Keowee Courier

Pay of Members.
Certain provisions of the resolutions adopted by the County Convention, looking to a reduction of the pay of members of the Legislature, seem not to have met with full approbation. We have no hesitation in saying that the convention, representing the people, did not go beyond the scope of its power in adopting the resolutions, and that, in our opinion, the spirit of the resolutions is entirely proper. The people desire to see a system of economy adopted in every branch of the government, and they consider the reduction of the pay of members the first step in this direction. Similar action to that taken in this county has been adopted in other counties, and we believe a large majority of the people of the State approve fully of the spirit of our resolutions.
Is three dollars per day and mileage sufficient pay to secure the services of good men in the Legislature? With short sessions we believe it is, while with very long sessions five dollars is hardly sufficient pay. We know some contend that the shorter the session the higher should be the per diem, basing their opinion more upon an estimate of what a session of the Legislature should cost than upon the relative value of a short and long absence from home and business by a member.
A man can better afford to serve in the Legislature thirty days in December, at three dollars per day, than he can serve four or five months at five dollars per day. The short session does not interfere seriously with his business, whether he be a farmer or lawyer, while the latter virtually destroys his business and makes him depend chiefly on his legislative pay for a living. We have known the sessions of the Legislature to cover our fall and spring courts, the only terms at which any business was transacted. A lawyer was thus deprived of all new business, and though he might run home to attend court, yet he was ill-prepared to manage any business placed in his hands. The same held good of the farmer, who was thus away from home both at planting and gathering time, and at the season when he should hire hands and prepare for another crop. An absence of twenty-five or thirty days in December cannot work serious injury to any profession or avocation. We therefore think with short sessions we can get our best men to serve us at three dollars per day, and the low pay will also tend to shorten the sessions.
Again. The country is very poor. Produce is low and money scarce, so that taxes bear heavily on the people. The very scarcity of money renders the expense of members less and enables them in a purely pecuniary point of view to serve at three dollars per day. No one will deny but three dollars will now go farther than six dollars would four years ago, or even than six dollars on the average would for the past ten years. Three dollars now is therefore about the same as six dollars in the past.
Again. In such a Legislature as we hope and expect to elect this fall, it is both an honor and a pleasure to serve. We expect the next Legislature to represent in a great degree the intelligence and integrity of the State, and a service of thirty days in such a body cannot fail to benefit every member socially and intellectually. Three dollars will pay all necessary and even all luxurious expenses of a reasonable character, and the loss of time in December cannot work an injury to men of any profession or avocation. We therefore think the resolutions, requiring every man to advocate and vote for three dollars per day as compensation to members, are just and proper.
While this is true, we doubt the propriety of that resolution which requires the members to pay into the County Treasury any surplus over three dollars per day, they may receive, in case the law is not changed. We say this for the following reasons:
First: The pledge required of our members to advocate and support suitable legislation reducing the pay to three dollars per day is an ample guarantee that any member will work for this reduction.
Second: Because the further pledge required of them to refund to the County Treasury the surplus, if any, tends to weaken their influence and advocacy for the desired legislation.
Third. Because, as a citizen we are willing to submit to all legislation adopted by a majority of the members, though it differs with our views, and if the Legislature should determine that four or five dollars per day is proper compensation, we think our members, having voted for our views and been defeated, should stand on the same footing with those from other counties.
And lastly. Because, as members of the Legislature are paid from the State Treasury, the paying by each of two dollars for each day of the session into the County Treasury will enable the county to receive back from the State, through our members, more than it actually pays for legislative expenses, giving the county a profit on the services of its members. If a majority of the Legislature stand by the law as it is, we think our people should do the same.
We have thought very little on the matter and give only our individual views, hurriedly thrown together. We believe the spirit of the resolutions are right, that three dollars per day will secure the services of our best men; that that amount is a fair compensation, and that the reduction will tend to shorten the session, and we only doubt the policy of the refunding resolution as likely to lessen the influence of our members and defeat the end proposed.
While this is our view, we do not regard the matter of sufficient importance to prompt a re-assembling of the County Convention. The great aim of the resolutions is to secure an earnest and persistent effort on the part of our members to economize legislative expenses. They will certainly accomplish this, and we believe from our exchanges that the next Legislature will fix the pay at three dollars per day, so that the doubtful resolution will have no operation.
We trust the people will stand together by the action of the convention as in the main right and less likely to create confusion than the calling of another convention. In this, however, the people are supreme, and we will respect their wishes when made known.