The Democratic banner. (Mt. Vernon, Ohio) 1898-192?, 1915-05-21

excess of anticipated revenue, the
members of the majority in the dying
legislature have demonstrated their
unfitness as delberative body. All
through the session the acts have been
dominated either by self-seeking par
tisanship, or by the meanest selfish.
ness of individuals.
Crying for economy the salaries of
a few poor clerks were cut--a mere
bagatelle--so that such CRAFTS, con-
demned and refused by the Cox ad-
ministration, as legislative histories,
Howe's Ohio histories for free distribu-
tion by candidates for reelection, and
gifts to favored employees might be
restored. Noising the saving in cer-
tain state departments, whose expens-
es were borne by fees and not by tax
alton, the way is opened for a raid
on the pocketbook Of the taxpayer by
the restoration and addition of petty
favors in the counties and subdivisions
for which the property owners there
will have to pay under makeup of the
local tax rate.
Masked under the slogan of decen-
tralization the efficient license law is
destroyed and substituted therefor is
measure which will put the clerks,
commissioners and auditors of the
counties into the merriest of wet and
dry fights ever witnessed, and finally
place unquestioned autocratic power in
the hands of the governor and his sin
gle state inspector Instead of taking
the license out of politics it has thrust
it deeply into politics.
Also under the same slogan the tax
system of the state has been demor-
allied and the tax dodger is coming
into his own as he thinks he is entitled.
The agricultural department is rip
ped wide open, thrust into the depth
Of partisan politics, and even the state
university is enmeshed in the maze
to disgraceful degree.
Civil service demanded by the people
in constitutional amendment is made a
farce by this same legislature.
For a seeming gain in personal ad-
vantage to certain candidates the state
is gerrymandered and symmetry of dis
tricts destroyed.
The Hulswitt bill to create the joint
ballot for state and national elections,
and the Jackson bill to place once
more the election of judges in party
politics, are insults to the people who
have fought for years for reforms
these petty elections measures destroy.
And so on might be enumerated act
after act to show the reactionary trend
of the legislature and of the admins
tration; for in every one of these acts
the administration has participated
root and branch, the governor plead
ing, cajoling and threatening with all
the power at his command.
The contrast in treatment accorded
the public utility lobbyists and labor
representatives is in keeping. Laws
have been passed weakening the peo-
pie against the utility interests, and
the Gallagher bill to weaken the posi-
ton of the coal miners is put through
and to all the working classes of the
state is offered the insult of one
day y's-rest-in-seven bill which has eff
ty-seven" varieties of exemptions.
Giving the administration the bene-
fit of the doubt as to honesty of pur-
pose it has shown incapacity and lack
of vision. It is living in the present
with its face to the past.
What a miserable exhibit it makes
when its work is summed up side by
side with the work that was done two
years ago!