Jasper County Democrat, Volume 15, Number 51, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 28 September 1912 — Page 6

MARSHALL STANDS ON HIS RECORD

In South Bend Speech He Tears to Pieces the Trumped-Up Charges Regarding the Finances of State. COL DURBIN A GREASE SPOT Nothing Left of the Republican Nominee’s Silly Charges After the Governor Concludes the Dissection. At a Democratic meeting held in South Bend on the night of Septeniber 24, Governor Marshall sjmke on state finances. He said: Ladies and Gentlemen —Interested as I am in the success of the Democratic ticket and desirous of being succeeded in office by Samuel M. Ralston who, I believe, will for every good thing promoting the general welfare of the people. I beg leave to trespass upon your good nature and crave your indulgence while I dryly discuss State finances, which constitute an important and much misunderstood question. I discuss this question to aid the- people in determining whether they wish to continue Democratic supremacy in Indiana.

The people have been led to believe by recent speeches that this is a government of men. not laws; that the Governor possesses all the power of the State; that he levies and collects taxes and spends the people’s money as he pleases; that he is solely and wholly responsible for the State's finances. This is ridiculous. There Is a constitution in Indiana, however, much people may wish there were not

Thomas R. Marshall Governor.

mnd however little attention they may pay to its provisions. That constitution specifically provides that no money shall be drawn from the treasury but in pursuance of appropriations made by law. The State Board of Finance has nothing whatever to do with the expenditure of public money. Xo power is given it in that particular. Not a dollar can be spent by an administration or by any official except as the General Assembly makes the appropriation and authorizes the expenditure. It inevitably follows from this condition of the constitution and the law that a Democratic administration is responsible for' expenditures only when a Democratic Legislature has made the appropriations.

did not have a Democratic Legislature in Indiana until 1911. When I entered office, the House of Represaentatives was Democratic and the Senate Republican. Compromise had to be employed whenever a question was vital. Not until the 30th day of this month shall we have had a full fiscal year of expenditures authorized by a Democratic General Assembly. State Tax Levy Reduced.

Two simple facts illumine the darkness into which the question of State finances has been thrown by elaborate misrepresentation and complicated comparisons. These are: 1. That the State tax rate has since 1910 been one and one-half cents less «n the one hundred dollars than for •ny year since 1902.

2. That the practice of calling upon county treasurers for advance payments of money due the State, which had been in vogue since ISB6, has been discontinued. 2. That the “Sinking Fund" is being preserved intact for the purpose of paying the State debt. In 1910 the Sinking Fund tax was reduced from three cents to one and onehalf cents on each one hundred dollars. A glance at the back of your tax receipt will prove this. This reduction in the tax rate leaves in the pockets of the people—not in the State treasury, mind you, but in the pockets of the people—927o,ooo a year. This reduction has been in force practically three years which means a saving to the people of SBIO,OOO. The “Sinking Fund” was created to take care of the State debt and trans-, sere from it to the General Fund for current expenses would never have been made had the Legislature of 190* fceedeg my advice. In 1905 the Sinking Fund tax of three cents was aboh

is bed hot this did not mean a reduction in your taxes. The three cents was immedately added to the State revenue tax, making It twelve cents Instead of nine emits.

We had during the years of 1905, 1906 and 190? passed through an extravagant era in public building and I may be permitted at this point to observe that there is a vast difference between needful things and extravagantly needful things, that I have never been opposed to anything which the people of this State needed but that I fiave always been opposed to purchasing needed things in an extravagant manner. The Southeastern Hospital for the Igsace and the new School for the Deaf had been ; started on elaborate scales. These mstitm tions have now been finished, the first at a cost of one million and a half dollars. and the second at a cost of three quarters of a million. For their great cost, no Democratic Legislature and no Democratic administration was responsible. The Legislature of 19t>9 contributed generously to these institutions because of compulsion. After they were sfarted, they had to be completed. and in the way they had been started, 1

This extravagant building era so drained the State's resources that it became necessary to transfer moneys from the Sinking Fund to the General Fund. The Legislatures of 19b9 and of 1911 refrained from authorizing new institutions other than the Hospital for the Criminal Insane at Michigan City—an unpretentious annex to the State Pri6oa. Thiis. with the future clear of large expenditures, these Legislatures found that the Sinking Fund tax, which had been revived in 190 S at three cents, could be reduced to one and one-half cents as the last of the State debt would not be due until April Ist, 1915. They therefore relieved the people to this degree of the burdens of taxation.

State Debt Being Paid. Two hundred and fifty thousand dollars of State debt has been paid since the financial condition has been cleared. One hundred and fifty thousand will be paid next January and each July and January thereafter, as the Sinking Fund is by Democratic legislation being preserved for the single purpose of paying the State debt. My good personal friend. Col. W. T. Durbin, whose administration of State affairs I never mentioned save in the kindliest manner and whose business judgment I have never questioned, has used figures which are misleading. It has been nearly twelve years since he went into office and nearly eight years since he went out. In that period great growth has been made by the State —growth which has been accompanied by greater duties, higher responsibilities and increased expenditures.

When Col. Durbin entered office the total enrollment of the institutions of the State was 9,056; and the total enrollment when he left office was 9,909. The total enrollment now is more than 12,000, actual enrollment on June 30th, last, being 12,442. Since CoL Durbin left office several new institutions have been opened, namely: the Southeastern Hospital for the Insane, the State Tuberculosis Hospital, the Indiana Village for Epileptics and the new School for the Deaf. The Girls' School has also been separated from the Woman’s Prison. These institutions have cost money but economy is not parsimony, and the great State of Indiana is not willing to yield its foremost place among the States of the Union in the matter of caring for its unfortunates.

Not only has the population of the institutions of the- State grown, but the cost of the care and maintenance of the inmates has increased. Yon, men. and women, have observed an increase in maintaining your households; supplies and food products cost you at least fifty per cent, more now than they did eight and twelve years ago. To be exact, the per capita cost of the inmates of the State institutions has increased from $161.35 in 1902 to $197.18 in 1911. This has not been the usual and ordinary increase in the cost of living. It has been kept down to this point by the splendid services of the trustees and of the Board of State Charities. Utmost care has been exercised in the management of our institutions. Each is governed by a board of trustees, composed of two Democrats and two Republicans. If there has been extravagance in their management, it has been bi-partisan extravagance because early in mv administration I set my face as a flint against ripping up the institutions of the State and making them the spoils of partisan politics. There has been no extravagance, as a matter of fact, but the increased population of the institutions and the increased cost of maintenance due to conditions over which neither the State administration nor the General Assembly has any eontrol. have demanded increased expenditures. Saving In Executive Branch.

The cost of the Executive Department is slightly greater now than it was during Col. Durbin's administration. This is due to the increase in the salary of the Governor. Col. Durbin received $5,000 a year as a salary, while his successor and myself have had the pleasure of drawing SB,000. It might be a bit fairer to me if comparison were made between my administration and that of Governor Hanly. This comparison would show a decrease of $700.00 in clerical hire, an elimination of SI,BOO for house rent! another elimination of $250 for traveling expenses for the Governor, and a third elimination of $2,500 for executive accountant, a total decrease of $5,250. This comparison would show an Increase of $3,600 for a legal clerk, and I frankly admit that I asked the Legislature of 1909 for an appropriation for this additional office. It will be recalled that when I went into the office of Governor most of

the State offices, including that of the Attorney-General, were held by Republicans. Mr. Bingham, the AttorneyGentral, publicly stated in one of his campaign speeches that in the .event of my election as Governor, a Monte Carlo w ould be established beneath the dome of the State House. I well knew that Mr. Bingham would have no confidence in inquiries for legal opinions coming from such a man as he thought me to be. I candidly admit that I did not then have much confidence, with politics being played as they were at that time in the State House, in legal opinions coming from Mr. Bingham's office. It developed that the relations between the Governor's office and the Attorney-General's were cordial and a mutual respect existed between Mr. Bingham and myself, but I am speaking of a time when we were comparative strangers, and were prejudiced perhaps by political animosities. Before cordial relations were established with Mr. Bingham, I found that the county local option law was bringing to my office more complaints about "blind tigers” and ‘ boot-legging” than 1 myself could possibly look after, so I kept Mr. New- in my service for practically three years or until the township local option law had begun tc put a stop to complaints with reference to violations of the liquor laws. During my term as Governor I have paid my own house rent, paid my own traveling expenses, paid my own telephone and telegraph and private postage bills, paid for my own newspapers and have been zealous to separate personal items of expense from items of official expense. I am not boasting of these things, but merely stating facts. Charges of waste and extravagance demand an answer, and speaking as Governor I here and now deny the charges as applied to the office of Governor. I think my fellow State officers have been as zealous as myself. Let specific charges be made against them, if doubt exists, and I hazard a guess that each one will come through clean. 1 have no control over my fellow state officers, elected as .1 was by the votes of the people, but I assume control over my own appointees. If any man can point to a padded expense account, to a personal trip taken at the State’s expense, to any misapplication of public funds, to any waste or extravagance as applied to any one of my appointees, I hereby promise to remove him from office or to fail in the undertaking. I will thank any man, Republican or Democrat, who will show me wherein any appointee is guilty of wrong-doing. Comparisons Made.

A yearly appropriation to the office of Governor is one of SI,OOO for office expense. This does not mean that SI,OOO shall be expended. It merely means that 1,000 is made available. It is interesting to point out that in no year of either Gov. Durbin or Gov. Hanlys administration was S2OO of that appropriation allowed to revert, while in no year of my administration has one-half of that appropriation been spent.

I resent the charges of waste and extravagance because of my efforts to induce the Legisdatures of 1909 and 1911 to keep down their appropriations. I had no trouble with the Legislature of 1911. I had ready for the Legislative Visiting Committee, when it was appointed, a return showing what each institution, each department and each board and commission wanted. That committee was thus enabled tb make its investigations without delay. The report of the committee was on the desk of each member of the General Assembly at the opening session, in startling contrast with the practice of former visiting committees which struggled to complete their reports a week or ten days I before the close of the sessions. So orderly and so conclusive was the work of the last visiting committee that | the General Assembly was able early in its session to pass two appropriation bills, one for general expenses and the other for specific appropriations —both of which conformed to the visiting committee’s report and which called for appropriations within the income of the State.

My hard task was in 1909 when the State offices and the General Assembly were politically mixed. Qther than Dr. Aley and Lieutenant-Governor Hall and myself, the State officials were Republicans. The House was Democratic, the Senate Republican. The visiting committee did not have its report completed until one week before the day of adjournment. Four different messages were sent by me to the Legislature in which I urged economy and warned against the unwisdom of making appropriations in excess of the estimated income of the State. I wish to burden you by reading extracts from each of these messages.

Quotations From Messages. On February 19, 1909, I wrote in part as follows: “I desire to call your attention to the accompanying document which has tins morning been received from the Auditor of State. It discloses that before the month of March is ended, unless yon enact some legislation which will compel county treasurers to make advanced payments upon the revenue which will not be due as now provided by law until the semi-annual settlement in June, the treasury of this State will be bankrupt. This will necessitate either the closing of our State Institutions, both penal and eleemosynary, or contracting of indebtedness by them or some scheme to be devised by the State Board of Finance for the purpose of borrowing money with which to run the affairs of the State until the money has been received at the time of the semi-annual settlement in June of this year. “I understand there is a bill before yon to inquire county treasurers to make advancements prior to the semiannual settlement I am reluctantly compelled to say to you that'l see no other way to prevent a bankrupt treasury than for you to pass this MIL”

On February 23, 1909, I sent a *«(*- ond message in which I said in part: “To contract a debt to one thing; to pay it is another. No wise and prudent business manager permits the contracting of a debt without making some provisions for its payment. * * • I had hoped that you would be so conservative in your appropriations that the tax levy might be reduced. I am nbw concerned lest you should make appropriations which can not be met * * * For three years last- past, more than a halfmillion dollars each year has been paid into the State treasury than was paid therein prior to that time, and this fund preceding Legislatures have expended in special appropriations. * * * SBOO,OOO of the State debt is due April 1, 1915, and may be paid April 1, 1910. The Sinking Fund will pay this indebtedness, and it should be paid. * * • The revenue derivable for the years 1910 and 1911 for the general fund will be, approximately, each year, a half-million dollars less than the revenue for 1909. * * * The problem now confronting you is this: Is it your purpose to increase the taxes of the people of Indiana or will you be extremely careful in making your appropriations? * * * “I do not want to extend these suggestions. i am loath to make them. Only an imperative necessity compels me to do so. I beg you to run back through the cost of the General Assemblies. look at the appropriations that have been made and see how they grow. I am constrained to urge these matters upon you, first, because I believe that rigid economy is absolutely necessary and wholly tb be desired in all public affairs; and, secondly, because if there should be a deficit in the State treasury it may not be said that I have not warned the General Assembly.” On March 5, 1909, I sent a third message sayihg in part: "You will pardon me if I again sharply call your attention to the condition of our State finances. * * * I speak frankly yet respectfully to you when I say that I believe it is wholly unsafe to pass the original appropriation bill without cutting $600,000 out of it unless you want to speedily pass a bill for Increased taxation in Indiana. And you will pardon me again if I suggest to you that the people of Indiana want you to make this appropriation within the income, and they want you to make it now. They will not look, in my judgment, with any favor upon a special session of the Legislature.”

My fourth message sent on March 6, 1909, had to do with the Sinking Fund. It was evident at that late hour of the Legislature that the Assembly would not be able to so adjust the general appropriations as to prevent the necessity of using some of the Sinking Fund for the general expenses. I suggested the enactment of a law permitting transfers to be made. Such a law was enacted.

Placing the Responsibility. Bickerings between the Democratic House and the Republican Senate prevented financial reforms that were needed. The original House Bill was much too heavy and to this the Republican Senate added approximately $900,000. The House refused to accede to the Senate additions and the bill went to conference. Democratic conferees complied with my wishes and made wholesale reductions. The Republican conferees refused to permit any cutting. I told the Democratic conferees and the Speaker of the House that I would not sign the bill until reductions had been made. The Republican conferees accused me of bluffing. Late in the afternoon of the last day of the session Thomas M. Honafi, then Speaker of the House and now' Attorney-General, called a Democratic caucus at which the signatures of all Democratic members of the Legislature were obtained to a communication addressed to me in which the signers promised that in the event of a special session of the Legislature, they would Introduce no bills and consider no bills save bills pertaining to State finances. That document is still in my possession. When it became bruited about that the Governor was being backed up by the members of the Legislature of bis party in his threat to veto the appropriation bill and thereby force a special session of the General Assembly, the Republicans brought pressure upon their members of the conference committee with the result that reductions were speedily made. The bill was not to my liking when It came to my desk but in view of the reductions, I found it advisable to sign the bill even though it called for excessive appropriations rather than to involve the State with the expense necessarily attending upon a special session.

Nepotism Weeded Out. Justice demands that the particular extravagances of the Democratic Legislature of 1911 or the Democratic administration be pointed out or that all talk with reference to extravagance cease. In my campaign, I made specific charges. I charged extravagance in the construction of the Southeastern Hospital for the Insane and of the new School for the Deaf. I charged that State employes were drawing extra allowances for so-called “extra” services, and that the State House was filled up with the relatives of the Republicans holding office. This forces me to digress again that I may point out that no Democrat oh the State pay roll is now drawing “extra” pay and to call yonr attention to the fact that the Democratic State officers are not hiring sons; daughters, sons-in-law, daughters-in-law, aunts, uncles, nieces, nephews and cousins to act the business of the State. Nepotism has been weeded out of the Capitol building.

It has been charged that useless boards and commissions have been created. What are they? Is the State Board of Accounts one of them? This board was not created by a Democratis measure. It was championed by both Democrats and Republicans. I am perfectly willing, however, to adopt it as a Democratic child If either wing of the Republican party wants to Xo back on it. The board has been

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of fnestimabalfe value to the people In psrfectlng uniform accounts and In compailing the repayment of money ■which 'lad been either ignorantly or dishonvßtly appropriated but it has had its greatest worth in reducing the expenditures of the people. Its first report discloses that in the purchase of public supplies, under the board’s supervision, there was a net decrease In one year in the expenditures by the township trustees of this State of 5525,764.35.

. Perhaps the State Bureau of Inspection is characterized as useless. It is a consolidation of the mine inspection department, the factory inspection department and the labor commission. It is rapidly cleaning up unsanitary conditions. It is lessening the loss of life and limb my installing safety devices in shops and factories and by putting up fire escapes wherever needed. It is conserving the public health by improving sanitary conditions. Does either wing of the Republican party desire to abolish this bureau? I hazard the prediction that the public will demand increased functions for this bureau from succeeding Legislatures.

Registration Laws Commended. Complaint is made of the cost of the new registration law, and this brings us to a consideration of that new act To be registered is one of the qualifications required by the constitution for voting in Indiana. The Supreme Court long ago decided that it was the duty of the General Assembly to enact a registration law; also, that the law must be general in its character and must apply as well to the man known by everyone as being entitled to vote as to the man known by none as being entitled or as not being entitled to vote. It is unfortunate that the law must be general in its character, but in view of the fact that four years ago. 2,700 men, who had landed, at Ellis Island, New York, in March and April, voted in Lake County, Indiana, the following November thereby killing the votes of 2,700 honest electors of this State, the law is a necessity. I plead with all law-abiding, patriotic citizens to comply with this law, however onerous it may be upon them. Liberty is worth something but liberty also costs something. Your government will be worth nothing to you if men who are not entitled to vote are permitted to destroy the wishes of men who are entitled to vote.

There is nothing embarrassing in connection with registering. The voter may get his slip, take it home, and fill it out and sign it there. He may think that because he has always voted and because everybody knows he has voted, that he ought to continue to vote without registering. This would be true if it were not for the hundreds and thousands of voters who are unknown; no one knows whether they are entitled to vote or not. I beg of you. my fellow citizens, that all who are entitled to vote register next October 7th.

Some of the Laws Enacted. The people of this State are entitled to change their constitution if they can find any way to change it. And they are entitled to change it for the purpose of obtaining the referendum if they want the referendum. If this

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State had the referendum, would it have been applied against any of the acts of the last General Assembly? Do the people want repealed the laws preventing corrupt practices at elections and requiring general registration of voters? Do they want repealed the laws requiring hygienic schoolhouses, regulating the. sale of cold storage products, preventing traffic in white slaves, establishing uniform weights and measures, establishing public playgrounds, providing free treatment for hydrophobia, preventing the sale of cocaine and other drugs, protecting against loan sharks, providing police court matrons? How about the law to curtail child labor? Does anybody wish to repeal it? And how about the laws to create the bureau of inspection and our free employment agencies, to provide the weekly wage, to require the block system on steam and electric roads, to require full train crews, to require safety devices on switch engines, to require efficient headlights on locomotives, to require inspection of locomotive boilers? And what about the law abolishing the doctrine of assumed risk and of fellow-servant and regulating the contributory negligence defense? All these laws were enacted by the last General Assembly and referendum or no referendum, the DeoDle or Indiana would not be willing to let one of them be repealed. IT Cogent Question Asked.

What did the last General Assembly fail to do that the people wanted done? Much is said about the failure of the Legislature to change the highway law and it is charged that this failure was due to the railroad lobby. I was at the State House. The railroad lobby was there and there was also a lobby of road material men that were pushing for the change as hard as the railroad lobby was pushing against it. In my opinion the controlling factor was the laborer and the farmer who wanted to work out their poll and road tax. I recommended the change and I am still in favor of it, but in my opinion the farmer and laboring man must be convinced that it would be a good thing for them or it would fail on a referendum as it failed in the Legislature.

I have always stood for a workman’s compensation act; I also favor the enlargement of the powers of the State Railroad Commission so as to give it control of all public utilities. I shall recommend these enactments to the next General Assembly, and I have no doubt that Mr. Ralston, as my successor, will take pleasure in attaching his signature to the bills. I, myself, would be in favor of a minimum wage for women if I were shown how the women can get it. The last General Assembly went far in every good direction beyond the statements of the party platform. The next Assembly will do likewise. The Democratic party is responsive to the needs and the wishes of the people. Its Legislators will meet every reasonab:: request

Job printing of the better class type, ink and typography in harmony—The Democrat office.