Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1915-01-15
COUNTY OFFICIAL PAPER.
CITY OFFICIAL PAPER.


y
emphatic, Governor Listers message to the four
teenth legislature last Tuesday document
Astounding in sensible recommendations hard
common and earnestness for that retrench-
ment in expenditures which he believes can come
only through the remodelng of the state S gov
ornamental structure. To that end he proposed a
constitutional convention and to us that appears
to be the most important feature of that portion
of his message directed toward the formation of
a governmental policy in this state. The
insistence upon the strictest economy throughout
the entire message is of course it's outstanding
feature, epitomized in the first sentence of the
seventh paragraph, where the governor says:
"The time has arrived when more is required
than the mere statement that expenditures will
not be further increased-a plan of retrenchment
must be decided upon
Coupled with the recommendation for a consti-
tutional convention and given as one reason for
it, is the governors expression of his belief that
"better results would be obtained if we had one
legislative body in the state consisting of say not
to exceed twenty-five MEMBERS five elected from
each congressional district, which would be fixed
as legislative districts, and by fixing the time of
each regular session of the legislature at ninety
instead of sixty days. This is probably the most
revolutionary recommendation any executive Of
this state has made for years. revolutionary in the
change it proposes in the legislative system, and
yet we believe the very nature Of it will command
the attention and the approval Of the people of
the state to whom the biennial session of the leg
islature has come to be thing to dread and to
watch with fear and trembling.
Locally, what the governor said about. the
capitol building plans is viewed with approval.
His recommendations relative to the fish industry
of the state coincide with the opinions of that
great number of people who believe the state
should receive greater returns from that industry
for the assistance it is giving it, and his strong
endorsement of a non-partisan election law cover
ing all county and city Offices is in high accord
with the trend of the times Sensible and
forward-looking also are his recommendations
for the abolition of the second choice provision
of the primaries, the establishment of the prefer
ential presidential primary, the adoption of
tuition fee for the state university, the abolition
of the state tax commission the passage of first
aid bill, the budget plan Of making state appro-
priations, the investigation of the ACCESSIBILITY of
the state publishing school textbooks and the
other suggestions with which the message is
filed.
The Of the whole message and the
essence of the Lister administration is to be found
in its fourth paragraph. Here the governor
points out that when he took Office there was an
overdraft of $45O,555 in the general fund,
which increased to $719 81 at the close of the
last legislature, and to $726,647.43 on December
1st 1913 and then calls attention to the fact that
on December 81, 1914, there was balance of
$500 O16.37 which prompts the comment "These
figures show that on January 1st 1915 the fund
was larger by $S5O,57161 than on January 18th,
1913 the day became governor"
The recommendations of governor who makes
such record, saving of more than four-fifths of
a million dollars in two years, are worthy of
favorable action.