Jasper County Democrat, Volume 9, Number 28, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 13 October 1906 — GOVERNOR HANLY'S EXTRAVAGANCE. [ARTICLE]

GOVERNOR HANLY'S EXTRAVAGANCE.

Governor Hanly Is making an effort to defend the extravagance of his administration of his office by asserth>« that he gets more back than he pays out. This assertion has no substantial basis. It is mostly Imaginary and speculative. When it is not that, it is untrue. The Sherrick indebtedness was of record. It had to be paid, either by the corporation which bonded him or by himself or friends, and there was no chance for the state to lose. Storms’ indebtedness was also a matter of record and easy of calculation, and his bond secured it to the state even if he or the Influences behind him had not. made the amount good. The claims made against exstate officers are based upon disputed questions now before the courts. There is an army of bookkeepers and clerks in the state house drawing regular salaries from the treasury, who were capable of Investigating all of the things to which the governor refers if they are capable of earning what the people pay them for their services. But Governor Hanly had some friends who "needed the money" and he gave them the job at $25.00 a day each, and In less than a year paid out over SIO,OOO on this account alone, He posed these men as "experts” though they had no such reputation. It has never been shown that their services had any special value whatever. Besides, Governor Hanly has paid out unknown amounts for special "legal advisers,” “secret agents" and such like. It has been shown time and again that the attorney-general’s office is equipped with a salaried force large enough to handle the state’s business. The employment of other "advisers” by the governor is without justification. It is, Indeed, reprehensible extravagance when it Is remembered that the finances of the state are In a deplorable condition because of the gross wastefulness of the Republican state officials, and that the state is compelled to draw Immense advance sums from the counties in order to pay ita obligations without issuing bonds, and was driven to the necessity of adding a half million dollars to the tax levy for general expenses. When Governor Hanly took his office the state government not only had a deficit of a half million dollars, but within a few months had to draw nearly a million dollars in advances from the counties. And yet in the face of this condition, which the governor spoke of as "embarrassing,’’ he had the legislature appropriate for the use of his office $57,400 a year where Governor Matthews, the last preceding Democratic governor, had found $12,000 sufficient.