New-York tribune., 1922-10-04


close Of the war The Smith admins
tratiof came In on January /, 1919,
after that tine. at the time when there
was the greatest need and the greatest
opportunity to practice economy in
government. We had gone through q
period of imitation due TO an uneSan,.
pied expansion OF the public credit
We had gone through y period Of ex-
tension of government acti1ity incident
TO the war. The state expenditures In
seven years, including the war oueri-
eds, and the per capita cost Of govern
nent had almost doubled In this state.
Increases Under Smith
"Now wha: happened Appropria-
t,ons. in 1918 in this state had reached
TO 100000, an increase of SEA .fi1n :
600, almost three times the entire cost
of the state government twenty years
ago and one and half times it's cost
ten years ago. en increase in two yenrs
ono and half times as much a. the
total increase IN seven years, includinr
the period of war imitation. That Is
the bald fact
1t Is true. Of course, that thcre ia
an annual and an inevitable and neces
sary increase in the cost of yoyern-
meni. This is due to our increasing pop
u'at'on, TO the increasing complexity Of
societF, w'th. the new demands con-
stant'y and lcgitimately arising. But
after such a period as we have gone
through 1t should at least have been
possible TO have absorbed thase in :
creases "a that has been done
during the last two wears. out
OF economies. It is true, to be en-
trety ta'r, that there was one increase
of considerable size that was ler,ti- :
mate and proper and that no one can
question. There was an increase the
second year of S2l 100000, raised by
the direct mill and haif tax for the
support of the public schools, for the
increase Of the teachers wages. That
vas legitimate increase, and we have
stlil further increased it. But even
That, IN part. should have been abb
sorbed out Of savings or economies
which were possible, and that only
amounts to less than one-thrd of this
enormous increase Of $4,000 900 in two
years.
81 shall not take the time TO discuss
an OF the reason for that, but I will
tell you the chief reason, and that il.
that during the two years the lust of
spendine money grew by what it fed
on, because government was admins
tered to please and not to serve.
You may recall that that was a
reriod of great activity of special
groups and of particular interests
%h,ch literally swarmed Capitol Hill,
and rarely marched down the hill
empty handed. The fact is that favor
instead of Service had permeated and
de'noralized thu. public service. know
that,. because know the condition
%hieh found. and will point to you
one fact which Is conclusive, which
is lrrefutable and unanswerable proof
of what | assert. The appropriations
had jumped lin seven years, during the
var imitation, about forty millions OF
doilars. In two years Under the Demo
'tatic administration preceding this
they had jumped slxty-four millions
me requests submitted by department
heads for the year 1920 totaled 145
millions. That was the amount Of ap-
propriations. That outgoing admins
tration. the department heads under
that administration, after the election
made up their estimates Of the ex-
penditurcs needed for the state gov
eminent for the next year. And what
do you think they were? Not 1A5
millions, but $2Os, 900, 900. Am justi-
fed in saying that the Inst to spend
had grown by what. it fed on? Am L
!us'iueo IN saying rhat the doors OF
the state treasury had been thrown
wide open? l asked the leaders of
the majority In each branch of the
Legislature to sit down with me, and
we agreed upon certain principles
which should govern the making OF
appropriations, and then we made an
other Important agreement--that we
would not deviate from those prin-
eiples at the behest or the insistence
of any one whomsoever. The Legisla-
ture kept their part, and when they
had finished l signed the appfopria-
tion bill exactly as 1t CAME to me with
out dotting an 81 or crossing t.
Cut Still More Than Last Year
"And that appropriation. covered
items aggregatihg not $20s ,0o0, 900 as
was requested, not S145,000 900 as was
given the preceding year--of COURSE, I
am speaking now In round numhers--
but s1S5,oo0,o0o only requiring revenue
from the State Treasury. The nest
year-we did not Stop there--thc next
year, the year just past, we continued
the reduction two and half millions
more. and we did that Notwithstanding