Jasper County Democrat, Volume 5, Number 41, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 17 January 1903 — MR. CARNEGIE’S GREETING. [ARTICLE]

MR. CARNEGIE’S GREETING.

We see that Representative Wilson has introduced a bill to amend the drainage laws and re--11 ducing allowances to viewers, etc. As Mr. Wilson is B. J. Gifford's attorney, it is safe to presume that Gifford is the father of the bill. By the way, why would it not be a good idea to open up past administrations at the poor farm? If Supt. Clatk. during the short time he has been out there, has been able, to improve the farm, make it almost self sustaining while having a like average of inmates than his predecessor, and “knock down” was SI,OOO or $1,500, what in the name of General Jackson must it have been when all the income of the farm was used up and the county treasury was drawn on each year for $3,000 to $4,500? These are pertinent questions, Mr. Taxpayer. The poor farm scandal calls to mind something a well known republican of Rens«elaer told us a few years ago regarding a former management. The w. k. r. was in one of Rensselaer’s popular saloons one evening, he said, talking with the proprietor, when in came the poor farm superintendent with a fine large ham, which he handed to the proprietor with the remark that it weighed so many pounds. The saloonkeeper took the ham and asked the p. f. s. if he should give him credit for it? “Yes,” was the reply, and, taking a drink or two, the superintendent walked out. After he had gone, the saloonkeeper said to the w. k. r.: “That is the fifth ham he has brought me this winter and I have been getting my butter of him for the past year, and he ow’es me $25 yet.” If any superintendent has turned into the county fund a dollar received from the sale of butter, eggs or “hams,” we have never been able to find any record of it in the reports they have made of receipts, and no doubt the amount derived from this source has been several hundred dollars each year.

The supreme court last Friday held that a county auditor is entitled io extra pay for serving on the (jounty board of review in addition to his salary as auditor. The reasoning of the court would apply equally in favor of the treasurer, who is also a member of that board. The question arose out of a suit by the commissioners of DeKalb county against Frank P. Seiler to recover money which had been paid to him for services on the board of review during his term as county auditor. The circuit court held that the county could recover thefmoney, but the supreme court has reversed its judgement, saying that the provision of the fee and salary law requiring the auditor turn into the county officers’ fund all fee and allowances which he may receive as auditor does not apply to such a case. In the light ofjprevious decisions of the supreme court, wherein it has been repeatedly held that under the fee and salary law the officers are held strictly to the salaries providedjby law. and are entitled to no other compensation whatever, this'decision is hard to reconcile, In every county in the state where*investigations of the county officers’hns been made and where the auditor or treasurer has drawn extra- pay* for services on the board of review, the amounts so paid have been held to bn illegal, and, where suit was brought to

recover illegal fees, such allowances were included in the amount sued for, and the lower courts have held them to be illegal. However, the highest tribunal in the state now decides otherwise, and The Democrat will not say nay to any public officer having and receiving every dollar the law entitles him to. In this county the ex-auditor and ex-treasurer, as well as the present treasurer, have drawn their per diem for such services right along. The present auditor has not drawn one penny, as he was not at all sure that he was entitled to such extrr pay. The question is now settled and he should, and we presume will, file claims for the three years’ services. It belongs to him and he should have it.

Cincinnati Enquirer: Mr. Andrew Carnegie, in his New Year Greeting, says: “The world, led by the American Republic, took a long step forward in the closing days -of the year just gone —11)02. Last century one Russian Emperor, Nicholas 1., and one American President, Lincoln, banished from the civilized world human slavery—the owning of man by man. Today another Russian Emperor, Nicholas 11., and another American President, Roosevelt, have jointly pronounced the coming banishment of earth’s most revolting spectacle human war, the killing of man by man. The former suggested and formed, the latter recognized and breathed the breath of life into The Hague tribunal, the permanent High Court of humanity,

for the peaceful settlement of international disputes.” There is more of it, but that is enough to indicate its general character. It is surprising that so successful a man as Mr. Carnegie, one who would naturally be looked to for strong common sense, can write such ineffable nonsense, i Whatever Nicholas I. and Lincoln did, not as individuals but as representatives of the people, we need not discuss. Nicholas 11. and Roosevelt have simply done nothing in the direction of universal peace. Nicholas, the inventor of The Hague tribunal, which is not called upon except when the parties to a contention do not want to

fight, followed his achievement by threatening a war for enormous territorial additon and increased power, and it was not his virtue that kept him out of a sea of blood. The Administration of Theodore Roosevelt winked at the destruction of two republics in South Africa, and rendered ev ”y assistance it dared to the British j despoile’’. 11 maintained a war of conq «t against a weaker nation in the Philippine Islands, a war which Mr. Carnegit himself primI tically declared to be . oth foolish I and monstrous when we began the !< nquest. Mr. Roosevelt suggested the Hiigve tribunal for th" set- | (lenient of ih Venezuelan difficulty to g< himself out of an embarrassing predicament in

which (ireat B itain and Germany had placed him. Everybody knows that the decision of this tribunal will be final only ii it happens to suit Great Britain arid Germany. Otherwise fear of armed interference by the United States will be all that will ward oIT a European assault on the integrity of the i South American Republics. I’os-

sibly it would be best to wait and see what The Hague tribunal will do before we go to rejoicing. Anyhow, Nicholas and Roosevelt are still a long way from being entitled to sainthood. There are said to be a horde of applicants for the position of poor farm superintendent, including, as a matter of course, Philip Blue. What’s the matter with Abe taking the place himself? Senator Park’s bill requiring county treasurers to bank the public funds in the name of the county in the bank offering the highest rate of interest and to turn said intetest into the treasury, was killed in the senate Wednesday. County treasurers all over the state were frantic and plied their law-makers with personal letters against its passage, and it was promptly squelched. Just how much of a “graft” there

is in the loaning of the public funds to the banks is evidenced by the amount just turned over by the democratic treasurer of Marshall county for one year’s interest. Although not legally bound to do so, he said the interest belonged to the county, and he has just turned in $1,196.07 for the year ending Dec. 31. Marshall is a small county, too. Under a former superintendency of the poor farm, one of the female inmates, at different times, gave birth to three or four children; under Supt. Clark no paupers have been born there. This feature of his administration will be looked upon favorably by most people, while the defenders of former administrations will hold it up against him.