Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1909-01-15


About the first thing the Legisla
,urr should do. IS to formulate and
adop; strenuous methods for reform.
and the most imperative need in that
i'm, IS in economy of state cxpcud!
ulrr>. Tho trend has been for many
arS from ;cld To worse, until every
,r.mru 90; thrpuu.ic service has been
tainted with rAtrLNa%anc. and now
Yu.d.t'uuS have terminated in ac-
tnowcIgcd and persistent graft of
.tr kind that once had become 50
.,rrpy ,utrrnch"d as To impcl q
national " Boss To- make the start
.ug inquiry What are you gong to
doaDpst ~ ithaS now extended to
ether municipalities. until county
a';.i,- and city matters seem to have
,.,cIlt the infection and their offices
boast of federation of business
lo'cl tLat plesa yes bankruptcy and
that once was considered bordering
upon criminAlity il applied to the
property rights of the general com
munity.
The State Legislature is now fig
uring upon ways and means to
So ueeze SIX millions of dollars out of
the people to maintain the State gov
eminent the next term of two years
At former sessions multitudes of
new Offices had been erected and
Swarms of offices created to harraSS
our people and eat out their sub
stance" Salaries have been in
creased until term or two in Office
place the lucky favorites in posi-
ton to hc independent for life, with
out personal or mental drudgery.
The salaries provided are far in eX-
cess of what men of equal ability
could ever earn in a lifetime of we'll
directed energy in any private line
of business. The disposition to aug
ment salaries already well prOvid-
ed for has been the more fla
grant from the fact that Sec. !, OF
Art. VIII of the State Constitution,
provides that the State Indebtedness
shall not, at any time, exceed four
hundred thousand dollars, which has
been doubled, tripled and quadrupled,
under our easy oath bound law-mak-
ers.
Now, at the very threshold of the
session, attention has been called to
one notorious legalized graft, where
the duty to apply pruning-knife to
the tap-root is made, by directing
thought to the self-evident PROPOSE
ton that legalized graft is no better,
nor less criminal, than an illegal
graft. The only distinction made is
that legalized graft does not land
any body in Jail. This is in the State
printing. The Centralia Chronicle,
under the heading of Political
Graft Jobs" has set the ball rolling,
and it will be difficult to stop its mo-
mentum from the fact that it has
been impaired by the ponderous
sledge-hammer of Truth and cannot
be denied or justified.
The Chronicle says that the Office
of State Printer is one of the absur-
dities in the government of several
States, carrying salary and perquis
ties far in excess of the salary of the
chief executive of those States, and
that said income is largely in the ma
ture of legalized graft. The emolu-
ments of the Office of State Printer are
said to run each year into six figures,
and those emoluments are paid by
the people. The Chronicle further de-
clares that the Office OF State Printer
is usually filled by man who would
have a hard time earning 800 n
month in commercial printing es.
Enlistment.
In view of this explicit statementO Of
facts, that cannot be denied, it seems
to be an imperative duty for the
Legislature to take cognizance of the
situation as an exceedingly fair place
to institute reform. In fact just how
it can be avoided is not apparent to
the finite mind.