The Birmingham age-herald., 1923-09-16

ment of the insane hospital under tho circumstances you relate, be- cause I wanted the institution to have the benefit of them. Release of the conditional appropriation a week earller would have been bet ter, technically, but ] am very glad now to reflect that no technicality was allowed to interfere with the dire necessities of the hospital These are the first building appro- priations the insane hospital has re- ceived in a generation and I am afraid they will be the last for some tme.
 "330. .00o. 0o-Appropriation for Rag land School of Trades and Industries. This amount was released on the day upon whichs the authorities of the school presented evidence of compliance with the conditions im- posed by law for its release.
 'Now.- what does all this mean2 It means simply that you are now
 alarmed at a condition that con tronted you at the beginning of your term. a condition that any novice in finance an daccounting should have foreseen. You were warned of it far in Hdya nee. .- the leading daily papers and many country weeklies nave pointed out the rem edy. sydney J. Bowie gave you WaIuink edy at the state democratic conVen- ton at Montgomerys l warned you last January when l wrote you:
 O o 0
 Fax Machinery Gone
 If you will save the financial ma chlnery from destruction snd operate it to it's full capacity you can let special tax money, such as gasoline tax. go where 1t should go to keep up the public roads You can de- stroy the convict lease system and save our state that humiliating dis
 grace. You can carry the state and It's institutions far on the road of
 progress and you can come out at the end with handsome surplus or,
 what is infinitely better with the satisfaction of knowing that you have spent it for the benefit of the
 people and the upbuildlng of the
 state"
 And may now add that you 1 could have made easy the additional l burden you have assumed by the
 reversal of your announced policy
 of economy and cutting to the | bone
 "But you did not avail yourself of i the remedy it IS not too late now) 1 and you may now seek to throw the | blame on me. I deny the respon ! sibility.
 When complaining about your | difficulties, do no, overlook the fact | that the preseat legislature, at your request, IS making no increased ap- i propriations, thereby stepping the | wheels of progress. Tho legislature 1 of 1919 increased the appropriations
 many millions of dollars. The ap- | propriatlons which I suggested and ! which the legislature authorized, l added to other expenditures. ran the 1 total fer the quadrennium up to | S13,242000 more than the total for | the previous four years And the | money was raised without increas- I ing the tax rate penny. It was
 raised through tax system that 1 pursued the tax dodgers and illegal 1 exemptions and placed escaped taxes i in the treasury.
 i "No two administrations can be ab- i solutely separated. Every governor 1 administers the fiscal affairs of his l successor for three months and a l half. The terms dovetaii into one
 another by tho operation of law. My 1 acts during the last months were 1 lust what they would have been if l had been Ut the beginning of my own 1 administration snG | make bold to l express the belief that if l had con l tinued on to tha. present time. there | would be no such wailing and gnash- 1 ing of teeth fs the people of Ala l bama have been forced to listen to l almost daily during these summer ! days. %tt1
 i 'sWith kind personal regards. I am,
 Very truly yours, |. THOMAS E. KILBY.