Page:The Wisconsin idea (IA cu31924032449252).pdf/130

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106
THE WISCONSIN IDEA

"(5) For state senator, four hundred dollars.

"(6) For member of assembly, one hundred fifty dollars.

"(7) For presidential elector at large, five hundred dollars, and for presidential elector for any congressional district, one hundred dollars.

"(8) For any county, city, village, or town officer, for any judge or for any officer not hereinbefore mentioned, who, if nominated and elected, would receive a salary, a sum not exceeding one-third of the salary to which such person would, if elected, be entitled during the first year of his incumbency of such office. If such person, when nominated and elected, would not receive a salary, a sum not exceeding one-third of the compensation which his predecessor received during the first year of such predecessor's incumbency. If such officer, when nominated and elected, would not receive a salary and if such officer had no predecessor, and in all cases not specifically provided for, twenty-five dollars and no more."

The most daring and experimental feature of the whole law, which has found no place elsewhere, is the procedure for prosecutions of offenders. This is again based upon a concept already familiar to readers of this book. It strives to give the man who has no money a chance to stand in the court against a wealthy and corrupt man. In arriving at this procedure every kind of device was used to constitute some tribunal outside the courts to care for these cases. The attempts made by other states to establish a special tribunal for such cases have either been declared unconstitutional or would clearly be so under the Wisconsin constitution.