Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 20, Number 55, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 14 March 1899 — Fees and Salaries. [ARTICLE]

Fees and Salaries.

Governor Mount has appointed the following men to serve on the State commission created by act of the recent Legislature to revise the fees and salaries of State, county and township officers, and report it to the next General Assembly: Timothy E. Howard, of South Bend, ex-judge of the Supreme Court. Americus C. Daily, of Lebanon, ex-Auditor of State. - William A. Wilkins, Indianapolis, a newspaper man. Under the law, the commission is to rnake a careful investigation as to the amount and character of public business in every county in the State; is to hear the testimony of persons who may have information to submit, and, after having made its investigations, is to readjust salaries on the basis of the information obtained and the showing of the census of next year. The commission is to maintain an office in the Capitol. William A. Wilkins will be the secretary of the commission. He was clerk of the joint copmittee that fixed the present salaries of State and county officers.

The Republican ventures to make the prediction that when this ' committee files its report, that it will recommend as large a proportionate increase in salaries in Jasper county, as in any county in the state. The present fees and salaries were adjusted partly by -the population and partly by guesswork, and does not take into consideration the fact that the large territorial extent of Jasper county makes more work for our county officers, and still more do the. many ditches finished or in progress. Also the much buying and selling of land, natural, to this comparatively new county, keeps the recorder on the jump, and also adds considerably to the work of nearly all the offices. Thus our county officers are about the worst paid in the state, in proportion to the work they do.