best possible basis of efficiency to protect the interests of the policyholders, and I sought to do it.

Now, that is an illustration of the situation where places are created which are removed from any direct accounting. No removability except by the Senate means incompetent and inefficient administration, and in the long run political administration. I do not care who is Governor, in the long run the one safeguard of the American people is responsible government with power adequate to meet the responsibility and accountability to the people for the exercise of that power.

Now we want in these measures, as in other measures, to be just; but we want to be effective. We cannot have any power that is not susceptible of abuse. There is not a single State officer who has power enough to do his duty but could be guilty of a serious abuse if he neglected his duty.

In your Mayor and in your Governor, and in others entrusted with administrative powers, you must repose confidence. And if these

men really stand, not in some secluded nook, protected by some statute passed without due regard to the public interest, but directly before the bar of public opinion, in the long run

the people will get their due.

And my policy in this measure, as in every other measure, is simply to see to the best of my ability during my short term that the people get what they are entitled to receive.

VI.

Veto of the Two-Cent Fare Bill.

STATE OF NEw York-EXECUTIVE CHAMBER.

To the Assembly:

ALBANY, June II, 1907.

I return herewith, without my approval, Assembly Bill No. 2269, entitled, "An Act to amend the railroad law, in relation to rates of fare."

This bill, with specified exceptions, provides for a maximum passenger fare of two cents per mile upon the railroads in this State. Steam railroads less than 150 miles in length, which are not within the counties of New York and Kings (or within the limits of an incorporated city), are permitted a higher maximum charge of three, four, and five cents a mile according to length of line, unless through consolidation, lease, or control they form part of a system whose combined lines exceed 150 miles, in which case the provision for a maximum rate of two cents a mile is applicable.

The passage of the bill was not preceded by legislative investigation or suitable inquiry under the authority of the State. Nor is the fixing of this rate predicated on reports or statistics officially collated which would permit a fair conclusion as to the justice of its operation with reference to the railroads within its purview. It plainly reflects dissatisfaction with existing conditions and an effort to provide a remedy through arbitrary action. It seems largely to have been the result of annoying requirements and discriminations in connection with the sale of mileage books on certain roads.

The bill represents a policy seriously mistaken and pregnant with disaster. It is of the utmost importance that the management of our railroad corporations should be subject to strict supervision by the State and that regulations compelling the observance of the law and proper and adequate service should be rigidly enforced. It is the duty of these corporations to provide transportation of passengers and goods at reasonable rates, and the State should compel the performance of this obligation.

But injustice on the part of railroad corporations toward the public does not justify

injustice on the part of the State toward the railroad corporations. The action of government should be fair and impartial, and upon this every citizen, whatever his interest, is entitled to insist. We shall make matters not better but worse if to cure one wrong we establish another. The fact that those in control of railroad corporations have been guilty of grossly improper financiering and of illegal and injurious discriminations in charges points clearly to the necessity of effective State action, but does not require or warrant arbitrary reprisals. In dealing with these questions democracy must demonstrate its capacity to act upon deliberation and to deal justly.

It is of the greatest importance not only that railroad corporations should be compelled to respect their public obligations, but also that they should be permitted to operate under conditions which will give a fair return for their service. Upon this depend not simply the security of investors, but the security of their employees and the protection of every form of industry and commerce through the maintenance and extension of necessary transportation facilities. Nothing could be more opposed to the interests of the community as a whole than to cripple transportation corpora