The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1907-01-07
CITY MUST PAY IT
Ten Thousand Dollars Increase
in Salaries.
Advance Has Been Made During
Last Year.
WILL ASK FOR MORE.
RumOr That Still Further Adj
WILL ASK FOR MORE.
RumOr That Still Further Ad-
vances Are to Be Made.
Three Departments That Have
Not Been Reached.

zen thousand dollars more to run
Topeka one year in 1906 than it did
IN 1906 That is a conservative esti-
mate of the increased cost brought
about by raising the salaries of city
employees.
With the exception of but three de-
partments of the city. the council has
granted substantial increases in the
salaries of every employe of the city
during the past twelve months.
The increases have come notwith-
standing an impoverish ed treasury
and no assurances that conditions
We're going to clear materially for the
Maybe the city is not a liberal pro-
WIDER. 1t is probable that larger SAL
aries are deserving The increased
cost OF living has brought about a
hlgher wage in all lines of industry.
The councilmen started out on a
circle to make an increase in every
city department about one year ago
They have just about completed that
be forced to take another swing
around the circle whether they want
to or not. Employees who asked and
got raise in their pay check a year
or six months ago are now talking of
asking for another raise.
Some of the councilmen are begin
ming to think that they are going to
pay rather heavily for the ride they
If the increase voted to the firemen
will not reach any further-well, the
councilmen will be inclined to con-
graduate themselves
Some of the councilmen go so far
as to state that the city made a mis-
take in ever making the first raise in
salary. They base this contention on
the grounds that the city is a big BUSH
ness cOrpO1 alton run on poor business
principles, with never a big margin of
profit and for the most of the time at
considerable loss. 1t is nip and
tuck. Two of the biggest city depart
ments, the street department and po-
lice department. have been receiving
bigger pay checks for the greater part
of 1906, while the fire department has
just been granted an increase border
ing on to per cent, which will take
effect April 1, 1907.
In the latter part of August the city
council voted for a new salary Ordi-
nance and had it entered in September
in the new ordinance books.
In that revision the police depart
ment was the first to fare well. The
chief of police got $83.33 per month
and was raised to 500. The increases
were further made to the force as fol-
lows: Sergeant $65 to $75; plain
clothes men $50 to $751;, patrolnen $50
to SEQ. 49, -
The force numbers thirty-three in
Guiding officers and men.
The increase in the monthly pay roll
Twenty-four hundred dollars a year of
higher wages. The street department
men were paid $3.50 a day in Decem-
Der 1905, in December of 1906 the city
paid $1.75 for the same kind of labor.
1t hires more men this year than it did
last year. In 1905 it had twenty-nine
laborers on the pay roll at the $3.50
per day, now it hires thirty-five at
twenty-five cents a day more. The
pay roll of the street department for
December 1905 was $97S.6S, in De-
cember 1905, it was $1,215.04. This Is
about $2,700 year more.
The street commissioner, however,
did not receive an increase in salary
and still gets $1,000 a year.
In the city engineers department
the assistant city engineer had his SAL