The Penn's Grove record., 1912-10-25
STATE OFFICES
OvERCROWDED
Commissioners of Library in
Dilemma as to Demands
BOOKS INCREASE VERY FAST
Additions to Capitol Building Have Not
Kept Pace With Growth of Public
Business - New Boards Will
Take All Room Available.

Especial Trenton Correspondence
Observation-Disclosures of the Stat'
House Commission - the Governor
Comptroller and Treasurer-who art
also Commissioners of the State Ii
brary, are in a dilemma. On the one
hand they are met by the demands O.
various department heads for more
room, and on the other by the urgen'
needs of the State Library and the
Public Library Commission, the space
allotted to both of which is now sc
badly overcrowded as to great
inconvenience and to lessen their eff
cheney. The State Library collection
and pamphlets when it was removed
to it's present quarters, has grown tc
$4,000, and is increasing at the rate
of 5000 annually. The Public Library
Commission has about 10000 books
used in its travelling library work
The State Museum, which it has beer
proposed to remove to the third floor
in the new easterly wing, is already
SO oVercrowded as to require more
space than will be available.
Needs of the New Boards.
Though the Legislature has been
making liberal appropriations for ex
tensions to the Capitol, the work has
not kept pace with the growth Of bust
ness and the increase in the number
of departments, boards and commits
sions that require accommodations.
1t is safe to say that within the last
fifteen years the new boards created
and the increased labor put upon
the older departments would in them
selves take up nearly all the Office
room now available. There is the
Civil Service Commission, the Public
Utilities Commission, the Commission
er of Charities and Corrections, Super
intendent of Weights and Measures,
Inland Waterways Commission, Road
Department, State Auditor, Bureau of
Shell Fisheries, Water Supply Com
mission, Public Library Commission,
Motor Vehicle Department, Teachers
Retirement Fund, Collateral Inherit
ance Tax Bureau of the Comptroller's
Department, Tenement House Com
mission, Forestry Board, Public Re-
ports Commissioner, and Fish and
Game Commissioned of them COM
paratively new.
Greater Space Required.
To these should be added the de-
partments upon which additional work
and responsibilities have been placed,
that require greater office space, such
as the Commissioner and State Board
of Education, the State Board of
Health, the Attorney Generals and
Banking and Insurance Departments,
the Commissioner of Labor, State
Board of Agriculture, Chancery and
Supreme Court offices-not to men
ton the additional court rooms need
ed for the Vice-Chancellors and branch
es of the Supreme Court. 1t is unlike
ly that the number of departments
will be reduced. Experience has
shown that it is much easier to create
new Offices than to get rid of them.
At present the quarters set apart for
the use of the Legislature and its COM
mittees are utilized between two ses-
sions, as are some of the court rooms,
while several departments are quar-
tered in nearby buildings, and two or
three have accommodations in other
cities.
Two plans have been suggested for
giving relief: One is to erect a build
ing for the courts and the State Lii
brary, and the other to provide a
large office building on the States re-
Gently acquired land near the Capitol.
The latter is the more practical and
economical. Connecticut has just
built a State Library and Temple of
Justice at a cost of a million dollars,
and New York an Educational and
Library building at a cost of over
three million dollars. An office build
ing that will give all the room needed
for the next quarter of a century can
be provided for between 5000, 900 and
$4,000 The problem before the
State House Commission is to find the
necessary office room for present
needs. t is inevitably that another
large building must be provided soon,
and the subject will be officially pre-
sented to the Legislature next winter.