Bisbee daily review., 1909-01-28
SEN. BAILEY
 |S AGAINST THE
 SALARY GRAB
Says Extravaganza Is the Bane of America, and An Extrava- gant Man Or Nation End In Bankruptcy Or Worse.


 senate of the United States. recently thus voiced his sentiments on the sub
 jeet of increasing the salary of the ! president:
 Mir. President: 1 am not disposed | 10 occupy the time of the senate in
 discussing this point of order. but
 do desire very briefly to address my self to the merits of the proposition. 1 and perhaps l mieht as well do so now as later.
 I do not believe that a great goy- { ernment like this O. -ht to ask or 10 , expect any of its citizens 10 serve it at a great sacrifice O. their personal ! interests, and I believe that the sal ary attached to every office ought 10 | be fixed at such a sum as will sup port the incumbent in decency and i comfort and enable him 10 educate his children But it ought not Co be more than that lt ought never to
 happen in a country like ours that the
 salary Of any office k made so large
 as to be iHducement for men 10 seek
 ii.
 TEe true rule ought to be that those
 Eho serve the republic shall be paid
 enough to provide for themselves and
 their families: to discharge such du-
 ties as they owe their children in the
 way Of education. The balance or
 the pay for public services ought 10
 te taken in the honor which the office cenfers. and every position within
 the eift of this republic ought to be
 sought for the distinction and not ior
 .he cmoluinents.
 For almost q hundred years this
 view controlled in fixing salaries. But now we hear it said in many places | that the present salaries are made quate to provide for the entertain lmcnts which high officials are expect | cd to give. l am rather inclined Co believe it would be a fortunate thing to reduce the salary fl that would re duce the entertainments, because. in my limited experiences here, I have ! found that the men who entertain the most are not the men who do the pub l Hes work the best: and surely fl men ! holding high positions are bent oh 1 spending their time in entertainment ' they ought not to be permitted tc spend the peoples money in that way. With me this view is not mere ap- ! peal 10 what is supposed to be a dem l ogogic spirit among the people, for despise the dcmOsouc- l have never found one of his arguments that ap- | peared sound 10 me. and even when | he happens to be on the right side, l I feel an almost irresistible tempta- ! ton to take the other, in order tO be on a different side from him. But I appeal to the highest spirit and to the best traditions Of the American people against the increase of these
 salaries. There is no phase of the American life today, either official or | private. better calculated to alarm the | thoughtful man than this tendency to- wards extravagance which is manifest { everywhere amongst us.
 The government itself sets the eX- ample Twenty-Five years ago the party which is now in power declaim- ed, with great yehemence against the party which was then in power be cause the appropriations of the gov crnment had reached the stupendous and then the unprecedented sum of | S24S, ,00G.0O0 Yet today we sit here and appropriate a billion as if il were a piaything. We spend the money Of this government in utter and reckless disregard of the fact that when we spend il we are spending the earn
  government earns no money. and can have no money. except what it takes from the labor. physical or intellect
 ual, of it's people; and this is espe- cially true when it lays taxes upon what men consume and not upon what they possess. Yet we pour out this golden stream as if the people did not sweat to earn ir. and we call a eF al Flf up in this high place and call a halI in public expenditure.
 But. sir, if it did rot tax the labor OI the people, if it did not exact any thing from their muscle or their brain, 1 would still protest against this gov Crnmental extravaganza. because cA- Urayancu breeds all kinds of vices Following the example of the general | government, almost every city. town. and village in America today are scan ! dalized by disgracefU, jobs. and the people themselves are tempted tU live | beyond their income. The man with an income of $2G. .GOV is striving hard | to match in gaudy show the man who's ! income Is the princeiy sum of $50 DOC. And then the man with an income or | Sf0.G00 tries to live an equal pace l with his ncighbOr whose income is I
 | S20.G00 The mau with an income Of ! $5,0GG tries to match The man with | st0.0e0. Thus this cxtray agancc. be ginning with the government. reaches down to every circic Of society. taint- ing them all with their deadly poison. Mir. President. HatiOn that spends
 more than it can fairly earn must ul
 time become natic1 Of hanbrupts. Ui
 rOEucs. or gamblers. We perfectly understand the destination of the man
 who spends moro than he earns. li
 is the banirapt court, the rUGJc's gal
 lcry or the gamblin.- hall: because If he spends more than he earns. hc
 must eiter go in debt for it. or he
 must steal it. or he must gamble for it. That is the end to which cxtray- sgance leads the Individuals. and as the government is simply the aggre
 gate of all the individuals. that is the
 end Co which the government, must
 come at last. There never was in the
 history Of the world aa cxtrayasant
 government which did not in time be
 come q corrupt government. and there
 never will be one.
 [ MIR. CLAPP: And a bankrupt one
 MIR. BAILEY: And. as the senator
 from Minnesota well adds. bank
 rupt one.
 Now. Mir. President. I have no quar
 rel with the man who. being rich
 wants to spend his wealth. In truth
 think it would be better for the
 country if most of those who are very rich spent the best part of what they 1 have. l am not one of those whC