New-York tribune., 1922-10-07

order.
Governor Miller devoted large part
Of his speech to rebuttal Of the Smith
charges that the Republican admins
tration had not effected econ omies In
government.
"The Democratic party in its plat
form ventured to challenge the COM
parison between the business conduct
of the state administration under these
two administrations and they charged
US with extravaganza and waste and
said that the cost of government had
increased" he said.
"In my opening address the other
night at Cooper Union met that chal-
,lenge and applied every known test
to compare the two administrations to
determine which had been in the inter
est of the people from the results OBJ
tanned, and Mr.. Smith last night, in
effect, said that he could not under
stand my figures. He said that in
effect because he said that 1t required
an expert public accountant, "certi-
fled accountant" / guess was his lam
guage, to understand them. Well, the
plain people of the state can under
stand them. He, himself, might under
stand them If he would get the reports
OF the fiscal officer of the state, the
State Comptroller"
Outlines Tax Reform
eve undertook, without any excuses,
to make the machinery of the state
government work and to make it work
able and so, without waiting for con-
stitutionai amendment, we reorganized
certain departments of the state gov
ernment, most notably the tax Depart
ment.
'It had been attempted many times
before, but, because patronage was in
met the opposition Of powerful influ
ences, and every attempt was blocked
We said that the taxing agencies of
the state properly co-ordinated would
be more efficient and that that co-ordi-
nation could only be secured by putt
ing them under one head, and we put
them under one head. We said the
same thing in relation to other depart
ments-I will not specify them.
"Now this is what happened: Under
the former administration appropria-
tions had been made to carry those de-
partments through the fiscal. year,
June. Under the reorganized depart
ments, some of them with different
titles, those appropriations could not
be used. The money has been raised,
the revenue has been provided. but the
appropriation had to be Teappropri-
ated under the proper titles. No new
requirements Of the treasury, but in
order to complete the fiscal year as
mere substitutes for appropriations al
ready made, we reappropriated those
amounts, and they aggregated some
thing like $3,000,000. Another single
item. AS you know, the Federal gov
ernment is gradually increasing its aid
to rural post roads"
Opposes U. s. Interfering
Here the Governor paused to remark
that the states experience with these
contracts proves the unwisdom Of the
Federal government undertaking by
Federal aid to supplement state action
in those things that ought to be done
that met the enthusiastic approval of
the crowd of 600 that filled the Co.
lumbus Institute. Due to red tape and
delays, he said, the work was made
more costly, and, while the state gets
back from, the Federal government
something it costs the state at least
$40 for taxation to build roads in other
states for every dollar it receives.
he amount is growing larger wear
by year, now that Federal money is
not paid until the contracts are COM
pleted The state makes the con-
tracts; the state supervises the con-
struction
AS this work progresses the con-
tractors have to be paid a pro rata
share as they go along. The Federal
government does not pay until the
work is done, so the state has to adj