The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1897-07-26
THE GOVERNOR AND THE BILLS.
From the PHILADELPHIA Times.

From the Philadelphia Times.
Governor Hastings has been bitterly
assailed by senators and representatives
because he has demanded itemized state
ments from the members and officers of
the numerous investigating committees
In connection with the appropriations
made to defray their alleged expendi-
lures. These irate legislators should read
the first paragraph of section Is of ar
ticle of the state constitution, which
says: Every bill which shall have passed
both houses shall be presented to the
governor. If he shall approve he shall
sign it, but If he shall not approve he
shall return it, with his objections to
the house in which 1t shall have originat-
ed" etc, and ask themselves how the
governor is to know whether to approve
or disapprove an appropriation for al
legged expenditures pumped at him in
lump sum without an itemized statement
of expenditures of any kind. The sue
ceeding section of the constitution con-
fers upon the governor the power and
imposes the duty of disapproving any
item of an appropriation bill which be
thinks unwarranted, and 1t looks very
much as though lump sum appropriation
bills for the expenses of investigating
committees were passed purposely to pre-
vent the governor from applying the
pruning knife to eXtravagant and un-
warranted items. In calling for the items
he is only requiring the members of the
legislature to furnish him the means to
perform his sworn duty.
Recent legislatures have displayed a
fondness for starting Investigations into
about every subject under the sun, and
the extravagant expense bills which have
resulted from many of these investi-
cations lead to the conclusion that they
were Investigations for the benefit of the
.l.nG,
have afforded junkets and profitable en-
ployment for the members and officials
of the several committees, and have re-
suited In little or no good to the public
service. The last legislature outdid all
others in this respect. Its appropriations
for the expenses of useless investigation
committees were piled mountain high,
and the governor was compelled by this
wanton profiigacy to call halt. If the
course of the governor in calling for the
| items of the appropriations for the ex-
| penses of investigating committees Is an
unusual one it is because the profligacy
| of the legislature and the investigating
committees of its creation have imposed
| upon him an unusual duty. He has been
compelled to stand between the taxpayers
and a horde of legislative raiders, and in
order to approve legitimate expenditures
and disapprove steals he has been given
no option but to call for the information
which it was the bounden duty of the
| legislature to have furnished him in the
| bills sent him for approval.
Governor Hastings deserves the unqual-
| ified commentator of every honest citi-
| zen for his manly determination to per-
| form his constitutional duty in sitting
| out the steals and jobs in the appropria-
| tion bills, and the legislature deserves
| unqualified condemnation for its pro-
| fiigacy in authorizing useless, profitless
and extravagantly expensive investiga-
tions. Only in sustaining an honest ex-
ecutive in rigid application of the prun-
| ing knife to these profligate expenditures
does there lie any hope of putting an
| end to these steadily increasing legisla-
tive raids upon the state treasury.