The comet. (Johnson City, Tenn.) 1884-1916, 1911-07-06
SHAMELESS SALARY GRAB.


The passage of the salary ''grab" APP
pendix to the appropriation bill is an
appropriate closing of the most dis
graceful legislative chapter in the his
tory of the state. Men have deliberately
voted themselves money out of the
public treasury to which they can have
no possible just claim, which, however,
is in accord with their action in run
ming away from their duties and flee
ing the state. 1t is not necessary to
characterize this action in words. The
people will in due time attend to it by
prompt, decisive action. Suffice 1t TO
say that the act is not only scandal,
the taking of unearned money from
the public treasury, but we believe un-
constitutional, and will not stand the
test of a judicial inquiry. There are
men ia this legislature who stayed at
their posts, who were ready at all times
to attend TO the duties they were elect
ed to perform, and whether their polit-
ical views or their factional opinions
and purposes were right or wrong, the
people would be willing to pay them
for their time the regular per diem fix
ed by the constitution, but to say that
each of them should receive $5OO-the
boilers among the LOTS so shameless
that we doubt if anybody took the
proposition seriously until it was tack
ed onto the appropriation bill and be-
came law.
To illustrate what it means: The
constitution fixes seventy-five days as
the limit of the regular session OF the
legislature, during which members
may draw pay, per diem salary Of
four ga dollars, being likewise fixed
in the same instrument. The regular
session has lasted 1876 working days,
for seventy five of which a salary of 81
per day is provided by the constitution,
leaving sixty-one days to be provided
for by special legislation. Those men,
bers of the house and senate who did
not bolt to Alabama, bat who remain
ed in Nashville or were ready on call
to perform the work of the session,
might fairly be said to be entitled to
compensation at the rate of 81 per day,
which would make the limit any one
member could receive to about $240,
and not more than $3.50. There were
at least thirty-four members-those
who were fugitives in Alabama and
who are responsible for whatever loss
the state is to be at because of their
disgraceful proceeding-who are not
entitled to any extra pay, and who are
not even entitled TO the per diem of "a
for the fifteen days of the seventy-five
pay days. BY what kind of strange
faulty, Authorization or moral obscu-
ration the CIRCULARS could permit
themselves to be trapped into commit
ting so monumental a blunder at the
very moment they were winning gol-
den opinions from all sorts of people,
passes us. Decentralization and the
willful disregard of the interests of the
state and the rights of the people seem
to have taken mad hold upon the
majority and sound and conservative
leadership appears 30 have either fled
the state or else lost its power and IN
fluence.
Speaking of the "grab the Column
bia Herald gives text for sober
thought:
"Gov. Hooper's warning was timely,
but unfortunately it went to ears deaf
to all appeals. The spirit of greed and
avarice drowned the pleadings of the
governor. But he has done his duty. |
This loot can not be charged to him."
Gov Hooper's warning was, to be
sure, timely, but it was weak almost
TO the point of puerility; it was apollo
getic and in no sense the virile docu-
ment one would have expected from a
purely business goverernor. Suppose
Gov. Hooper had characterized the
as it deserved at his hands
and had closed with some such state
nent as this: "This proposed raid up
IN the treasury for money not earned
s an outrage, direct misappropria-
ion of the peoples taxes, and you
must not pass it; if you do will veto
t, and the responsibility for what shall
happen will be upon youP' That is
what Gov. Hooper should have said,
md that is what this paper would
nave applauded, and what the people
would have acclaimed as the express
ion of courageous public official
Chattanooga Times.
CALIFORNIA HAS AN
OTHER QUAKE FRIGHT