The Hays free press. [volume] (Hays, Kan.) 1908-1924, 1919-01-23

are entitled to the gravest considera-
ton Of the Legislature
It provides for a State Insurance
law prepared on an acturiaI basis,
guaranteeing an annual income for
life to those persons who have given
all Of their energies through a term
Of years to the public schools of the
State; it contains a provision for the
taking of the office of State Superin-
tendent out Of politics; for improving
the statutes under which the County
Superintendent OF Schools is chosen;
and other changes in our system nee
essary to make it meet all the needs
Of the modern day.
judiciary Reforms.
Some important and necessary re-
forms in the judiciary system OF the
State have been considered by the
They have not been enacted into law
because it is first necessary to amend
the Constitution so that these reforms
could be legally adopted.
In this as in other desirable action
the Constitution as it now stands is
found to be a bar to progress
State Reserve Banks.
I wish to call attention of the Legs
lature to the plan of the Kansas State
Bankers to establish State Reserve
Banks. 1t is argued by these bank
ers that Kansas now keeps a large
part of its reserve in cities outside
Of the State, where it goes chiefly to
meet the demand for loans in states
where it is deposited, when it could
and should be used to develop Kan
SaS resources. They believe that
State Reserve Banks would result in
keeping Kansas money at home. This
is a desirable end and the problem
deserves the best attention OF the
Legislature.
Need of a Constitutional Convention.
Nothing is more apparent in Kan
saS than the need of a general over
hauling of the constitutional system.
The restrictions of the document
which was adopted at an hour when
the State was small and its problems
simple became yearly more apparent.
We have reached a point where re-
lief touching the most needed reforms
is absolutely impossible without con-
stitutiOnaI amendment or new con-
stitution.
Proper treatment of such subjects
as good roads legislation, increase in
homecoming, an adequate system of
taxation, is utterly impossible under
the present conditions. The general
need for improved methods Of State
and County government under a syS-
tenn which would introduce modern
business principles into government
is equally impossible of accomplish
ment.
My able predecessor, in his mes
sage of 1917, said:
1.-The most extravagant and wasteful
branch of government is that of the Coun-
V
nearly doubled in the last ten years. in
cIeasing from 81, So, 235 in 1906 TO S,s42,-
736 in 1916. With all our complaint Of in
creased taxation. it seems incredible that
no effort has been made by the Legisla-
where it is greatest We have sometimes
seemed to begrudge the money required
for the maintenance of State institutions
even to the extent of hampering their
growth, development and usefulness when
in reality the money required for them
is but small part OF the public revenues;
We have been saving at the spigot and
wasting at the bung-hole.''
Governor Capper's terse analysis of
the situation two years ago is even
more true today than it was at that
time, because each year emphasizes
the inadequacy of our present county
elected as high as seventeen county
officials and generally with the IN
happy result of discovering that peo-
pie do not vote for clerks and others
who perform special duties at the
court house, with sufficient diScTim-
ination to guarantee US good results.
The county ballot, like the state bal
lot, is too long. The employment of
clerical help should be upon the same
basis as it is in private life-ability
to do the work
1t is undoubtedly true that a sim
plificatiOn of our county government
- -
this State between one and two mil
lion dollars a year and would result
in better government.
The necessity for changes in the
fundamental law, without considering
the subject of simplifying county gov
eminent, calls for at least six cOnsti-
tutional amendments which, under
our system of amending the constitu-
ton, would require more than six
years for all the needed changes to
find expression in law.
The law provides that it is within
the power of the Legislature to sub
NIT this matter to the decision of the
people. There is no other way of mi
tiating it than through legislative ac-
ton and l do not believe that the
Legislature can, in common justice
to the aeople of this State, deny them
the righL to express themselves in the
next biennial election upon this sub
ject.
In case the people in the next BIZ
ennial election choose to have it held,
the convention should be called in the
succeeding off year, so that it would
be the one absorbing topic demand
ing their attention at that time and
the constitution thus written would
be the expression of an intelligent in
terest and a full cooperation.
The present provision for writing a
new constitution does not call for its
submission to a vote of the peonIe
after it has been written If TINS
Legislature decides to submit the sub
ject to the people for their vote, it
should submit it with the provision
that the constitution, when written,
shall be submitted to a vnxe of the
people, for their approval or rejection.
We have united people. The Leg
islature is very largely IN ths hands
of a united party. There has never
been an hour in this State when the
need for d new constitution was more
and when it could be writ
ten with so obvious an expression of
harmony and cooperation.
The Sun and Flowers.