WHERE PUBLIG MONEY GOES

Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 279, 14 August 1918, Page 2

WHERE PUBLIG MONEY GOES

A WOMAN SENATOR TO WOMEN. Miss Men Ring Robinson is the first woman senator of the State of Colorado, U.S.A.' Her experience in tho ways of economy governed by male Stale: politicians may . ba gathered, from tho'advice which she gives to women generally, oho says:—"Now that. everybody is talking abant economy, and some are. practising it, woineii citizens should turn their attention to the wilful extravagance of their State Government. They have done most of tho saving i" families; it is high time they urged saving m the btate. They liavo no business to sit staring uij-ll strained eyes at their home spigot while the State bunghole, which is their binighole also, goes splash! splash! splash. "One of my gayest remembrances is ot heaving <i woman legislator tflko lo tusk licr iiuilo collcfitfiiiPS —liiGii from the haystack and the dry goods counter and the law office —for the reckless way m which tliey were appropriating Slate money, If your wives run your homes, J she said; 'tho way you are miming this legislature, if they spent the family money as you aro spending tho State money, every mother's son of you would- land in the Poor Farm.'

"Let the woman citizen do a little sleuthing in the. suil>-basemcnt of her ijtatp Capitol and form sumo estimate of the value of the . publishers' supplies stored away there in old, extravagantly printed and expensively-bound reports orderod without any attention to needs. Thousands of dollars are wasted every year on such reports. Let her find her way into the ante-rooms and committeerooms of her Legislature in se.-sion. Let jier count the tiiiiiiecessary clerks, dandling <i'bout-*-all in the interest of legislative 'patronage.' ' Let her make her way through tlio various executive Departments and watch the idle women clerks polislting their nails while idle men clerks polish office chairs—all in the interest of party 'patronage.' Lot her observe the lack ot correlation in the work of the different State Departments and the unnecessary expense Icsulting from that lack—then let her do some straight thinking. . ''Willi a few exceptions American States are wasting enough each year to establish old-age pensions. They are wasting enough to' build good roads past every farm and leading to every selioolhouse. 'A vigilalico committee of women to stop waste is quite as important as a legislative committee to speed lip righteous laws."