Herald and news. [volume] (West Randolph, Vt.) 1878-1943, 1906-12-27
THAT SALARY GRAB"

Judging from the numerous and
vehement denunciations visited upon
the heads of the legislators who re.
Gently ended a seventy-two days
session at Montpelier for their action
in passing resolution whereby they
received from the state seventy-iwo
days pay at three dollars a day, they
were therein guilty of a rank offence
by which they robbed the treasury OF
something like $4,000. Not only
that, but they stultiiled themselves,
inasmuch as they had been diligent
in accusing other public servants OF
graft, and had gone on record by
solemnly enacting statute that no
official should draw pay for time
spent and services rendered unless
such time had been actually spent and
such service actually rendered. Their
action as above noted has been called
'salary grab,n and the members
who took pay for Saturdays and
Sundays when the legislature was not
really in session are plloried along
side of George T. Howard, the ex-
railroad commissioner, who padded
his expenses account and charged the
state for time and services never
rendered in her behalf.
Now it may be that this blame is
merited; that the legislators of 1906
were gratters, and that the record of
what is commonly regarded al an
honest, diligent, loyal and progressive
general assembly was smirched by
this single act. But before Judgment
is finally rendered in this matter a
few facts not hitherto brought out
should be taken into consideration
facts that appealed so strongly to the
members themselves that not a single
one OF them in either body voted, or
even thought of voting, against the
resolution in question, though the
assembly numbered many men to
whom the per diem cut little figure
as a source of income, as well as
others whose near friends would
ordinarily hesitate to accuse them of
filching from the public purse.
The statute says that the paw of
members OF the assembly shall be
three dollars per day. 1t does not
say Saturdays and Sundays and holt
days excepted. 1t does not saw that
only days on which the legislature
actually sits shall be counted. From
Time without mind the pay has always
been reckoned from the first dav of
the session to the last, every day in.
ciuded. The members this wear hava |
been paid the same, and the same
only, as all members of previous
assemblies have been paid. They
received only what they expected, and
what from the law and precedent thew
had right to expect, when thew
accepted election. They received
only what they expected when thew
for affairs at home durng
tneir absence. They received onlv
"haC they expected when they con-
tracted Tor their board at the canitol |,
ana be it known that board bills Of
montpelier keep right on over satpr.
oays and Sundays, whether the
ooarder is there or at home.
individually, the members of tbo
present assembly saw no Just reason
why the same rule that had applied
always in regard to pay should not
apply this year. They felt that their
aoors had been as valuable To tho
''a'e as mad those of their prede-
'essors; that their COMPENSATE,
should not be cut off by the some
what arbitrary ruling of an official or
officials.
Ihey did not feel that this leoisla !
nre should be the first in the history t
II the state to have timekeeper with
stop watch held over IT, and ~.