The Valley Virginian. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1865-1895, 1876-12-21
SPECIAL MESSAGE OF THE GOVERNOR
COMMONWEALTH OF VIRGINIA, !
GOVERNORS OFFIcE,
RJCJIuONp naao,,,ha. n 1o~f \

orEClAL MESSAGE OF THE GOVERNOt
/ COMMONWEALTH OF VIRGINIA,
GOVERNORS OFFICE.
RICHMOND, Decembee, Is, 1916
70 %t ne HoDorabIe House of Deleootes
m ne ne resolution agreed to by your hdnorable body
what ls1h INST calls on the Executive to state by
| ica1 1e le!hods arrangements and rlles tie cler
acat service of the Government may Be retrench
sape me extent indicated in his late annual
talned at the Capitol can proneriv b. ,hnJished
of nlace pc to this inquiry it m not be Out
ofca;s nd ~ that am to the State
kind stila thelr employees for fabsial and very
n rlnM CONSIDERATION and courtesy. and would
5;auiy avold every conclusion calculated to preju
o1ities OF any one OF them Nevertheless the res
| Oansn imposes duty which overrides every
pncs eonslderation land even Tits perform.
anv tSuouid tend as it ought not, to en,barrass
any OF tne relations between assocata ofciais Of
70 tue exscuIiye department. would snll be bound
fecting mvI W Tisnontresard to Consequences af
I e Ihe improved methods Of dispatshinp routine
| oilce WORK, to which have called Your attention
Is being observed elsewhere relates 70 the num
per OF hours daily devoted to its performance and
u eme manner IN which such work is distributed
| 1uperviSed anu guarded against interruntion
Under those methods all the clerks of a denart.
nens' are located under the immediate eve OF lis
| umiei, an1 arc protected both by ruIes and Inv
proper o1l1cc structures and arrangemnnfs aaoipot
| lnruslon- No persons are admitted evcant those
tainue to t ~ eramsace business legtmateIy per-
Ine performance OF irregular or occasonei .ron,
1ohey, put ne business Is so distributed that the
inp Of, 20 h al are continuous and incessant dur
M In the most important of the basement offices
am e numerous clerks will be found disperse d
/ HnloNs successive receSSeS and acoves and To
some extent In separate rooms, so that the neceS
wh,e singae control or supervision is Impossible
iie ~ no one OF the offices at The CapifoJ are ali
sne rules and arrangements here re ferrod 70 ot o.
| tempted to be enforced = - -SAeffeu " at
sed 20 me question whether the time now ailot-
~ Tue PUBIC uutieS can be Increased it ia
enougn TO say that trained and skilled clerks and
mant e;npaoyees Seek far more laborious employ
oussalness,which occupy, them daily. almost or
ami.e oouDle the number OF hours now given to
| oinee work at the Capitol Ia ~ So ="
| "a hHowleuge OF the present system and ito on
o a VIII ~ AXE it manifest thaf the emplov
interrn MT noyeFnment were protected against
| 49, rup1lon intrusion and needless waste of
"a t ana u Ue hours of Office work were increas
or ~ like the number usually
sae Clerical force at the Capitol won1s eas; an
nesa twice the present amount Of ofiise 6ts
Ny RESPONSE to the second branch 81 4bo.ros,,,
m oH ~. mat the separate saarief offices now
onina ned at the Capitol which in nv confident
I p,s OF Adjutant General, Superintendent Of
ao Printing, Register of the Land ONCE. and
r.. ne future duties OF the Adiutant General are
T os. enose OF the last six years then there is
rate 9 no necessity Tor its continuance as sepa-
| orl .i otuCe, anu It's present temporary footing
Ds oig to be made permanent. Even prior to the
rs,e war, When the great mass of the able bodied
l u,
nliltla. the salary OF this office was for many
years one hundred dollars annually The larger
TO have been as a tribute to the late venershIa IN
cumDent. But If it be concluded to enlarge the
efieencY i to organzation and to increase its
co4 necessary to maintain the office on its re-
The office of Superintendent of Public Printing
- one o. recent Invention, not suggested by the
OF the past and it but serves to in
Ss1ase Inns Dranch OF expenditure to the extent Of
SdldFleS OI Lne SuperlQtenNant olo
out any corresponding advantage The duties OF
me once are ANYTHING but continuous Or oner-
GUS, anu II devolved upon any other officer would
constitute no considerable addition to his present
oatles: An account of all the expenditures of The
Accounts, and all its work could be performed
economically and efficiently by that officer. There
ties OF superintendent OF Printing which NAV not
De learned ID a few hours by an Intelligent per-
son, bpt II 1t be preferred that the duties OF let
| Ling OUT tne public printing by contract and of
measuring the work OF the contractors should be
performed by one who is an expert in the art of
cd practical printers OF the best intelligence and
| character can be found who are in nowse interes-
ted in the public printing. ana who would attend
to the business of the office for mall fraction of
salary now appropriated for its support. It
would not be fair to compare Ike cost Of the pub.
cedlng the war when there were extensive sub.
!ects OF legislation which are prohibited or
more volumnious than at this time and when no.
!itical parties which happened successfully to be
L a
reward for party service.
The duties of the Register of the Land Office are
me laSI ieeple SANDS OF a business almost exhaus-
ted. In State settled two hundred and and sew
! enty years ago, with large proportion of its
mountainous territory recently severed from it,
the ungranted and vacant lands are of little value
;, and but rarely found. There is scarcely clerk IN
the basement OF the Capitol who could not dis
charge all the duties of this office in addition TO
his present duties, without doing as much or as
prolonged dayas is usually required Of employ
the clerks in the Treasurers office ia contingent
upon me uncertain and irregular calls OF persons
transacting current business with it. and is ne
cessarliy attended with unoccupied intervals of
time. The duties OF the Register could be safely
devolved upon that office without the Slightest oc-
caslon Tor an increase of its clerical force The
principal business OF the land office is such as re-
qulres my concurrent action, and with a fair com
could, without any serious Inconvenience perso
nally perform the whole OF them. In respect to
other duties Of the office, it will appear, by refer
ence to the existing provisions Of law, that the
Executive is really superintendent of public buil-
dngs and grounds, and it is obvious that. with
the aid OF the engineer at the Capitol and the SEN
ior member OF the State police he cannot only
look after and preserve the public property with
out the lnterposition OF the intermediate or nom
inal office OF Superintendent of Public Buildings
but can do SO as well without it as with it,
Every controlling reason which created and
preserved the office OF Second Auditor before the
war has ceased to exist. Then great system OF
internal improvements, often inyolvinn sxnand Il.
lures of several millions of dollars in sino1a vaar
as well as the keeping OF complicated current &C.
counts IN connection with the debt. necessitated
responsible and laborious. Bnt what was former
ly the main business OF the office has been extin-
guished by the Constitution. The Govern me nt
| can no longer construct public works or contract
new debts The present business CT the Second
Auditors office is mostly made up of the frag-
ments OF an obsolete system and of such other H.
congruous matters as properly belong to other
offices In any event the accounts connected with
the literary and free school funds and the Miller
Manual Labor School ought to be kept in the Of
flee of the Superintendent of Public Instruction.
subject to such audit at the office ofthe Auditor
of Public Accounts as all expenditures Of the
Government should undergo at that office and moi
elsewhere. tits not likely that the funding of the
debt will involve any considerable labor in future
and the accounts pertaining to the public debt can
be carried on efficiently nder the direction OF the
Treasurer. '-o
In this connection, respectfully suggest that If
the business OF the basement offices shall be reor-
ganiZed, no legislation looking to that object
should run counter to the very admirable sysfem
Of checks and balances which now anny 70 ra
whichproperly operate upon and between The Of
fees Of the Auditor of Public Accounts and the
ment it will not be dific1t to give due effect 10
the principle which requires that the officer who
audlts an account a and issues warrant for it,
payment shall never be the same officer who navs
the warrant Or .dsburses the fund. ~
It is always the case that formidable influence,
and com binations resist such reforms as have
here proposed. An Office ever struggles for ex
istence long after its usefulness and its duties
numerary offices will be found to have strnch their
roots deep into the body polite from which they
draw the nourishment they live upon. In the Ell
those who support the Government on the one
hand and those who live upon it on the other.
The latter class is prone at such time to be allied
in opposition to the increase OF their labors. to
the cutting down Of their salaries, and still more
to the destruction OF any of their places. As is
| entirely natural. and perhaps excusable in such
case, they condemn any change as mischieyons
and rash innovation; with the wisdom Of experts
sail it with that ridcule which is the most form
| liable weapon in the whole armory OF dialectics
| Nevertheless, the need for greater reforms than
Inow propose is shown by a comparison of the
| cost OF supporting the Government at this time
and that of the period Of ten years preceding the
wal, Leaving out the calculation all payments to-
| wards the debt and free schools, the remainine
ordinary expenses OF the Government, now When
| we have been stripped of a third OF our popula-
| ton and territory and more than half our wealth
are 81 per cent greater than they We're before the
| in the plentitude Of its wealth and power
| The reforms now recommended will come SOON
err OF later believe it best for all that they shall
| come quickly. JAMES L. KEMpER.
W.. Temperance Prayer Meeting.
/ The prayer meeting of MiZpah Lodge T. o. n ~