Willmar tribune. [volume] (Willmar, Minn.) 1895-1931, 1914-04-22

! ton to be given for efficiency and
| service in public Office or employment,
and ca security of tenure in public
office or employment dependent only
upon honest and efficient performance
Of duty. The people of this state, l
| believe, demand clean politics and
honest government, and upon this l
am willing to stand or fall.
Business System Anticipated.
Two years ago called attention to
| the complicated and Anticipated gov
ernmental organism and to the I'M
perativc need for complete over
hauling and reorganization OF the ad-
ministrative machinery of the state
| government.
When members of the last legisla-
ture attempted to pass bill provid
ing for commission to make inves-
LEGATIONS and recommendation for
reorganization of the governmental
system, the present executive blocked
it. Later, however, realizing that he
had Numbered politically, in an ell
ed commission Of thirty citizens of
the state to find some way to protect
the commonwealth from his own dere-
lict administration.
| know several of the gentlemen on
this commission to be high-grade. cap
able business men. There are indi-
cations that they have asserted them
selves in its deliberations. and I eX-
press the hope that the work they
are engaged in, which has been too
long delayed, will result in report
that will be of value in the work of
reorganizing and correlating the ex-
ecutile departments of the state gov
eminent
This commission so far as it has
made public its findings has arraigned
the inefficient business Organizat ton
of the state in more severe terms
than anyone else has ever used. They
have held up to the public gaze such
a multiplicity of boards and bureaus
and disorganized and disconnected Of
fees as to make our states business
organization the laughing stock of
every business man in Minnesota
They have found enough useless
boards to wall up the state and roof
it over. This condition has grown
up while the chief executive has been
engaged in the pleasuraEle pastime
! of travel, oratory, tango dancing and
song writing.
The governor now is complimentng
himself on the appointment of this
commission, and boasts that in his
first message to the legislature he
| recommended a reorganization of
state departments. 1t might be peril
| nent to ask, why. if he recognized
this need nearly four years ago, he
did not during that time do something
to focus attention upon it. Some Of
the time spent in advertising Mime
sofa might have brought better re-
suits if he had been applying himself
to this problem. Are you willing to
| continue entrusting this great task to
a man who says he has recognized
the need for four years and yet has
| done nothingo
State Expe mixtures Increase.
In the last campaign | :liscoursed
| upon the enormous increase in the
expenditures OF our state government
The governor produced some irrele-
want figures dealing with comparative
| per capita cost in an effort to show
that other states We're worse off than
we. My contentious now are geIer-
ally agreed to, and the state auditor
! recently has issued statement CON
frming them. The governor no long
er disputes them, but takes refuge in
laying the blame on the legislature
You will get some idea Of how the
expense OF our state government has
| increased when | tell you that the
disbursements from the revenue fund
alone have increased from $3,734,-
31o.o6 in the year 1902 to $685.
103.74 in the year 1912. and the in
crease for the years of 1913 and 1914
will greatly exceed the average for
the ten years here named This has
teen out of all proportion to the in
crease in wealth or population. This
LO1 1Aotio i4lSl CdoC 1Ido D0cn prov
for not only through an increase of
more than 100 per cent in the tax rate,
and a marked increase in assessed
| valuation, but the needs of the ma
| chine have been so great that cunning
minds have been strained in devising
every conceivable means of special
and indirect taxation, amounting to
millions of dollars annually. If you
as citizens and taxpayers are not aware
of this condition, pay your taxes and
compare your tax receipt with that of
few years ago. T warrant you will
! be on the firing line in fifteen min
! utes.
l have said that if I were governor
| | should see to it that the state cot
| dollars worth for every dollar ex.
! pended
| 1t is said in behalf of the admins.
tration that there is bound to be
waste and useless expense; the GOV
ernor cannot help it, the state officers
cannot and the legislature can but will
not; and that "the people themselves
| 90 not expect 100 cents worth for