Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1917-01-29
BRANCH CAPITOL
IDEA BLOWN UP
Senator Penrose Says That the
State Government Should Be
Run From This City

The idea of establishing branch
capitols about the state, the first to
be located in Philadelphia, with others
Erie and other places, was given
terrific rap by Senator Boies Penrose
in speaking about legislation which
he favors in the course of talk at
Philadelphia on Saturday. The branch
capitol idea is nothing new. 1t grew
up right after the Philadelphia scheme
to take the Capitol away from Har-
| risburg was defeated in 1901 and has
appeared periodically. Last session
what was intended as a joke was
seized upon as an occasion for naming
commission, which morked without
pay, and secured lot of evidence" in
Philadelphia to the effect that q
branch capitol was needed to concen-
trate State offices in that city and that
a site along the parkway for pre-
tentious building to be erected by the
State might be. secured.
Senator Penrose on Saturday de-
clared that Harrisburg was the Capitol
and that the multiplication of State
ofhces in Philadelphia especially and
! in other places on one excuse or an
| other should stop. The senator also
said that he thought q bill should be
passed to make the Attorney General
give all of his attention to State busi-
ness and to have the city of Philadel-
phia handle its own street cleaning in
stead of by contract.
In his remarks the senator said:
The practice of having State de-
partments. and bureaus located in
Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Scranton and
other places away from the State Capt.
tol has been carried to scandalous ex-
tremes and has led to grave abuses.
This practice leads to needless ex-
penditure of public money and permits
inefficiency. This criticism is par
ticularly true of the Workmen's COM
pensation Board, whose Philadelphia
offices are really an abiding place for
more than a hundred Philadelphia
ward workers. 1t is proposed even
tually to require all bureaus and de-
partments to be located at the State
Capitol, where they properly belong,
and all the heads of departments and
employees shall be required to reside in
Harrisburg except when absent on
official business.
There has been gross abuse of
automobiles used by departm heads
They have been employed in junket-
ings outside the state and in joy rides
within the staet. The automobile
proposition has been carried to lavish
extremes and should be curtAiled. The
automobiles purchased by taxpayers
money ought to be conspicuously
labeled as belonging to the State and
only used on official business.
"Of course contingent funds will be
carefully safeguarded hereafter and
radically curtailed in amount. | chal-
lenge contradiction to the statement
that in the case of every contingent
fund at Harrisburg the same abuses
exist as prevail in the Governors fund.
When the exposure takes place, as
it will, of the Auditor Generals office,
the people will be astonished at the
way in which the States money has
been spent.
'Veiled suggestions have been made
that the. resolution related only to the
Governor. No ones name Is mentioned
and the resolution comprehends all
public officers in the Staet So far as
am concerned, / am amenable to
questioning before the State corrupt
practices act, and l will be glad to ap-
pear before the commission, if called
for, and answer any and all questions
as far back as they desire to go. There
is no factional tinge in this resolution"