On the subject of the cost of administration it will be instructive to
compare the annual salaries allowed to the highest public servants in
India, the United States and Japan.
The President of the United States, who ranks with the great royalties
of the world in position, gets a salary of $75,000, without any other
allowance. The Prime Minister of Japan gets 12,000 yen, or $6000. The
Viceroy and the Governor General of India gets 250,000 rupees, or
$83,000, besides a very large amount in the shape of various allowances.
The Cabinet Ministers of the United States get a salary of $12,000 each,
the Japanese 8000 yen or $4000, and the Members of the Viceroy's
Council, $26,700 each.
In the whole Federal Government of the United States there are only
three offices which carry a salary of more than $8000. They are:
The President of the General Navy Board $13,500
Solicitor General $10,000
Assistant Solicitor General $9,000
All the other salaries range from $2100 to $8000. In the State
Department all offices, including those of the secretaries, carry
salaries of from $2100 to $5000. In the Treasury Department the
Treasurer gets $8000, three other officers having $6000 each. All the
remaining officials get from $2500 to $5000. In the War Department there
are only two offices which have a salary of $8000 attached: that of
Chief of Staff and that of Quartermaster General. The rest get from
$2000 to $6000. In the Navy Department, besides the President of the
General Board mentioned above, the President of the Naval Examination
Board gets $8000 and so does the Commandant of the Marine Corps. All the
rest get from $6000 downwards. In the Department of Agriculture there is
only one office carrying a salary of $6000. All the rest get from $5000
downwards. The Chief of the Weather Bureau, an expert, gets $6000. In
the Commerce Department four experts get $6000 each, the rest from $5000
downwards.
In Japan the officials of the Imperial Household have salaries ranging
from $2750 to $4000. Officials of the Higher Civil Service get from
$1850 to $2100 a year; the Vice-Minister of State, $2500; Chief of the
Legislative Bureau, $2500; the Chief Secretary of the Cabinet, $2500;
and the Inspector General of the Metropolitan Police, $2500; President
of the Administrative Litigation Court, $3000; President of the Railway
Board, $3750; President of the Privy Council, $3000; Vice-President of
the Privy Council, $2750, and so on.
When we come to India we find that the President of the Railway Board
gets from $20,000 to $24,000 and that two other members of the Railway
Board get $16,000. Secretaries in the Army, Public Works, and
Legislative Departments get $14,000. Secretaries in Finance, Foreign,
Home, Revenue, Agriculture, Commerce and Industry Departments get
$16,000. The Secretary in the Education Department gets $12,000; Joint
Secretary, $10,000; Controller and Auditor-General, $14,000;
Accountant-General, from $9,000 to $11,000; Commissioner of Salt
Revenue, $10,000; Director of Post and Telegraph, from $12,000 to
$14,000.
Among the officers directly under the Government of India there are only
a few who get salaries below $7000. Most of the others get from that sum
up to $12,000.
The United States includes forty-eight States and territories. Some of
them are as large in area, if not even larger, than the several
provinces of India. The Governors of these States are paid from $2500 to
$12,000 a year. Illinois is the only State paying $12,000; five States,
including New York and California, pay $10,000; two, Massachusetts and
Indiana, pay $8000; one pays $7000, and three pay $6000. All the rest
pay $5000 or less. There is only one territory, the Philippines, which
pays a salary of $20,000 to its Governor-General.
In India the Governors of Madras, Bombay and Bengal each receive
$40,000, besides a large amount for allowances. The Lieutenant-Governors
of the Punjab, the United Provinces, Bihar and Burma get $33,000 each,
besides allowances. The Chief Commissioners receive $11,000 in Bihar,
$18,700 in Assam, $20,700 in the Central Provinces, and $12,000 in
Delhi. The Political Residents in the native States receive from $11,000
to $16,000, besides allowances.
In Japan the governors of provinces are paid from $1850 to $2250 per
year, besides allowances varying from $200 to $300.
The Provincial services in India are paid on a more lavish scale than
anywhere else in the world. In Bengal the salaries range from $1600 for
Assistant Magistrate and Collector to $21,333 to Members of the
Council, and this same extravagance is also true of the other provinces.
Coming to the Judiciary, we find that Justices of the Supreme Court of
the United States get a salary of $14,500 each, the Chief Justice
getting $15,000; the Circuit Judges get a salary of $7000 each; the
District Judges, $6000. In the State of New York the Judges of the
Supreme Court, belonging to the General Sessions, get from $17,500 and
those of the Special Sessions from $9000 to $10,000 each. City
Magistrates get from $7000 to $8000. In India the Chief Justice of
Bengal gets $24,000; the Chief Justices of Bombay, Madras and the United
Provinces, $20,000 each. The Chief Judges of the Chief Court of the
Punjab and Burma get $16,000 each and the Puisine Judges of the High
Courts the same amounts.
The Puisine Judges of the Chief Courts receive $14,000. In the Province
of Bengal the salaries of the District and Session Judges range from
$8,000 to $12,000. District Judges of the other provinces get from about
$7000 to $12,000. The Deputy Commissioners in India get a salary in the
different provinces ranging from $6000 to $9000 a year. The
Commissioners get from $10,000 to $12,000.
In Japan the Appeal Court Judges and Procurators get from $900 to $2500
a year. Only one officer, the President of the Court of Causation, gets
as much as $3000. The District Court Judges and Procurators are paid at
the rate of from $375 to $1850. It is needless to compare the salaries
of minor officials in the three countries. Since the Indian taxpayer has
to pay so heavily for the European services engaged in the work of
administration, it is necessary that even Indian officers should be paid
on a comparatively high scale, thus raising the cost of administration
hugely and affecting most injuriously the condition of the men in the
lower grades of the government service. The difference between the
salaries of the officers and the men forming the rank and file of the
government in the three countries shows clearly how the lowest ranks in
India suffer from the fact that the highest governmental officials are
paid at such high rates.
In New York City the Chief Inspector gets $3500 a year; Captains, $2750;
Lieutenants, $2250; Surgeons, $1,750; and Patrolmen, $1,400 each. In
Japan the Inspector General of the Metropolitan Police gets $2500. The
figures of the lower officials are not available. But the minimum salary
of a Constable is $6.50 a month, besides which he gets his equipment,
uniform and boots free. In India the Inspectors General get from $8000
to $12,000, the Deputy Inspectors General from $6000 to $7200, District
Superintendents of Police from $2666 to $4800, Assistants from $1200 to
$2000, Inspectors from $600 to $1000, Sub-inspectors from $200 to $400,
Head Constables from $60 to $80, Constables from $40 to $48.
We have taken these figures from the _Indian Year Book_, published by
the _Times of India_, Bombay. We know as a fact that the
Police-Constables in the Punjab are paid from $2.67 to $3.33 per
month--that is, from $32 to $40 per year. The reader should mark the
difference between the grades of salaries from the highest to the lowest
in India as compared with the United States and Japan. While in India
the lowest officials are frightfully underpaid, the highest grades are
paid on a lavish scale. In the other countries of the world this is not
the case.