The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1915-08-25
Governors View EvOlutiOnS OF
Great Battleships.
Fleet Review Big Event at BOs-
ton Conference.
HYDRa-HEADED STATE FLAYED
Hammond of Minnesota, OPP
poses Board Control.
Holds Divided Authority MILF
tates Against Efficiency.

Boston. Aug. 25.-A review of the
North Atlantic fleet off Boston HshI
was the principal event arranged Tor
today's entertainment of the present
or former executives of nearly thirty
states. who are here attending the an
nual governors conference. From the
deck of the flagship Wyoming the
visitors were to watch the eVolutlohs
of nine great battleships and a large
fIotiIla of torpedo craft.
Governors Charles S. Whitman OF
New York and Winfield s hammond
of Minnesota and former Governor
Cole : please of South Carolina, were
the speakers at the forenoon business
session.
Too Many Governors.
Governor Hammond, addressing the
conference on Efficiency and icon
ornv in State Government said that
one reason for the present lack OF
efficiency was that, in effect, most
states have several governors instead
of one Esnumerating the various
state commissions and boards Whlch
have come into being as part OF the
executive department of state ad-
miniStratiOn, he said:
..AII this has resulted in giving the
state not one governor but number
of governors, one of whom is elected,
the others appointed by various
boards and commissions. The gov
ernor of the state bears about the
same relationship to many of these
boards as he bears to the courts, ana
if is fundamental that the executive
and the judicial departments shall be
independent of each other. If a judge
resigns, the governor may appoint ms
successor, so if one of these members
should resign, the governor could APP
point his successor. but he has about
as much to do with the policies and
the work of these boards as he has
with the hearing and determination
of cases of law.
No Coordination Between Branches.
There is little or no coordination
between these various bod. IS. lnSpec-
tors, examiners, investigators. and
employees of these various governing
bodies, busy in the performance OF
their duties, are travelling over the
state, sometimes several OF them De
scending at the same time upon a lit
tie hamlet of two or three hundred
inhabitants, where all examinations
and Investigations for ell of the state
departments could be done by an able
bodied man in half day. salaries
and travelling expenses are continual
" increasing, while in political cam
paigns the cry for economy goes mer-
rily on.
I'm Minnesota for some time there
has been a feeling that there should
BE a thorough reorganization of these
various offices, that they should be
included in the executive department,
and should be under the control and
direction of the executive himself or
department officers selected by him.
My predecessor in office appointed
commission of thirty citizens of the
state. known as the efficiency and
economy commission They were
asked to make a study of our system
of state government and to suggest
changes, if needed, to make that gov
eminent an efficient one and an eco
nomical one.
The members of this body made
a report to the last legislature and
presented a proposed bill for enact
ment into law"