
it would probably be the second city in the
country; at all events, it would rank nigh
as third.
Yet Boston has remained the state capital,
and apparently no harm has come to the
members of the Massachusetts, general court
by reason of their meeting place being in
big city.
1t was to avoid subjecting Congress to the
danger of baleful influences, morally and
politically, that the fathers would not allow
the national capital to remain either in New
York or Philadelphia. but bought the site
and established a new town on the banks CT
the Potomac for Congress to meet in At
least that was the story then, though there
were people who put their fingers to their
noses when the subject was discussed and
furtively whispered of real estate boCms.
Whether Washington is really more
moral place than New York or Philadelphia
today is something about which the sitting
senators and representatives might possibly
give some interesting testimony.
Most of the states have followed the ma
tions example In selecting their capital
cities. The seat of the Illinois legislature
is little Springfield, the home of Lincoln.
not big, rushing, busting Chicago New
York chose Albany, not the metropolis;
Pennsylvania Harrisburg. not Philadelphia: