The New York herald., 1921-01-06
Governor Miller's Fight Begins.

With his first message to the Leg
4 isiature Governor MILLER begins his
/ fight 70 chop the States estimated
expenditures from some S202, ,000, 900
! to at most $140,000,000 and put the
management OF its affairs on busi-
ness basis. Boiled down TO their es-
sence his resolve for himself and rec
concentration to the law makers ar1
as follows:
Put off, until the heavily involved
State Government gets on Its financial
legs again, all new construction.
DO maintenance work on present
construction, as far as possible, out of
available funds already appropriated.
Stop mortgaging the future reve-
nues of the State far in advance by
authorizing numbers of projects with
out providing the money to pay the
bills or knowing how they ever can
he paid
Knock the props from under useless
but costly bureaucracy by consolida-
tion and elimination. with abolishment
of superfuous salaries.
Take great administrative powers
out Of the feeble hands of paralyzing
commissions and lodge them in the
strong hands of competent business
managers.
Abandon visionary control Of theo-
retic problems and concentrate upon
the practical, necessary labors of eff
fective government.
Governor MILLER says the State cnIl
save in this way half million dollars
n year of the Printing Board waste.
And it can. He says ii can save a
mllioa dollars IN the various tnx
agencies. And 1t can. He says II can
save another million In the Indus
trial Commission. And 1t can. lie
says ii can save lHlf n million in
mental and physical experimentation,
more than half n million in the milf
tary training commission. hundreds of
thousands each in the Depn Of
Narcotic Drug Control. the Burea u
of the Superintendent of Elections,
the Board Of Port Wardens. the
Health officer of the Port of New
York, Sc. Aud It can.
Even when all this Is done in the
way Of eradicating needless salaries,
expense accounts, rents and supplies.
and when new construction Is post
poned and old construction held down
! to the minimum, the State still will
he In financial straits because Of its
fixed charges running up 10 500 O00,-
600 year as n consequence Of pre-
vious squander and debt breeding !;
because of gross overspending of ap-
propriations; because Of the thousand
and one duties and functions thrust
upon the State Government in recent
years, and because Of the reckless dis
regard of the commonest rules of COM
petent business and common sense.
But the Governor gives warning
that henceforth department heads that
do not stay within their appropria-
tions will be removed. He asks the
cooperation Of the Legislature TO pre-
vent the creation of new Offices, TO
scrap many that can be dispensed
with. and to refuse salary increases
Then, with mercilcss cutting Of
lump sum appropriations to let the
departments find out how little they
can get along with because they must
and with the most rigid economizing
by every State official that has dol
lar to spend, taxes need not be In
creased but can be even dccrea sed.
The State Government can avert bank.
1uptcy. The State Administration can
become efficient.
This programme OF Governor Mn
IER means fight. II means fight
not only against the professional Office
holder AMI State contractor hut the
uplift dreamer and the incurablc law
promoter. all devoted. whatever their
purpose. TO ventures and schemes that
demand the spending OF the taxpay-
er's money. 1t means disappointment.
bitterness and passion from powerful
interests as we'll as from noisy
claques. But If Governor MULLER will
stick to his programme and if the
Legislature will stand with him shoul-
der to shoulder the voters of this
State, regardless OF party lines and
other political issues, will back them
both up to the limit.
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