XII

MISCELLANEOUS

Statement by the Governor on the Ratification by the Legislature of the Federal Constitutional Amendment Providing for Prohibition

STATE OF NEW YORK EXECUTIVE CHAMBER

Albany, January 30, 1919.

The Republican majority in the Legislature, by the aid of a party caucus, have succeeded in ratifying, by strict party vote, the pending amendment to the Federal Constitution providing for prohibition.

In my first annual message to the Legislature I recommended that action be taken only after the people of the State had an opportunity to give expression to their will in the matter. Not only have our people been refused that opportunity, but the Legislature has seen fit to record them without ascertaining their wishes.

As the Governor of the State I can only take my place in the great army of our citizens who have faith in the fundamental democratic principle that the majority should rule, and I deplore the fact that we have been denied a right so fair that it does not admit of argument except from those who are unwilling to listen.

I wish to make it plain that under our Federal Constitution power is withheld from the Governor to take any action with regard to this pending amendment. The power of ratification of amendments to the Federal Constitution, by Article V of that document, is vested solely with the Legislature, and the Governor has no power of veto. The Republican majority in the Legislature has denied the people the right to speak for themselves and has, without ascertaining their opinion, declared finally and conclusively for all the people of the State.

Statement on the Emergency Appropriation Bill

STATE OF NEW YORK EXECUTIVE CHAMBER

February 26, 1919.

Governor Smith to-day signed the emergency appropriation bill introduced in the Legislature by Senator Henry M. Sage, chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, and Assemblyman William Machold, chairman of the Assembly Ways and Means Committee.

The bill appropriates a total of $1,534,521.85 which covers deficiencies in appropriations for the support of the penal, curative, and charitable institutions of the State and are chargeable to the budget of the previous State administration.

The bill appropriates a total of $1,223,449.90 for the State hospitals for the insane. This total includes appropriations for food, $417,945.68; fuel, $245,841.22; equipment, $210,100; supplies, $127,150; materials, $173,500; materials for repairs, $14,300; communication, $7,690.19; personal service, $6,292; traveling expenses, $2,694.78.

The bill provides for the charitable institutions of the State a total appropriation of $171,388.34. This sum includes appropriations for food, $40,500; fuel, $27,237.42; equipment, $23,300; supplies, $45,250; materials, $13,650; materials for repairs, $11,700.

The bill provides for the penal institutions of the State a total appropriation of $131,683.61. This appropriation includes items for food, $36,126.14; for fuel, $44,195.92; for equipment, $11,170.72; supplies, $28,288.26; materials, $5,850; traveling expenses, $2,936.77.

The bill provides an appropriation for the New York State College of Agriculture at Cornell, for personal service, $3,000; for printing, $1,000; for traveling expenses, $4,000; a total appropriation of $8,000 being necessary to carry on the extension work partially provided for by the Legislature of 1918.

Statement on Bill Making Appropriation for Maintenance and Repair of Highways

STATE OF NEW YORK

EXECUTIVE CHAMBER

Albany, March 6, 1919.

Governor Smith to-day approved Assembly Bill, Int. No. 548, Printed No. 587, introduced by Mr. Machold, making appropriations for the maintenance and repair of improved State and county highways. The total amount appropriated by this bill is $5,500,000. This sum is an increase over the legislative appropriation of 1918 for work of a similar nature of $1,712,617, and is largely accounted for by the appropriations for Schedule C, which provides for resurfacing of roads, and by Schedule E, which provides for the reconstruction of roads. The amount carried in this bill for this class of work is as follows:

The Department of Highways prepared and submitted to the Legislature of 1918 a request for the maintenance and repair of improved State and county highways. The total of the departmental request was $5,400,000. The legislative committees considering the request of the department, on account of war conditions and the possibility of obtaining labor and materials, decided that it would be impossible to make the repairs provided for under Schedule C and Schedule E. They, therefore, eliminated from what became Chapter 70 of the Laws of 1918, all items requested under these schedules, and to provide sufficient funds to make the imperative repairs to the roads, they increased the other schedules for labor and materials, to what they considered minimum amounts. apparent increase in this bill over similar appropriations of last year is merely for the insertion of the amounts to make the necessary repairs, and to resurface or reconstruct the 7,100 miles of road now being maintained.

This bill providing for the resurfacing and reconstruction of the roads will enable the Department of Highways to make necessary repairs to the roads neglected last year due to lack of appropriations, and will also provide employment for skilled and unskilled labor, thus partially aiding in the solution of the labor problem.

Statement by the Governor on the Closing of the Legislature, April 19, 1919

STATE OF NEW YORK-EXECUTIVE CHAMBER

The legislative session of 1919 has become part of our history, and it does not contribute a bright page.

Up to and including the day of adjournment, only one constructive measure of state-wide importance was sent to me for consideration. The Senate was fairly responsive to enlightened public opinion, but the Republican majority in the Assembly gave itself solely to the care of property and property rights.

Steeped in bourbonism, they dedicated themselves to the principle that constitutional and statute law in a democracy is intended. only for the preservation of property and privilege. By their refusal to even debate humanitarian measures tending to safeguard the lives, the health and the welfare of men, women and children, they enunciated the policy that our great human resources must take care of themselves as best they can, and are not entitled to the protection of the State. They flung to the four winds, the salutary lessons taught us by the sacrifice of our men and our wealth in the great world war for the preservation of democratic ideals, and rendered a service to the forces of reaction they had no reason to expect.

At the end of the thirty-day bill period, I will make a summary of all the bills so that the public may have all the facts. For the time

being it is sufficient for me to repeat the remark made by a Republican Senator in the course of debate on the floor of the Senate, "You are trying to put the Governor in a hole, but at the same time you are putting the people of the State in a hole."

Appropriation Bills Approved and Estimate of Revenues for Fiscal Year Ending July 1, 1919

Statement by the Governor

STATE OF NEW YORK-EXECUTIVE CHAMBER

To the People of the State of New York:

Albany, June 4, 1919.

At the end of the thirty-day bill period I promised to make a detailed statement to the people of this State of all appropriation bills signed by me, and what the money is to be used for. I will endeavor to write it in such a way as to have it thoroughly understood by the plain man on the street.

My experience has taught me that financial statements are issued in such form that it requires accountants or bookkeepers of no mean ability to be able to properly comprehend them.

The Legislature presented to me appropriation bills amounting to $100,273,899.04. I vetoed bills to the amount of $4,705,595.86 and I approved bills to the total of $95,538,303.18, as compared with appropriations of last year totalling $81,525,270.31, an increase of $14,013,032.87.

This, upon its face, looks like an enormous increase in the cost of government. The fact is that $6,266,532.65 charged against the appropriations of this year, should have been made last year. In other words, when the Legislature of 1918 was making provision for the cost of government for the fiscal year beginning July 1, 1918, its appropriations were short $6,266,532.65; in other words, 1918 appropriations should have totaled $87,791,802.96.

In 1918, the total appropriations for the fixed charges of the government were $55,048,836.45; in 1919, the fixed charges are $54,827,198.47, a decrease in the actual fixed overhead charges of the government of $221,637.98. "Fixed charges" are items that occur year after year, such as the salary of the Governor, the salaries of the State officers, the judges, the members of the Legislature, all of the State employees, and such other expenses as occur annually and must, therefore, be regarded as fixed expenses of running the government.

Inasmuch as I believe that this document will receive widespread publicity, particularly among State officials, I will take this opportunity to call the attention of the departments of the government to the abuses that grow out of exceeding appropriations. Not only are the people deceived as to the actual cost of government by defi