The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1911-06-05

nineteen stewards. Hereafter instead of the usual competition by nineteen boards for the banner appropriation the general assembly at each session will make an appropriation for all the institutions as single subject on rec omm endations which proceed from con- stant study and experience of them all | by the same persons.
 The advantage of purchasing sup plies for all institutions in bulk and the reduction in employees will save the state s500,000 a year. This law makes 1t possible to utilize the work of prisoners and also creates a mar ket for their manufactured products by compelling all Ohio political divisions | to purchase such supplies as they need | from the penal institutions.
 Employers and employees locked in a struggle over a workingmens com | pensation act, and when it seemed ! there would be no bill passed Governor 1 Harmon stepped in and acted as arbi- | trator.
 1 bill was framed and drafted that has been approved by both employee | and employer.
 The compulsory provisions which
 
 1 tional were not incorporated into the Ohio act. Instead the employer could elect either to pay into the compensa- tion fund or not to pay. If he should not avail himself of the law, however, the employee may sue for damages for injuries, or his legal representative in case of death may maintain the action And in such suits the employer is de- prived of the common law defenses of fellow servant rule, assumed risk and contributory negligence.
 The employee cannot resort to the courts for damages when injured in the factory of corporation which pays into the state compensation fund except when the injury is caused by the disregard of a law, ordinance or order issued by an authorized public officer providing for the protection of em- ployees or by the willful wrong of an employer, his officer or agents.
 The employer contributes 90 per cent of the compensation fund and the en- ployees 10 per cent. Awards range from $S,400 to $1.5O0 and are graded on the scale of wages paid employees. The taxing laws of the state were joke when MT. Harmon was inducted into office. The state needed fairer and more effective rules and methods for taxation of both real and personal property, private and corporate. But the se1fshness of those who had escap- ed paying a just portion of taxation bitterly fought proposed remodeling of this machinery.
 The most iniquitous thing about the old system was that the taxpayers had no means to check extravaganza of their public officers. These men decid- ed on the amount of money they were going to spend in a year and then made a levy to produce that amount Tax payers could do nothing but pay.
 "The authority which demands must be curbed," said the executive in message to the general assembly. That body obeyed and passed the Smith bill, which limited the maximum tax rate that could be levied by public officers in each district to 1 per cent of tax du- plicates. That was sufficient, the gov ernor held, for an economical admins tration. If more money were needed there was incorporated in the Smith bill a provision for a referendum vote on higher rate.
 The governor in his first term said Ohioans were not getting satisfactory results under the system of administer ing the laws imposing special taxes on certain classes of corporations. These were large number of taxing boards composed of various state officers, with Jurisdiction over excise and other cor porate taxation, but different boards were made up of different officers, so that there could be no uniform and consistent action. Auditors in eighty eight Ohio counties directed the work of assessing private property and there was no cooperation for the reason there was no statute making them a