The sea coast echo. [volume] (Bay Saint Louis, Miss.) 1892-current, 1922-09-23

Some time since the people of Bay
st. Louis were called upon by the
sane and best interests Of the State.
represented by the people, to sign a
| petition, addressed to the Secretary
of State, asking that they be given a
chance to vote upon the question
whether or not the State revenue
agent, along with other State officers,
shall be put on a salary basis" This,
! of course, was specifically aimed, as
limited in th petitions, against Stokes
V. Robertson, who is getting 20
| per cent commissions on all tax mon
les wrung from the people, amount
| ing to compensation of from S4O,-
600 to $4,000 per year. This is an
abnormal compensation while other
State officers are getting in many in
stances salaries less than $5,000.00
| per annum. 1t is proposed to place
! the office of revenue agent on a sal
ary of $5,000.00. But Mr.. Robert
son, in his 'come back" to the peti-
tions, as he states in the hundreds of
thousands of letters he is now flood
ing the State with, that the expenses
of his office are enormous. To meet
| this there is a provision that in addi-
ton to his proposed $4,000 yearly
salary, all legitimate expenses will be
paid by the State.
Dwelling on the subject and anent
the letters from Robertson that have
flooded Bay St. Louis Hancock coun-
| ty and the balance of the State
wherever the petitions have been
signed, the Jackson Clarion-Ledger
publishes an article that is unmistak-
able in the information and the logic
it contains, as follows:
Stokes Robertson, State Revenue
Agent, is writing lengthy letter to
those who signed The petition calling
for an election TO put the State Rev
enue Agent on salary basis.
This petition simply repeats that
the people of Mississippi be given an
opportunity to vote upon this mat
ter Mr.. Robertson, when he made
his campaign for this office, had as
the principal plank in his pla form
the statement that the state revenue
agent should be placed upon a salary
basis. Practically all other Offices,
both county and State, have long ago
been put upon a salary basis. and
just why this particular Office should
continue to pay its holder from $40,-
600 to $4,000 per year, while prac-
tically all other State officers are
working for less than $4,000 per
year, is hard to understand.
Mr.. Robertson quotes from condi-
tions existing some twenty-five or
thirty years ago, when a great many
State offices were run upon a fee or
commission basis. Those were the
days of the ring politicians, when a
few men gathered together and dis
cussed ways and means of controlling
the affairs of State. This is no long
er true. That day has long since
passed in Mississippi. The people of
Mississippi now rule at the ballot
box. They have the intelligence;
they have the honesty; they have the
fxedness of purpose to properly gov
ern themselves and select first hand
the men who shall hold their offices
and the manner in which their offices
shall be conducted.
In Mississippi the few no longer
live upon the many, and those who
endeavor to stand in the way of the
| sovereign voters in an effort to pre-
vent them from carrying out their
ideas and their plans will make very
great mistake.
1t is understood that Mr.. Robert
son makes the point that it is very eX
pensive to conduct his office and that
| if these changes are made the re-
muneration will be too small for him.
| This being true, why does he object
to going on a salary of $4,000 year,
which is much more than many other
State and county officers receive?
Five thousand dollars a year is also
much more than go per cent of the
| signers of this petition receive.
Five thousand dollars a year is
also much more than 80 per cent of
the voters of Mississippi receive, and
| if Mr. Robertson cannot get along
upon this amount how does he expect
the voters of Mississippi, who receive
much less, to spare from their small
income or compensation an amount
to add to his income until he receives
$45, 900 per year?
He would lead the voters of the
State to believe that while he is get
ting big money he is getting it out of
| the big fellows. There was time
when a statement of this kind was ac
cepted by uninformed people. Now,
however. it is we'll known to all that
the consumer the small fellow, pays
for all of these amounts that are
levied upon business-they pay for it
in the clothes they buy; the food they
eat.
The petition which has been filed
with the Secretary of State simply
requests that the people of Missis-