Evening star., 1916-07-09
BY JOHN ELFRETH WATKINS.
FTER this quadrennial race f

a FTER this Quadrennial race for
M the presidency how much will
A\ the victor profit by his laurels.
q = and what will they cost him?
The purse offered is 100000 for the
term. This means $4,000 a year. s2o5.4s
a day, ss.56 per waking or sleeping
hour
Such is the wage for the office which
George Washington offered to fill with
out pay. When he, the country's father,
and his successors. for a half century
and more travelled about on public
business they paid the tollkeeper, the
innkeeper and the coach driver out of
their offcial salary of $4,000 a year.
Now the government allows a Presi-
dent for yearly travel money a sum
equal to the total salary of all of our
early Presidents from Washington to
Grant. In other words, the President
elected this year will be able to draw
from the Treasury four times as much
in salary and allowances as was given
to Washington, Jefferson. Lincoln and
chief magistrates of their time; twice
as much as was given our Presidents
from Hayes to Mckinley.
The presidential salary has not kept
pace with the growth of the RESPONSE
bilities attached to the office.
Besides the purse of 100000 and the
right to spend. during his term, 100000
more in travel money (without giving
any account of its use). the winner of
the present presidential race will be
Cd wit Iaa
the most stately and famous old colo
nia1 mansion upon our hemisphere.
upon whose enlargement the govern
ment spent $4,000 fourteen years ago.
Another recent expansion made for
the benefit of the executive office has
been in the salary of the private secre-
tary to the President. now the most
tried official upon the governments pay
roll. He draws the full pay of United
States senator or $500 per year,
whereas all Presidents until Buchanan
had to pay their secretaries out of
their own wage of s25.ooo. The first
salary allowed a private secretary was
only $4,000.
Thus the remuneration of both the
chief executive and the head of his
Office force have been trebled since
Lincoln and his faithful Nicolay occu-
pied the White House Offices. Indeed,
four of the clerks and stenographers
in the Presidents office receive as much
salary as was allowed John Nicolay,
while above them is an executive clerk,
receiving $4,000, and chief clerk,
drawing $4,000 a year.
The pay roll of this force now
amounts to goodly fortune every
year, and this does not include a con-
tingent fund of SIS 900 annually appro-
priated for the stationery, record
books. telegraph and telephone service,
furnishings and conveyances used by
the executive Office, besides such new
books as are needed for the White
House library and miscellaneous
items at the discretion of the Presi-
dent In other words. a sum total of
s5o,ooo is annually expended at the
chief magistrates discretion for travel
ing expenses and Office maintenance.
His business correspondence goes
through the mails free. He has to buy
stamps only for private correspondence
with his sisters, his cousins mad his
aunts, or near friends. When he gives
q state function there is a messenger
at hand to go about town. leaving in
vitations at the doors of invited guests.
The victor in this years campaign
will have men to read the papers for
him and clip such items as will interest
him. men to answer by formula thou
sands of letters which he will never
see or hear of, men to keep away from
him every petty and annoying detail.
The residence portion of the White
House offers far greater conveniences
to a prospective tenant than Presidents
l.