Year: 1873

To the Editor OF the Cincinnati Gazette


/ think most of the arguments of Sena-
| tor Carpenter in favor of salary increase
are concisely, clearly, and satisfactorily
answered by Moses Scott. To one posi-
ton, however, he does not allude


The Senator says: Members of Con-
gress will have families in Washington,
and it is better that they should have
their o,on." They should have their own,
as he intimates, to restrain the laxity of
i1te-to keep alive the better feelings of
our nature


What he means 1 cannot conceive, un-
less it be sweeping charge that men,
bers OF Congress, when absent from their
families, will abandon themselves to the
baser impulses, and violate the seventh
commandment


The inference is that it costs more to
support their own families than families
which are not their own. Why 2. Not
because a wife needs, for comfort, more
food, or clothing, or shelter than mis-
tress; but because fashion requires wife
to be more splendidLy kept 1t is not the
necessaries or the comforts which render
Washington life SO expensive; it is the
love of display-the reluctance to be out
shone. To what extent ought we to be
compelled to supply the demands of this
fashion fiend which becomes the more
ravenous the more it is fed?


majority of Americans, as of all 9TH
er people, must labor for their daily
bread. They can by constant toll secure
only. the necessaries; or, at most the
comforts of life. Most of the daily labor
ers work for dollar and half day, or
less. Mechanics who get from two to
five dollars day have probably spent as
much time in acquiring their trades as a
majority of members of Congress have in
the study of statesmanship. They can
not support their families in idleness and
extravaganza. Their wives and children
must help to bear the common burden.


While we the people can not escape
the sentence, "In the sweat of thy face
thou shalt eat bread, ;" is it right that we
should be compelled to work thirty or
forty days to pay for one days service of
man who we feel is no better than our
selves, except that, by wheedling US out
of our votes, he has attained to absolute
financial authority? Is it right that our
wives and daughters should be obliged
to work, clad in coarse, if not ragged
garments, that his may be kept in idle
ness, clothed in silks and bedecked with
jewels?


There is no limit to this cost of display.
Ii 1T now requires one thousand dollars
to decorate Presidents or a Senator's
laughter lor an Inauguration pail, ten
years hence it may require ten thousand;
and the necessity for an increase of sala-
ry be as urgent as it is now


The payment of high salaries is not
the way to fill the seats of Congress with
poor men. 1t makes Washington life
more attractive to the highfyers of fash
ion, and augments the temptation to Sc
cure an election by scheming and bribe-
ry. Weae we more careful to select for
public stations men of established princi-
pie and strict integrity-men who care
more for public interests than for present
pleasure-I think we could send good
men to Congress who could support their
families in Washington on S., 900 sess-
ion; or, if they chose to leave their fami-
lies at home, they could sojourn at the
capital acithom JanaiAes, and not be dis
graced thereby. A FARMER.