The Fight for Transparent Government

In my outline of a constitution for Washington, printed in the issue of yesterday, a typographical error makes me propose a limit of $1,000 for the maximum salary of a superior judge. The limit I proposed is $4,000, which is in harmony with the pay of a representative. I have subscribed a correction to the mention of the above in your paper, as it is very mortifying to me to be made to appear more stupid than I am. The management of state affairs is currently left to three men: the governor, the secretary, and the treasurer. These officers are the board of commissioners for the sale of school and university lands, the board to determine state taxes, and the inspector of the penitentiary. There is no lieutenant governor to succeed in the case of death or resignation; it falls to the secretary of state. It has already happened in the case of Governor Chadwick that three important state offices were for a considerable time held by one man. There is no more important office than auditor, calling for independent and disinterested action. Furthermore, the best opinion in this country favors non-partisan boards of administration for all charitable and penal institutions. Every state society has been more or less preyed upon by its own official control. It is only necessary to recall the shocking revelations of the management of the insane hospital in Cook County, Illinois, to understand the danger to be avoided in the organization of this new state. The only safeguard for these offices is in the establishment of independent, non-partisan boards of administration. The distribution of power will call into the service of the state a number of citizens, and will create a wider interest in them than the system of centralization can ever do.