The Birmingham age-herald., 1920-02-29
PASSING A SALARY BILL

! One. of the hardest JoDS the present legislature has undertaken is the adop- ton of a salary bill for county officsrs- shariffs, chancery clerks, circuit clerks,
 assessors, treasurers, superintendents of education, supervisors and their deputies
 The legislature of four years ago took all fees and commissions from these of- ficers and put them on salary that
 was then very satisfactory, but since then the cost of living has gone far sky ward, is still mounting, and the officers
 complained loud and long that they could
 not live on what they were being paid, and that they could not employ deputies at the salaries allowed by law. Two or
 three weeks ago the house spent nearly
 day building up this salary measure amending the bill as 1t came from their committee very materially, and then sent
 It over to the senate. The senate com
 mfttee rewrots the bill and submitted a substitute, on which it has now spent e
 day, tearing the work of their commit
 tee all to pieces. so that 1t will have to
 be written again and returned to the house, where 1t will not be recognized
 even by it's author. The house will as a mattor of course insist on it's original
 figures, and g game of battledoor and
 shuttlecock Is promised until the bill Is
 sent to a joint conference and somebody
 gives in. Salaries have been increased about 50 per cent for all officers-sheriffs of the larger counties being given s4,Soo
 and other officers being scaled and grad
 uated along the same lines down to $500 for the sheriffs of the poorer counties.
 :. FOR THE FEEBLE-MINDED
 One of the most interesting measures yet debated in the legislature Is that by
 MT. Zellar of Yazoo county, authorizing the embellishments of a home or colony for the feeble-minded-an institution Missis-
 sippl has needed sorely for many years. The bill carries an appropriation of $20o- 600 as starter and it Is claimed that after being put on its feet 1t will be almost If not quite self-supporting, as many of the inmates will be able to per form manual labor sufficient to keep them strong and healthy. Dr. Haines, director of mental hygiene in Mssis- sippi, was requested to come before the senate and explain the necessity of such colony and succeeded in opening the eyes of the members to the gravity of the situation During the year or more that he has been serving Mississippi in this capacity he has gathered a great deal of data as to the number of feeble minded persons in the penitentiary on poorhous farms. in jails, orphanages etc, counting up into the thousands His con tention was that from an economic standpoint the state could not longer shut its eyes to the importance of this proposition, as the care of the feeble minded is costing the several counties more than the bill calls for, and at the same time the patients are not benefited mentally, morally or otherwise, are per mitted to marry and multiply and thus increase the burdens of the state year after year-an of which would be stopped once they are congregated in a colony and kept separated according to race and sex An amendment to the original bill was adopted locating the colony on the convict farm In Rankin county. eight or nine miles east of Jackson, and which is no longer wanted for farming pur- poses-its sale having been ordered by the house for the reason that 1t is non productive and does not turn any cash into the treasury. But those acquainted with this farm know full well that there is more in the man than in the land," and that with intelligent management 1t can be made seif-supporting even with the labor of the Predetermined. There does not seem to be any doubt that the house will fall in line on this measure,