Los Angeles herald., 1909-09-26

UIUV 5LdIG
In the beginning, it will be well not
to entertain extravagant hopes. The
J current tendencies which are operat-
/ ing to drive all governments forward
in the direction of greater and greater.
expenditures viii continue to be felt
by this state. 1t is possible to accel-
. crate or to check the speed, but not
to stop the movement. 1t is necessary
| to know what can be done as we'll as
how to do it. The subject will have
to be studied on the broadest lines II
any great good is to be accomplished.
) ut will not be out of place to refer
to the experiences of two recent gover-
! nors, both men of ability and force,
2 who went into office determined to
make economy the corner stone of their
| administration. / refer to Governor
Budd and Governor Gage. Governor
Budd pledged himself to reduce the
number of useless commissions, as
he called them, which he believed were
largely responsible for the growing ex-
pense. He tried hard to do what he
had promised, and he succeeded to the
extent of abolishing one commission,
the viticultural commission; but be-
fore he went out of office, several new
commissions had been created, includ-
ing one very important one, the lunacy
commission, under which for the first
time the administration of the state
, hospitals was to a certain extent CEN
traIized. This was a move in the right
direction. Governor Budd also initi-
ated retrenchment in the state print
ing office.
Retrenchment Only Temporary
Governor Gage cut off the county
fair appropriations, which had become
source of large and mostly useless
/. expense, and completed Governor
| s,,4 81, -fo
J printing office by introducing a new
method of making printing appropria-
tions. Both Gage and Budd, by veto
ing many appropriation bills, effected
economy, at least for the time being,
to a considerable extent, though they
could not stop the increase in expendi-
lures, which continued through their
terms, though not so rapidly as before
and since Moreover, it was necessary
afterward to appropriate more liber-
ally for buildings and other improve
ments which were refused by those
governors when, probably, in some in
, stances, they should have been allowed
to pass
"In Governor Pardee's term another
} effort at Capitalization of responsibility,
or, rather the establishment of reSpou-
/ sible supervision, was made by the
!, creation of the state board of char
tiles and corrections. 1t was expected
} that among the effects would be con-
siderable saving in the costs of various
! state institutions, and it might have
accomplished that result If its recon-
mendations and reports of facts had
been given more consideration by
thase charged with the duty of making
appropriations.
, zone of the leading measures of Gov
ernor Gillett's administration has been
the Capitalization of all the engineer
ing, architectural and general construc-
tion work of the state government in
the office of the state engineer, thereby
making it possible to abolish several
other commissions and to introduce
; undoubted economies in some of the
) public undertakings.
: Move Toward Capitalization
"All of these moves have been in the
? direction of centralizing administrative
duties and powers, which is in line with
; what is doing in other progressive
: states, although some of them have
. gone far beyond California. l refer to
the states which. like Wisconsin, Iowa,
Minnesota, Kansas and Washington,
have established state boards Of con-
troll and abolished most or all of the
local boards which were formerly in
charge of hospitals, aSylums, prisons.
reform schools, institutions for deaf
and blind and many others, the theory
being that with a central administra-
tive board composed of three able men.
giving all their time to the work, aided
. by a properly organized office force and
: represented in each institution by an
: able superintendent, 1t would be pos
) sible to secure better general results.
! and certainly greater economy, than
, by having a multitude of different
boards whose work was not co-or-
dinated and which were worked upon
by many local influences.
'It was good deal like putting the
, Des Moines or Galveston plan of city
government into operation in a state
} government. 1t was Capitalization or
!, about the same kind that is accom-
plished in any large corporation.
4 Among the results claimed for it is
economy in the purchase of supplies,
for the board of control is the purchas-
ing agent for the state.
Commissions Expensive
"To illustrate the difference, the state
} of California purchases food and cloth
ing supplies for say, 10000 persons in
hospitals prisons and other institu-
tions, and there are, perhaps. twenty
boards and commissions acting as pur-
chasing agents; therefore there are
twenty other purchasing agents in the
form of directors or superintendents
who buy other classes of supplies for
various schools, offices, etc. 1t is not
at all probable that these forty pur-
chasing agents can buy as economically
as could one central agency which
could Duncn 1IS orders ana Idh6 du-
vantage of the most advantageous
offers.
"But the way in which local boards
tend most strongly toward increasing
expenditures is in competing for ap-
propriations for their several institu-
tions, in the doing of which a deal of
loca! rivalry is worked up and local
political influence enlisted. This in
fuence backs the appropriation bills
in the legislature, and usually legis-
lative economists and sometimes even
governors fall before it. The size of
general and special Appropriation bills
would be something quite different If
most of this could be eliminated
whether California will ever have
a state board of control like that Of
Wisconsin l do not know but further
Capitalization in some form is certain
! to come, and If it is effective when it
comes it will bring with it an influence
in the direction of retrenchment
Wrong Methods Used
"Another thing which is worth
thinking about was suggested by Sec
retary Cortelyou in one of his reports
on the treasury department. He en-
deavored to impress on congress an
idea which may be expressed in the
one word BUDGET He said con-
| gressional appropriations were larger
than they needed to be, because they
were made in the wrong way, not