Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1909-02-26

have to wait until such time as the
executive session is ended.
There is absolutely no storage room
for valuable documents and papers,
From the lack of space to properly store
all this Legislative furniture it results
that the dampness and heat of summer
impairs the furniture to Il large extent
causing large expense for repairs.
There is no tire-proof storage space for
the papers and documents of the various
departments. There should be of course
absolute tireproof storage space for the
papers of every department except those
papers which are being used dur
ing the current year. and they
should have "a fire-proof place in the de-
partment itself with interchangeable
sections so that they can be transfe. =
red at the end Of the year to the Sct:-
eral storage department. There are a
nimDcr of records Of the Grand Army
oil toe Republic. We have bill before
the committee on public buildings and
grounds now pending which calls for
room to store those records. There
are records of the several Posts
throughout the State, they contain
valuable historical matters and then
loss would be a serious loss indeed to
the Grand Array of the Republic OF
this State. They are kept in three or
four boxes in the basement The in
surancc department has Il small lock-
CT, in no sense frcproof, i'll which Ger
tain records are kept The legislative
supplies coming into the office Of thu:
secretary Of state at every session
I,,,, -, +,I. I
stored in boxes, unpacked. and in the
wa. Tie state librarian has to keep
his travelling libraries boxed up in th':
basement; and it is Il serious problem
with the superintendent of buildings
to keep Il passage through that mass
Of material oncn liz case of fire; and
of course ,hty must be easily and
quickly accessible 10 the State libra
rian There is a certain file OF Old
newspapers of the State of Maine run
ring back in many instances to the
initial number. the loss of which
would lie irrcparable. They are stored
in the cupola; if a fire took place there
they would be destroyed and they new
or could be duplicated. Stored in the
same place arg the reports of the vari-
Gus departments running back for
years. Then we have the growing coz
ditirn of the State library. There is
insufficient room now for its books.
There must be a room provided for its
growth for years and years to come.
Now these conditions are constantly
growing worse. The Governor Of the
State has impressed them upon your
attention and urged the necessity Of
action at this time; and are you going
to let the State of Maine wait for four
ycarS-fOr what is what it will mean
before you vote an appropriation SUI
flcient to make the peoples house,
where the peoples business is done and
the peoples records are kept, safe ard
adequate. Is that q good business pol
Icy and are you going to be frighter-
cd from doing your duty by the suC-
SeSt.on that YOU are spending $3Ja,-
u00' This resolve has been advertised
IN the newspapers Il long time but not
one petition has come in against it,
not olc citizen appeared against il;
all the large populouS counties of the
state were represented ana those req
rcSentatives spoke in favor of it, i
gentleman who has travelled all ov,r
this State during the last Year said
that he could state absolutely as Il fact
that it represented the sentiment of tie
people throughout this State that this
thing should be done and that the PEG
nle wanted it done right Appropr:-
ate money enough to do ii and then
put 1T up to the Governor and a CON-
mission selected ~ him or the Gov
ern"r and Courcil as you see TT and
let them decide that question, let thu IN
take plenty of time and do this thing
right and do it now; and this feeling
representa- the unanimous sentim mt
before that committee and that is what
The committee acted upon in drafting
this resolve.
a word as to the non-partlsan COM
mission. AS the gentleman from Port
land tMr. Boyer) has already stated
the reason that this commission was
appointed was at the urgent request
If a prominent Democratic member
of the committee. He was quite ur-
gent about il. He felt that il would
only he fair to the minority party, and
the majority of the committee agreed
with him on that proposition and il
vas reported. So far as I am per-
sonally concerned and as far as the
committee are concerned we are per-
fectiy willing to accept an amendment,
if any gentleman desires it, leaving
it to the Governor and Council. We
will take the responsibility. The gentle
man from Waterville has issued the
challenge; we will take the RESPONSE
bility. we will leave it to the Gov
crnor and Council. we are willing to
accept what the sense of this House
nay be. If they prefer the Governor
and Council to commission, very
we'll In 1889 when this State House
was enlarged before, under that re-
solve of 1889 there was a non-partisan
commission. 1t worked satisfactoriI,:
and in this present resolve we follow
ed substantially the language of the