The Birmingham age-herald., 1915-07-14
RECOMMENDS THE
 ABOLITION OF THE
 CONVICT SYSTEM
Lengthy Document Goes Into Details of State Gov ernment and Outlines Many Reforms
ny HUGH ". ROBERTS


 cial)-While the Investigating
 committee of the legislature
 failed, after great effort, to find
 ground on which a serious charge
 could be preferred against ex-
 Governor O'Neal; while it failed
 to solve the mystery of the Theo-
 dore Lacy dedication, and while
 it failed to produce the sensations
 which the public has for months
 been feyerishly anticipating, it
 did succeed in compiling report
 which is judged conservative and
 in the main, wise.
 In view of what was expected the feature of the report Is naturally not what 1t contains, but what It does not contain. The one big constructive recommendation of the committee is that the convict lease system be aboI- shed in Alabama and that a prison commission be -formcd hy the legisla- ture, to care for conyiets and direct their activity in road construction.
 The report. consisting of S7 pages. goes carefully into details of govern ment and contains innumerable rccom- mendations as to how In the opinion of the committee expenses might be de- creased without impaIing the efficiency of the government The report, in part follows. To the Legislature of Alabama:
 General Conditions
 The system, or gather lack of sss, a departments of state, in reference to the disbursement of public moneys. aud the keeping of public accounts. is something of which no Alabamian can be proud. Each department has had it's own individual way of handling it's finances and keeping it's books. An examiner Of accounts, as he goes from department to department, Is con fronted with different conditions and different systems. X lack of uniformi- ty results in loss of efficiency Ela- bezzlement of public funds. unauthor- ized expenditures of public moneSs $, gross eNtrayaganees. misuse of official trust and graft large and petty, to which we hereafter call attention can for the most part be traced to a tottl lack of system.
 State Budget Systems
 Our first recommendation, therefore Is that there be employed through commission provided for in a bill here with submitted the most competent certified public accountant that can ee obtained; that this accountant be au- thUrized to put the state of Alabama on systematic business basis at onoe that the bookkeeping the payment 0f funds. the record Of receipts and dis bursements be modernized simplifieu and made uniform throughout all of the departments of the state and throughout such offices of the coun- ties as handle state funds and as are subject to state supervision.
 We recommend that the state budget be compiled and transmitted to each regular session of the legislature by the governors that it include not only an estimate of what amounts may be necessary for the conduct of state af- Fairs, but also suggested method of raising the amount of revenue ne.es- sary to meet the outlay. We submit herewith draft of bill providing for the introduction in Alabama of the budget system.
 Legislative
 The secretary of the senate and the clerk or the house are employees of these bodies at stipulated salaries Their tine belongs to the state, Following long continued custom and one which this re- port will hereafter disclose has found its. way into almost every department of state, these officers have used the states time for their own financial gain The copying and sale of legislative bills has become an attractive perqusite of the office. This is specifically prohibited by the constitution as to certain of the state departments. Others are not mentioned We also find on the payroll of the stats persons who never worked for the state and never came to the capitol We find that in the legislature of 19l1 | covering a period of s5 days, the num- Der of employees of the senate was 107, at a cost of S2l,375S0 The number of employees in the house, 1O3. at a cost of s22,S4250 In the legislature of 1915, GOV erng a period of 3s days the number of employees in the senate, 6i at a cost of sSi2l. The number of employees in the house, l06 at cost of $i0,27650 There is no necessity for this large number of employees. The positions have been cre- ated chiefly for the purpose of giving some friend of some member of the leg islature job The work can be done more efficiently by fewer employees and we submit herewith bills for the cor rection of these abuses.
 Printing Acts of Legislature
 Our laws now provide for printing the acts of the legislature three separate times First during sessions of the leg islature for distribution in pamphlet form among the members of the legislature; second, after the adjournment of the leg islature in newspaper; third in per manent bound volumes. We see no neces- sty for publishing these acts except in the bound volumes, and. therefore. rec- omend that the other two publications be dispensed with.
 Convict Department The committee has given more of it's time to the study of the convict prob- lem than to any other subject that has come under consideration We have visited every coal mine that the state has any connection with; have been un-
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