GEORGE WALLACE HAD A PICNIC.

New York, 1895

Feasting at Albany at County Expense.

Lived Better Some Days than Others,

ELSE TREATED HIS FRIENDS.

Now He Wants the Supervisors to Pay Him $25 a Day for the Time He Spent at the Capital.

SOME FUNNY RUMORS.

Not Entitled to Be Paid on Moral or Legal Grounds,

AND WILL NOT BE.

George Wallace has been having an extended picnic at the county's expense. He not only wants the county to pay for the picnic, but to pay him for the time he spent on the picnic at the rate of $25 per day. Mr. Wallace is counsel to the board of Supervisors. He wanted the place so bad that he offered to take it at a salary of $1,500 a year, and the understanding was that he was to do all the law business of the county and the legal work of the board of Supervisors for that salary and not a penny more.

Now Mr. Wallace is found trying to gouge the county out of $25 a day in addition to his salary for lobby services at Albany, and besides the $25 a day he wants the county to pay his expenses at the capital at the rate of about $8 a day. He knew a good thing when he struck it, and he nursed it religiously.

Here is the bill as Mr. Wallace made it, copied from the Brooklyn Times:
Mr. Wallace says the service was rendered "by direction of the board of Supervisors." The record of the board's proceedings does not show any such direction, and if Mr. Wallace were a good lawyer, he would know that, legally, the board can make no such direction. His work at Albany was that of a lobbyist, and the courts have held time and again that such work cannot be made a public charge.

A peculiar thing about the bill is the daily difference in the cost of his entertainment. On two days in February his expenses were $18.31, on two days in March $12.68, on two days in March again $21.13, on three days in April $21.23, and on two days in May $21.18. Why should two days' board in April or May cost $9 more than two days' board in March? Why should two days in May cost the same as three days in April?

The clincher in the bill is this item: "Special services rendered in the above, $275," being at the rate of $25 a day. There were no special services rendered. The work came within his appointment as counsel. He was to do all the work Mr. Van Vechten had done under salary. Mr. Van Vechten never charged a penny for his services at Albany.

If the supervisors had a legal right to grant compensation for lobbying at Albany, this bill could not be audited legally in the form it is made. The law commands that all bills be made in items. This bill is not made in items. When Sheriff Doht presented a bill in this same lump form some time ago, Mr. Wallace advised the board not to audit it, as the form of it did not comply with the statute. What was good advice against Sheriff Doht's bill must be equally good as against Counselor Wallace's bill. If the bill were made in items, the public could see why two days' expenses on March 13 amounted to $12.68, and two days' expenses on March 29 amounted to $21.13 — a difference of nearly $7. There must be some explanation, and possibly the bill is lumped to hide something peculiar.

We understand that Mr. Wallace paid ($50 is the sum named) to [a] man in Albany to keep him supplied with new bills, and that he gave another man $10 and paid his expenses to Albany to introduce him around. May be this is not true; but, if true, are these expenditures included in the bill?

We have no idea that the Supervisors will audit this bill for any greater sum than $94.53, because they know to a man that Mr. Wallace is not entitled to $25 a day for his time, and knowing this, the people can rest assured that the Supervisors will reject the claim for $275 for services if Mr. Wallace does not withdraw it. The bill must receive the approval of the Committee on Law and Legislation before it can come up for audit, and that committee is composed of three men of sterling honesty and sound judgment, Messrs. Denton, Pople and Wood, and they do not let politics influence their action.


(From Tuesday's Brooklyn Times.):

The bill of Mr. Wallace amounts to $369.53, and is now in the hands of committee on legislation of the board of supervisors, the members of which, it is expected, will return the bill without their indorsement, if they do not succeed in inducing Mr. Wallace to withdraw it.

The presentation of the bill has caused a decided sensation among the supervisors and others. When Mr. Wallace accepted the position as counsel to the board at $1,500 per year, it was understood that the sum named was to include all work by counsel. Consequently there was some surprise when the fact became known among the members of the board that Mr. Wallace had presented a bill for disbursements and other expenses connected with his junketing trips to Albany during the session of the legislature, besides demanding pay for his own services at the rate of $25 per day.

In its charges the bill is a study. For instance, on March 13 it only cost the counselor $12.68 for two days at Albany, while on March 29 his expenses for the same length of time was nearly double that amount, or $21.13, and on the occasion of the next trip, April 10, the expenses were only $21.23 for three days.

—The Long Island Farmer, Jamaica, NY, May 31, 1895, p. 1.