The San Francisco call., 1897-07-11
THE BLUNDER OF BUDD.

1t is becoming apparent that the action
OF the Governor in vetoing the appropria-
tion for the State Printing Office has in
volved the ate i'll many difficulties,
which will require no little ingenuity to
evade or overcome. The action OF the
Governor was in fact q blunder of great
magnitude, and the full extent of it has
hardly been realized by the people.
We have called attention TO the tangle
in which the schoolte eachers are involved
by reason OF the facs that the State Print
ing Office cannot furnish them with regis
ters which under the law they are re-
quired to keep, and that is but one of the
many complications resulting from the
blunder of the Governor in depriving the
State Printer of the means for performing
the work which the law requires of his
office.
In addition to the registers needed for
the schools large number of blanks are
required by the various departments of
the State Government. These the State
Printing Office will not be BILE to furnish,
nor will 1t be able to publish for the de-
partments the reports which each is re-
quired to make and to keep on file The
lack of means for providing these blanks
and printing these reports entails an in
jury which will not be made fully evident
until about the time of the meeting of the
next Legislature, but it will be then felt,
seen and recognized by the public gen.
orally.
AS the time approaches for the holding
of the next general election there will
have 10 be printed the Governors election
,fox NF ha
proposed constitutional amendments, TO
te sent to the various counties, and to
newspapers. These and other DE- cuments
connecte with the election are required
to be published by the State Printing
Office, in order that it may be responsible
for the accuracy of the publication. Since
by the action of the Governor the State
Printer will not have the means for per-
forming these duties, there will be a Sc
rious difficulty to confront in arranging
for the election.
To make the matter worse. the people of
the State will gain absolutely nothing by
the Governors action. His blunder was
thorough folly from beginning to end.
When he interposed to prevent the State
Printing Office from receiving the appro-
priations needed for it's work he neglected
to prevent the collection OF the taxes
which the Legislature provided for rails
ing the money. The tax levy remains in
force, and the money will be collected
from the people, but it will lie idle in the
treasury and be of no service. Thus the
people will have to pay just as much as
they would have done were the printing
office in full operation. but without recsiv-
ing any benefits from the office.
The whole thing has been an act OF folly
of the worst kind on the part of the chief
executive of the State. H has benefited
the people in nothing and has seriously
iuterfered with the conduct of public busi-
ness. 1t behooves him and his advisers 10
take counsel together and devise some
means of putting an end to the tangle.
The work of the State Printing Office IS
too important to permit the Office 10 be
closed. and as this fact becomes more evil
dent the demand of the people upon the
Governor TO provide a remedy for his
blunder will become i'm perative.