New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1914-10-20
Extra Jobs, Extra Expense
and Extraordinary Scan
dial Is Record.
MURPHY CONTROL
A REIGN OF GRAFT
Democratic Administration Has
Cost Millions in Money
and Efficiency.
By FREDERICK W. CRONE.

Governor, tne state ohiSco' viz
continuously and the Assembly two years
out of the four. This means that Tam
many Hall has controlled the state >
government-thatis is, that Charles iran
els Murphy and the so-called Deimohlc9
Directorate have been an extra-legai
board of trustees which ruled the state
That has been the inevitable result,
because Murphy and his little Clique oi
close friends controlled the state anu
local conventions and elected maJoI-
ity of the legislators.
The consequences of this Murphy
control Of the state have been extrava'
gance, waste, scandal. The Tammany
administration of the states affairs has
been an era of grab and graft-graD-
bling of Jobs and appropriations in the
most brazen fashion and grating dl.
rectly and indirectly. The number OF
state employees has increased greatly,
the payrolls have increased according
ly, but department efficiency has de-
creased. Blackmail of contractors on
state work by politicians has been
proved. The treasurer OF the Demo,
cratic State Committee had to plead
guilty to lawbreaking and resign from
his place, escaping jail only because or
his years and a general knowledge that
while he was guilty the moral guilt
rested on the ring running his party.
A Democratic State Treasurer, fear
ing some mysterious disclosures, COM
mitted suicide on the eve of an investl-
CATION of his office, although his ac-
counts were in proper shape. A Dem
ocratic State Engineer, now seeking re-
election, refused to testify about MS
work unless guaranteed immunity from
Jail. 4 Democratic Senator is now In
jail for attempted graft. A corrupt
/ Tammany Governor, folsted on tne
state after years of service TO Tam
many. was impeached at the orders of
the Tammany ring when he sought to
play his own game instead of theirs,
/ the whole episode constituting stain
! on New York State which 1t Will take
a generation TO live down.
Public Suffers by Deals.
Under Murphy's control some excel
| lent legislation has been passed. Most
of this can be credited to Governor
/ Glynn. But the general deterioration
/ of the states business, the loading OF
departments with heelers, the passing
| of special bills. grab bills, and the
"you scratch my back and I'll scratch
yours" attitude of the state officials and
]
many era q net loss to the state. When
| the time is ripe good legislation viii
/ always be passed at the public behest,
but if good legislation is scuttled by
bad administration the public suffers.
Ii is The Tribune's purpose to show
/ Just how the public has suffered IN
money needlessly or unwisely spent,
in quality of service, in dishonesty OF
pubiic servants. The facts set forth
/ in this and subsequent articles will be
recited not to attack the great body
of men who constitute the Democratic
party, but to indict the little ring
which controls that party and sways
or Influences the actions of it's office
holders.
The average man who votes the
Democratic ticket gets as little out Of
it as the private soldier gets out of a
war. Officers get the glory and the
plunder: the same rule holds good of
| Tammany's plundering. The men high
up get Jobs or pickings of one kind or
another They make the public pay,
| so far as it can be done with safety,
/ for the upkeep of their army. The
| Tammany system, now extended thor
oughly into all the big counties of the
| state, is to grab a job wherever it
/ exists. and TO create others to grab.
/ These keep the important workers 60
ing. For the men still higher up there
are contractors profits, refereeships,
/ legal fees for the shrewd lawyers who
do the "brain work" needed from time
to time, the profits which insiders get
who control legislation. For all this
the public pays.
This is one way it pays: In 1910,
/ the last year of the Hughes admins
tration, the total number of classified
and unclassified places on the payroll,
not counting laborers, was, roughly,
/ $4,000. In January this year the num-
! Der had increased to $4,000. The
states payment for salaries in 1919
/ exclusive of legislative and judicial
| salaries and salaries to workers IN
state institutions and on highways and
canals, which were not audited by the
Controller) was S4,l21 ,055 SO. For
1913 the corresponding salaries
amounted to $6,O39,773 20, an increase
Of nearly $2,000,OOO.
Various laws have been passed under
| Democratic control raising salaries.
One made an annual increase in pay
of the state hospital stats of $3.50, 200
Another cost the state $4,000 year
extra for canal lock tenders. Records
4 of the Highway Department show that
in 1912 its payroll mounted nearly
/ 100000 over what it had been the pre-
yious year. The Controllers books
shows that the state payroll for July,
1918, totalled S544,075 AZ; for July this
year it was S643, 055 %. Governor
Glynn speaks much of his economy
He has never cut one cent from a
Democratic jobholder's salary.
A compilation of statistics made by
accountants for the Republican State
/ Committee shows an increase of 30 per
cent in appropriations made for ad-
ministratiye bureaus and departments
/ under Democratic cOntrol-for the
| Sulzer and Glynn years (1913 and
1910, as compared with the last two
years of the Hughes administration.
| This, in figures, amounts to more than
! S1l 100000. The same analysis shows
| that the total appropriations in Gov
/ ernor DiX's administration, exclusive
of interest and sinking fund charges,
were nearly Sl0,000,000 more than for
/ the last two years of Governor Hughes,
while the SulZer and Glynn appTopria-
/ tons totalled Sl5,000,000 more than the
/ Hughes years of l909l0.
: Governor Dix, Governor SulZer and
/ Governor Glynn all pledged themselves
| to rigid economy and the abolishmen,
/ of unnecessary places in the state ser
vice and adjustment or consolidation
of state bureaus where possible. Under
Dix the Forest, Fish and Game Com
mission and the Water Supply Com
mission were consolidated in the Con-
servation Commission-now a big ma
chine, full of Democratic jobholders.
| There have been no other cOnsolida-
tons and no Adjustments. The State
Fire Marshal's Bureau was created and
/ turned over by the Civil Service COM
mission 20 Tammany placeholders.
tnnt- fbo p1aco of