New-York tribune., 1922-09-28

The most important question in
the coming New York State election
will be whether the great busy, or
DERBY, good-natured majority are GO
ing to attend seriously to their part
Of the business OF government. IL
is a question of the amount of in
terest taken by the men and women
who haven't any axes to grind, who.
are not trying to get anything out OF
government except the ends of gov
ernment that affect everybody alike;
order and liberty, efficient protec-
tion to life and property, prompt
and impartial justice, good santa
tion, good roads, good schools, econ
omy in public expenditure, efficiency
IN public service, moderation and
fair distribution in taxation. VIII
the men and women who want these
things, and seek no special privileges
or profits from government for them
selves, realize their duty?
Let me try to state the situation
as ! see it.
the World War there has been a
steady increase in the activities and
the cost of state government. Ex-
levies, all have steadily mounted up
higher and higher We have all been
talking about it, the newspapers
have printed countless articles about
it; years ago it became apparent that
the process must be checked or gov
ernment would run into bankruptcy
or be saved from bankruptcy only by
imposing upon the people of the
state burdens of taxation which
would destroy prosperity. Yet no
one appeared to be able to stop the
process of imitation. The continual
increase was occasioned partly by
the increase in populations; partly by.
necessary and proper extensions OF
governmental activity to meet new
conditions of living; partly by the
pressure of organized minorities and
special groups, who sought specia!
expenditures from government, and
whose power to punish politically
made resistance to their demands
difficult; partly by the increased de-
sire to share in the distribution of
public funds created by observing
freedom of distribution; partly by
the inevitable looseness of expendl-
ture incident to a government whose
organization formed under similar
conditions had never been adapted
10 more complicated conditions, and
partly by that universal weakness
Of human nature which makes 1t
easier to spend other peoples money
than to make political or personal
enemies by refusal.
The process which / have described
was reinforced by the demoralizing
influences of the Great War; the
habit of indifference to cost under
the necessities of war; the habit OF
loose and proAigate expenditure which
is associated with every great war;
the widespread appetite for public
plunder cultivated by getting easy
money from public treasures. Under
this influence the process of state
extravaganza was accelerated, at
the very time when we were all de-
manding that it be checked. Our
state government did not stand
alone in this process. The same
thing went on with the Federal gov
ernment; the same thing went on to
an even worse degree under the
government of the City of New York:
But that makes the situation rather
worse than better. Over-taxation by
the Federal government ia hardly 4
remedy for oyer-taxation by the
state government. Our present busi-
ness is with the government of the
state, which we have seen for years
running wild in extravaganza with
nobody seeming able to stop it.
l am not charging criminalitv
upon any one. ! am stating facts
which plainly result from having tho
government controlled by the weak
ness Of human nature rather than by
its strength
Let me state the figures of the ap-
A priations of public money made by
the Legislature of New York, for the
III decade ending on the 30th of June,
The general budget appropriations
Tor all purposes made from the
funds OF the state each year for the
next succeeding year were: