The Bennington evening banner. (Bennington, Vt.) 19??-1961, 1913-03-17
THE EVENING BANNER
BENNINGTON, VT, MARCH II. 1913

BENNINGTON, VT, MARCH II. 1913
In making defense it is unfortun-
ate to begin with misleading state.
ment of fact. The Banner is mis-
leading. 1t would have its readers
think that The Herald is finding fault
with the proper payment of a half
dozen stenographers in the secretary
of states office; but that is not the
case at all, nor is 1t a proper defense
of the appropriation referred to, to
charge that the secretary of state has
crowded his stenographers into I'M
sanitary quarters and required them
to do work under improper condit-
ions. The case is that the Legisla-
ture passed resolutions appropriate
ing more than $4,000 of the states
money as a bonus and gratuity to
various employees of the state who
are employed in and around the Capt.
toll building by the day, month or
year This money was divided up
among them. They comprise the
whole lot of pages, sweepers, door
men and stenographers and clerks of
one sort and another. They are EN-.
ployed at stated prices fixed in ad-
vance, and accept such employment
with the full understanding that pay
ment according is in full for the SER
vice there is a proper way to provide
payment for it. The appropriation
as made was utterly indefensible. If
this money had come out of the peck
cts of the people who voted it, the
resolution would not have been con-
sidered moment but it is easy for
some people to give away other peo
pies money. The whole transaction
is one of the worst which has dis
graced the Vermont Legislature in
many years, and those who are re-
sponsible for the steal ought to be
remembered when positions of trust
are to be filled in the future The
Herald protests against such misap-
preparations of public money and
holds that he who does less fails of
his duty-Rutland Herald.
Probably when the matter is fully
husked out the Herald and The Ban
ner are not so very far apart. In its
original news article and in its first
editorial utterance the Herald
did good deal of injus-
tice and included some things
that weren't so and such exaggera-
tons and falsehoods are always the
ones grabbed up by the unthinking
and still further distorted. We are
glad to note that the Herald is now
getting its case down to a basis of
truth where newspaper of the age
and dignity of the Herald ought to
stand. The Herald is absolutely
right in Directing to the overpay-
ments to pages, messengers, sweep
ers and some other minor employees. |
They have for many years been paid |
the same as members, but precedent |
doesn't make it right. This legisla- |
ture, in this respect, was precisely |
the same as all of it's predecessors of |
the present generation-no better |
and no worse. 1t accepted bad pre-
cedent and continued it. AS to tn, |
clerks, revision committee assist |
ants, expert stenographers, adult |
employees in the various departments |
and those of similar rank, we do not |
think they were, as general thing, |
over paid Many of them had places |
that required expert knowledge and |
all of them had to work hard and |
They averaged to earn as
much as the average member and the |
more highly paid, like the secretary |
of the Senate and clerk of the House |
were only qualified by long years of
They worked night and |
day and lack of skill or any unfaith- |
fulness on their part might result in |
great wrong and injustice. The Her
AIDS insinuation that the secretary
of state wilfully compelled his en-
ployes to work in crowded, unsani- |
tary quarters, is unworthy. The
statehous is so crowded during ses-
sion that adequate quarters are not
available. He does the best he can
and neither he nor his employees are
to blame for conditions over which
they have no control. The point that
The Banner has attempted to make
in this argument is that it is not
right to make wholesale charges
which result in wholesale injustice
There are sheep and there are goats
in this flock and the two should not
be COMPOUNDED.