The Penn's Grove record., 1915-07-02
Sweeping Changes in State Admins
tFatiOn.
More Efficiency and Economy
Expected

EXpCCLGu
New Jersey organized it's State Gov
vernment on the economy and eff
cheney plan on Thursday, July Ist.
The reconstruction was directed by a
series of acts passed by the Legislature
of last Winter, and a very simplifed
system of administering State affairs is
to mark the change.
The State has been suffering from a
plague of commissions for years. Eve
ny time a new function came into any
bOdy's mind, he ran off to Trenton and
had an act passed for a special commits
sion to attend to it. just now there
are upward of a hundred of these
commissions. Things were seen to be
at such loose ends that it finally occur
red to some one it might not be a bad
idea to gather them all together into an
efficient and m~Oney-saving few. The
Economy and Efficiency Commission, to
whose hands the work of slmplification
vas committed, found the State House
full of redundant boards, with func-
tions that often ~overlapped. Some
times they duplicated and occasionally
clashed. For instance, there were a
dozen little local commissioners to look
after the oyster beds along the shores
and one board gathered the labor sta
tistics while another devoted itself to
other interests of the workingmen.
The new plan inaugurated with
the opening of July l replaced all
the commissions with about a half doz-
en- departmental boards of bipartisan
membership. The State Board of
Assessors, which has heretofore made a
specially of tax bills for the railroads,
and the Slate Board of Taxation,
which has taken cognizance of the tax
alton of other classes of property, will
become a single board OF eight mem
bers, with jurisdiction over all lax
problems, whether corporation OF
individual.
The State Board Of Assessors was
formed i'll 1854, under The administra-
ton of Leon ALBEIT who brought thu
the highest Cour S the laws to make
the Railroad Companies pay a fair
share OF taxes. BY that mean, the
State properties were relieved of having
TO pay a taX to the local assessors for
OtlC ouPPO1U VI IlIO oUQtS 0OfOllLiiCIlbs
Allen NcDermotE was Gov. Abbett's
foTceful light hand man and did much
to make the law effective.
When the Republicans got control of
the State i'll 1894, David A. Baird be-
came the controlling man. He Was
the right HAND mai OF U. S. Senator,
VIM. j. Sewell, superintendent of the
West Jersey Railroad, a subsidiary
corporation TO The Pennsylvania Com
pany. This existed until the election
of Woodrow Wilson who appointed
George l.. Record 10 the Board. Mr..
Record represented the peoples inter-
est.
Editor Leslie L. Russell, of the
Elizabeth Evening Times, will he the
president Of this very important tax
board. Frank B. Jess. who used to be
Equalization of Taxes, will be a men,
Der of the new board. So will George
L. Houten, Of Jersey City. Isaac
Barber, of Phlllpsburg, and Frederick
A. Gentieu, of Penns Grove, who were
members Oh the State Board of Assess
ors, will go OH the new board.
Mr.. Gentieu is not widely known in
social politics OF the State. He is
buslly engaged as superintendent of
the manufacturing department at
duPont's Powder Works Oh Carney
Point, below Penns Grove.
State Assessors George l.. Record
and Charles E. Hendrickson, of jersey
City, will go cut of office this week.
II is probable that irving Mcguire,
secretary Of The State Board If Assess
0rs, will be retained in some capacity
by The e Board.
The string OF shell commissions will
be consolidated into IL single body. All
the SAM airy reg u~latlons will be i'll the
hands Ut a State Health Board. The
Bureau of Labor Statistics will be-
com IA part OF Colonel Bryant's De-
partment of Labor. A Board of Con-
servation and Development will have
charge OF the water supply, tie public
parks ike the Interstate, and the
geological survey. Then there will be
Il State Boald of Agriculture for The
benefit OF the farmers, and, us hereto
fore, tile State Board of Education for
the schools.
Some members of present boards
survive i'll the new commissions. The
commissions are all endowed with
large powers. Each is to have an ex-
ecutiVe official at a salary ranging from
$4,000 to IS, 900 a year. The new law
vests large prerogatives in the hands of
these department. superinteLdentS. The
chiefs OF the several departments are
required tC hold monthly meetings for
conference, exchange OF reports as to
work, comparison of notes and co-or-
dlnatlOn that will avoid clash and
duplication.
The saving i'll the salary account
alone will be i'll the n~eighborhood of
500, 600 a year. The abolition of
many comparatively irresponsible COM
missions that wasted the State funds
will contribute several times that
amount to the savings account. The
new dlspensatiOn cOntemplates a rigid
accountability on The part of the de-
partment officials, and the retinue of
assistants whom the law empowers
them to employ. The State had to cut
Out many OF its usual luXuries to make
ends meet without a State tax this
year, and a State tax, which has not
been known since Abbett's time, is
feared for next year.
The Public Utility and Civil Service
Commissions ale not touched by the
new law, except that their powers are
enlarged.