The Dolores star., 1924-10-24
To the Voters of Dolores and
MOntezuma Counties.

surprise TO me as | had not supposed
that there was single person in this
section who could possibly support such
vicious bill as this was. However l
welcome the opportunity to tell you
about it. or anything else that | did
while acting as your representative.
Let us see what the history of this
bill is, Two years ago both parties
were talking of cutting State taxes.
thing that both knew could not be done
and not cripple some of the departments
or Industries of the State. Mr..
Lambert of Sedalia introduced bill in
the House known as the Lambert. or
Consolidation bill No. l.
To consolidate all the boards and
commissions of the state under the
State officers that are elected by the
people every two years. this would cost
nothing extra for the heads of these
departments and would put the work in
the department where it belonged and
would be a big saving to the State.
This bill was worked upon by many of
the best men of the State during much
of the last session of the Legislature
as well as before, unit it was thought
that they had workable bill, and you
will find copy of the ammended bill in
the House journal of the eighty fourth
day.
Many of US We're not entirely satisfied
with the bill. but it seemed to be the
best we could get and what the people
seemed to want. ! might say however
that in my opinion we already have the
best form of government that it is
possible to obtain, if we only had enough
honest men to carry it out. 1t is honest
men We need above all else. and no
form of government will succeed with
crooks.
Governor Sweet must have known of
the Lambert bill before the Code bill
was drafted so must not have been
the personal power that he wished to
have.
The number of the Governors Code
bill was 24S and must have been
introduced several days after the
Lambert bill so it looks as though this
bill might have been introduced as
sort of spite bill for political purposes,
but let US see what the provisions are.
There were to be nine heads of
departments appointed to take over all
of these various boards and the Governor
was to make these appointments and in
only one case, that in the Department
of mines do the appointments have to
be approved by the Senate. con-
sequently you would be ruled by anyone
he choose to appoint. This simply
means that the Governor would become
dictator, absolutely, in all State
affairs. In my opinion this is entirely
too much power to give to any one man,
and especially the man we now have.
The salaries of these appointees no
doubt would be sufficient
Let me quote you little of Sec. of |
this bill THE commissioners of the
respective departments shall receive !
such salaries as may be fixed by the
Legislature in the General Appropria-
tion Act. The division heads, sub
ordinate officers, assistants and
employees of the respective departments
shall receive such compensation as shall |
be fixed by the commissioner of the |
Department under which such officers, |
assistants and employees may be /
employed; but such compensation shall
be fixed only upon the authority of the |
department Of Finance and with the |
approval of the Governor. Does this .
sound like economy? The fact of the
matter Is that this bill if it had become
law would have put burden on the .
tax payer that he could not have been |
able to meet Even the better
Democrats of the House came to me
and asked that | help kill the bill as it
would embarass them at home if they |
had to vote against the Governors bill. I
but that they would do so if it were
necessary to kill The bill, SO you see
this was not bill for the Democrats |
but for the Governor
In no state where consolidated form
of government has been adopted has
the tax been reduced but on the other
hand they have been increased
enormously, in some cases as in Illinois
and Nebraska they have done their
best to repeal the act, but the organiza-
tion has been so powerful that it seems
t. be impossible.
But why judge an official by one act
alone? Why not ask about the Farmers
Co-operative bill which was drawn by
the farmers and sanctioned by the
Governor, who tried to make it a party
issue. | vouched for this bill myse,f
and with Swinehart introduced it in the
House and II would have become law
except for the lack of legislative
experience of the Governor in Trawing