Evening star., 1925-06-14

y
making, Treasury figures
show, cost US not less than
$25 ,OOO, 900 year in salaries
and incidental expenses OF
Congress and State Legislatures alone.
A single Federal law. counting private
measures along with the general
statutes, costs about $4,000 to pass.
The average cost Of passing state
law runs to about $1,000.
How much the innumerable county
and city ordinances cost, in total or
per ordinance. is wholly beyond
human knowledge. Jumped with the
cost Of running the mayors ONCE, OF
the city courts, the elections, the city
buildings and the chief administrative
officers, the expense OF maintaining
city councils in communities OF 10000
or more Inhabitants was about $1l4,-
900 900 in 1922, the Census Bureau
states. 1t is higher now, but the
various items composing the total
have not been segregated by the statis-
ticians, so law-making costs cannot
be ascertained
There are $1,000 incorporated COM
munities in the United States, includ-
ing counties, and each one is governed
by board of elected officers who pass
laws governing their little 1urisdfc-
tions. in some large cities the cost
of maintaining the governing body,
including salaries, runs we'll above
81, 900, 900 a year; In the small COM
munities where no salaries are paid
the cost is virtually nothing.
Billions for Administration.
All in all, our little laws-city and
county ordinances-cost several
thousand dollars down to or 10
cents apiece. The figures apply only
fr,tr To- 10
cost of administering the law mounts
into the billions every year.
An ultra conservative estimate of
the cost of enacting laws to govern
our cities, towns, villages and coun-
ties is 500, 100000 year. The exact
figures probably surpass this total.
In Congress the cost of law-mak-
ing mounts to majestic proportions.
A single Congress, elected for two
years, is a luxury with $20,000.000
price tag. Here are the chief items
Senate, s4,917,6s1; salaries and ex-
penses Of House, $12,5S7 ,03s; miscel-
laneous expenses. s245,210: care of
Capitol and buildings, $2,050,213. Total
s19.s00,142
The figures do not include any
thing for the three establishments of
Government directly responsible to
Congress. rather than to the Presi-
dent OF these, the Government
Printing Office cost $5.s74,396 for the
two-year term ending last March; the
Library Of Congress, s2,300.64S, and
the Botanic Garden, $210.397. Part
of the expenses of the first two estab-
lishments are directly chargeable to
Congress, but the bulk of the money
is spent in meeting needs of the
executive departments.
What DO We Receive7.
In return for this generous expedi-
ture what do we receive? An aver
age of $50 Federal laws, public and
private, annually. An average of less
than $50 public laws. applying to all
citizens, every year. Every public
law passed by Congress-excluding
private measures of relief-costs the
taxpayers from $4,000 to 100000
simply in it's passage.
These figures cover past costs.
Hereafter the cost per law will be
| materially greater as Congress has
raised its salaries by one-third, or
| from $500 to $4,000 q year.
convened in 1889 to the present time,
1876 years, $4,000 Federal laws, minus
| q few score, have been written on the
statute books. The record gives the
total up to December /, 1923, as 49, ,064.
OF this number 1908 were public
laws, and the remainder were private
relief measures. The First Congress
passed 11S laws, of which 10 were pri-
vate. The Second Congress estab-
lished low record, apparently for all
time, by passing only n laws az Of
them private) during its two-year life.
| Thirty-three new Federal public laws
| a year were good enough for the new
| born Nation in 1871, but we need
about 250 a year now. Or, at least,
Congress thinks so.
IAw.ma king at WASHINGTON reached