USA > Ohio > Ohio legislative history, 1913-1917 > Part 24
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It is not a cynical impulse which prompts the observation that the question of taxation, and particularly the method of assessing property for that purpose, will not be finally solved much in advance of the mil- lennium. Government has always found it the most vexatious problem, and doubtless it always will.
The cities are growing more rapidly in population than anyone ever believed they would, and modern public service has so promoted the improved surroundings and safety of the home as to bring about a sus- tained insistence for its extension and in many instances, regardless of increased cost through taxation.
We must be reminded, however, that large office buildings have been constructed and real estate has been improved in amounts aggre- gating millions of dollars, largely because of the guarantee of a fixed limit in the tax rate, and the reasons for this are obvious. Leases are made for a given term of years, while the tax rate fluctuates, and with- out a limit being fixed, the proper return on investment might be easily dissipated. This subject enters so vitally, therefore, into the growth and stability of local conditions, that the principle of the Smith law should not be impaired, and yet if we adhere blindly to it as a fetich, the action withheld in a desire to preserve the law, may lead to its destruction, so that we must approach its consideration with the idea
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of strengthening it, by adjustment to conditions that could not have been foreseen when the law was written. While it may seem a contradiction that the lift'ng of the limitation may vitalize the law itself, still, on reflection, the theory seems sound. There are certain pioneer funda- mentals in government that necessarily so over-shadow more recent policies as to speak an arbitrary command. Common honesty presup- poses the payment of every debt incurred by local subdivisions through honorable transaction, and in a number of municipalities, it is impossible now to provide within the limitation of fifteen mlls, for both the pay- ment of accruing bonded debts, and simple governmental necessities. Time will correct the present archaic and illogical system of listing property for taxation. Public opinion on this as on other subjects will be automatically moulded by plain demonstration of fact and fallacy. Until the change is made, however, it may be necessary to give some elasticity to the Smith law.
The Eightieth General Assembly authorized the appointment of a commission to investigate the financial condition of local government, and to see whether it was possible, either by a new plan of distribution of revenues as between the state and local subdivisions, or by a construc- tive change in the law, to provide for the very emergencies described. The same general assembly also reduced the state tax levy, and under this reduction the state is hardly able to surrender any of its revenues, and continue to match disbursements with receipts. In this connection, it is well to remember that the expenses of the state government last year, for the first time in a long while, exceeded its income. Certainly the relief needed cannot be afforded in this way. The committee on inves- tigation already referred to, has expended a great deal of time, the leadership in the work having been assumed by Mr. Stewart L. Tatum of Springfield, whose service has been of such higher order and so patriotically rendered as to call for this acknowledgment. It is his judg- ment that the safest step lies in the direction of taking the sinking fund and interest charge out of the first ten mills in the limitation. Obviously the exception from the five mills making up the difference between the ten and fifteen mills is not recommended because that relates to improve- ments authorized by a vote of the people. If the sinking fund and in- terest expense are lifted out of the first ten mills, it should only be done by local option. If necessity for it exists, it ought to be voiced by the people themselves through their suffrage right.
It might be well, also, to supplement this plan if it meets with your adoption, with an added check on the issuance of bonds. The Long- worth act is a wise measure, and the necessity of restraint in turning out bond issues has been rendered plain by the abuses of the past. A
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provision such as the Smith law carrying arbitrary features is ofttimes necessary to bring the hour of reflection and inventory. Only through its enactment, apparently, has the public been brought to a measurable understanding, of the unfortunate laxity in the past, in the issuance of bonds. That detail was so unbusinesslike and so unfair to the succeed- ing generation, as to make its long continuance seem almost incredible. Long time bonds were issued for purely temporary improvements. Inevitably they fell upon a time and generation that did not. profit by the service provided for. Bonds are being paid that were issued for projects long ago out of existence.
The agricultural affairs of the state need some attention legislatively. They are entitled, by virtue of changes that have been made from one plan to another in the last few years, to a stable policy. The agricul- tural commission act as passed by the Eightieth General Assembly was intended primarily to remove duplication in service and bring about a co- ordination of endeavor by the several departments. While it was changed by the Eighty-first General Assembly, in keeping with the rul- ing administrative thought at that time, of decentralization, duplication in work was not restored. Legislative change should not be made from the mere impulse of pride in authorship. Whatever of good there is in the present plan, should be preserved, and the alterations that are necessary should be made with the least disturbance possible. Pursuant to that sentiment, I recommend that the title of Secretary to the Agricul- tural Board be changed to that of Secretary of Agriculture. The board serves without compensation, and the secretary is the administrative officer in fact, and as such should have a more commanding status, with the board behind him in an advisory capacity. In every successful business heads of departments are permitted to work out details, un- hampered. Any other plan is entirely inconsistent with the exaction from their superiors of definite result. Either the board or the secre- tary of agriculture must be the active unit, responsive to almost daily requirements, and in view of the unremunerative service rendered by the board, and the small amount of time that it gives to the task, it is illogical to entirely subordinate the responsible man on the job to the board which meets only at intervals. A plan should be adjusted, how- ever, which will not only enable the board to render valuable advisory and co-operative service, but give it the power also to apply certain checks and control. In addition to this, the heads of the respective branches of agriculture ought to be tied together by a co-ordinative policy that cannot but be efficient. I would recommend, therefore, that the governor, the secretary of agriculture, the dean of the College of Agriculture, and the director of the experimental station be formed into
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an agricultural council, and that meetings be held at least monthly for the purpose of avoiding duplication, and promoting harmony of action between the educational, scientific, and purely administrative departments devoted to the subject of agriculture. This will entail no financial cost.
A uniform system of accounting should be established for the state board of agriculture. The state fair is a useful institution. Efficient service is very often overlooked if the system of financial accounting is careless. It might be a very wise precaution to provide that the auditor of state apply this requirement to the affairs of the state fair.
The State Grange, after a careful inquiry into the subject of mar- kets and marketing, has recommended that a bureau charged with the promotion of a system of mutually helpful exchange between the producer and consumer, be joined to the department of agriculture. This has been so successfully tried in Europe as to render the application of the device here more than an experiment. I concur in this suggestion, and submit it for your consideration.
Attention should be directed to the election laws. They need both revision and recodification. They are a confused jumble of legislative piece-work covering a period of twenty-five years. Whenever occasion seemed to suggest statutory change, a law was passed to meet that im- mediate requirement, without regard to legislation upon similar subjects, and with no idea of co-ordination. Eight sections deal with the need of apportioning and defraying the expense of election between the various units of government. The state auditor, Mr. Donahey, reports that the bureau of accounting is without definite information as to whether the boards of elections are making a proper distriubtion of these expenses because the provisions of the statute are both contra- dictory and unintelligible. There are at least five different forms for submitting different questions to the vote of the people. The machinery of elections is very expensive. It costs about a million dollars a year to exercise our right of suffrage. The board of elections makes expend- itures without restraint, being limited by neither appropriation nor budget. It would seem quite unnecessary to elaborate upon the unsafety of this practice.
Students of the subject suggest that cost might be diminished by reducing the number of registration days, and making primary day a registration day, as some states have done. This would popularize the primary and insure a larger vote. The cost to candidates might be reduced by changing primary date from August to September, and thus shortening the campaign. At any rate, the election laws should be re- codified with care and without unnecessary expense. It is recommended, therefore, that a legislative committee be appointed for this purpose, and
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to examine also into the Massachusetts plan of voting. Its chief recom- mendation is that it encourages independent suffrage action, and brings a fuller understanding of the issues. It is always wise in contemplating an important change in law and custom to precede legislative act by careful survey. The executive recommendation is made pursuant to that thought.
The primary law should be changed so as to provide for the rota- tion of names on the ballot, and thus destroy the very unfair advantage accruing from location by alphabet. It is a very simple thing to do, and so manifestly right that there should be neither delay nor hesitation in the change.
The absence of Ohio soldiers from their homes brings to public notice the importance and propriety of passing an absent voters' law. These men have left both home and business, at probably the most pros- perous time the country has ever known. Opportunity has been sacrificed to patriotism, and yet under existing election laws, the further penalty has been imposed of depriving them of their suffrage rights. There are other citizens who lose their voting privilege because their normal respon- sibilities and assignments carry them away from home. Society inveighs against indifference in voting and properly so, but government does not provide reasonable means, for the interested class of voters to render response to a commanding duty of citizenship. Sufficient attention has been given to this matter to warrant the assurance that the absent voting plan is entirely feasible without in any way disturbing the registration laws or promoting the opportunity for fraud. I earnestly recommend the passage of such a law.
The Eightieth General Assembly passed the Gregory act which separated the state and national tickets in the election - the purpose being to keep national and local issues apart. It was repealed by the Eighty-first General Assembly, and the old arrangement restored through the Hulswitt law. The first measure, disassociating the ballots had been recommended for years by non-partisan students of the subject, and was based upon principle. None will deny the Hulswitt act was prompted entirely by political expediency, and it should be repealed.
In the authorization of public expense, you should be mindful of economy, and surround the state departments so far as you can, with such checks and restraints as to prevent extravagance, but it should be a constructive, and not a false economy. Let us speak plainly on this subject. Government, under modern auspices is given enlarged func- tions. We are finding out that the government which belongs to the people can render service to them which was not attempted under the old order. The inventive and experimental genius of man has been
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more generally and more intensively applied to this subject in the last decade than ever before, and in this evolutionary development provincial- ism is departed from, and the state is given new assignments upon the very sensible idea that the larger unit not only promotes efficiency, but economy as well. If theory amounts to anything, it must have a prac- tical result, and what society exacts from government, it must pay for.
Coming to the concrete : There is no economy in making inadequate provision for the wards of the state, and if money were saved at the sacrifice of self-respect, the circumstance would be a reproach to the commonwealth. Our governmental unit conceived by an intelligent citi- zenship and builded on resource unsurpassed almost in its diversity and richness, will never claim the reverence it deserves unless in policy it is so sympathetic as to insure relief and measurable comfort for the weak and unfortunate. It is one thing to help those in unhappy plight and quite another duty to society to pursue an investigation that will supply a safe and effective direction of energy, for the purpose of providing against conditions that needlessly help to fill our institutions. The juvenile research bureau ought to be given the fullest opportunity to test its utility. Just as other states were anxiously awaiting the results in Ohio following its creation, the work was almost, if not entirely, abandoned. It should be restored.
There is no economy in the ultimate, in giving the banking depart- ment insufficient funds, because impaired regulation breeds neglect, and one bank failure may carry a loss of ten times the amount saved through unwise legislative provision.
There is nothing gained in making such paltry allowance for the inspection of building associations as to bring the work at times to an absolute stop. Public confidence in these institutions is an asset to so- ciety not to be measured by a few thousand dollars.
In the year 1914 there were 77,753 industrial accidents in Ohio. In 1916 more than twice as many, or 166,137. This increase has been oc- casioned in some part by our enlarged industrial activity, but the element of governmental neglect in inspection is too outstanding to be denied.
It is a great thing to provide compensation for the widow and chil- dren of those who are lost in the course of employment, but it is a greater thing to protect the life of the worker so that he may be spared. It is desirable to help the permanently disabled worker through our compensation law, but more desirable to protect him against injury in the first instance. As much as we are devoted to the benefits which flow from the workmen's compensation law, we are infinitely more in- terested in saving the lives and limbs of our laboring people by prevent- ing avoidable accidents. There is a great economic loss in avoidable ac-
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cidents. They not only shock our sensibilities, but impose a burden on industry. If such inspection were made more efficient, it would be pos- sible in this constructive prevention to reduce the premium charges to the employer, and at the same time increase compensation to the injured and dependents. The allowance for death claims is not sufficient now.
In connection with the subject matter of prudent expense, we should consider the importance of strengthening our budget system. It is be- ing adopted by other states. It has made it possible for the affairs of our government to be placed on a business basis. It opened the way for specific appropriations and it will not only effect a saving in money, but a compact budget carries with it a definite administrative plan, and the members of the Assembly serving in their representative capacity are entitled certainly to some understanding as to what is to be done, and what the cost will be.
Our people have not only endorsed the work of prison reform, begun in the state, but regarded it with pride and enthusiasm. The hope is expressed that the assembly will render such assistance to the project as will make it possible to regain the lost ground. Adequate ap- propriations should be made to begin the work of construction on the prison farm at London. It is unnecessary to elaborate on the great good that will come to society from this project. We have tangible results as a confirmation of the theory upon which it was originally based. Just why prison facilities are no longer availed of in making brick for the highways is not apparent. Brief time should reveal whether impediments actually exist. If they do they should be removed.
The liquor license law should be changed so as to set forward the date of issuing licenses from November to May or June, preferably. The grants come too near the election, and there is the twofold danger of intimidation being practiced on deserving licensees, and political ser- vice influencing undeserving licenses. The arm of government which forgets in the excitement of a campaign the proprieties that should rule, can hardly be regarded as a safe agency to enforce regulation, and respect for law afterward.
The Cass road law, passed by the Eighty-first General Assembly, possessing as it does, some virtues, is still full of frailties. It required very liberal legal interpretation to give it an administrative start. I understand that the department of justice has, by amendments drafted, removed both incongruity and unwise provision. I recommend the most careful attention to this very important subject because the im- provement of the highways is a very definite contribution to progress.
The grateful voice of the state ought to be raised in recognition of the service rendered by our soldier on the border. It has been more
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trying, probably, in some respects than the excitement and adventure of actual hostilities, and yet our boys have demeaned themselves so as to give spur to our pride and win the approbation of the federal gov- ernment.
You can do no more in promoting the general welfare than by carefully conserving the state institutions of learning, and giving them ample facilities, within prudent bounds, however, to meet accumulating responsibilities.
The auditor of state, Mr. Donahey, after four years of singularly efficient service, marked by intelligent analysis of conditions, and a courageous insistence on the enactment of law, presents a number of suggestions remedial in character. I commend them to your very ear- nest attention.
Let me lay particular emphasis on the necessity of safeguarding the suffrage thought of the state from the dangers of corrupt influences. The sums of money expended for so-called political purposes are as- suming such magnitude as to cause seemingly well-founded alarm, if not to justify the belief that the legitimate purpose of campaigning is being exceeded. Unfettered by law, this tendency might result in the waters of our free institutions being poisoned at the very base. Reduced to simple terms, the object of a campaign is to inform the voters on every subject that legitimately and germanely joins to the issues and the candidates. Any step beyond this, and any project opposed to it in motive, cannot but be regarded as dangerous. Human frailties should not be played upon by vast treasures of money advanced by men or movements whose huge disbursements can hardly be looked upon as of patriotic inspiration. It is not necessary to expend large amounts of money for the promotion of a worthy cause, and inversely, any cause or candidacy having behind it unprecedented financial support is likely to be regarded with suspicion. It may, through legislation, be necessary to restrain irresponsible organizations whose existence and activities are born of a hidden design, conceived by some interest afraid to operate in the open. I recommend that a legislative committee of in- vestigation be appointed with the power to employ counsel, and the authority to summon persons and papers and to swear witnesses in order that it might be known just what organizations have been enter- ing into campaign activities, and how much money they expended and collected - also the names of the contributors. This should extend also to candidates. The facts as adduced will then be a safe guide as to the necessity of strengthening the corrupt practices act, or more rigorously enforcing existing law, or both.
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The commission which has recently submitted its report in favor of establishing a home for crippled children, has so apparently marked their survey with patriotic zeal, and the recommendations seem to be based on such firm conviction that you can afford to carefully weigh them. Believing the general welfare will be promoted by the establish- ment of such a home, I recommend its authorization.
JAMES M. Cox, Governor.
CHAPTER III Governor Cox Bids Farewell To Soldiers
D URING the first week of October, 1917, Governor Cox accom- panied by Mrs. Cox, his daughter Helen, and Adjutant Gen- eral Wood went to Mineola, Long Island, New York, to say farewell and Godspeed to the Ohio boys who were leaving for France. The Governor's party were escorted from New York City by staff officers of General Mann who took them by motor to the camp at Mineola.
The Governor addressed the soldiers as follows:
"So soon as it was known that orders to sail had been received by the Rain- bow Division, the state that you have the honor to represent, and which is glorified by your service, desired that there might be some evidence of the interest in your comfort, your happiness, and your safety that is felt by every household back home. I have come to the very edge of the ocean to speak what is in the heart of Ohio, and I wish I possessed the power of thought and the facility of speech to express the emotions of our people.
"There have been famous regiments in the armies of the Republic-there may be many more but there has not been, nor will there be, a regiment more famous than your own. You are the first Ohio unit in all the history of our gov- ernment to cross the ocean. It is a compliment to the officers and men of the Fourth Ohio to have the War Department make you a part of the Rainbow Division, and to be thrown now into the strength of the western front means that no organization is fitter than your own.
"When the history of the Fourth Ohio is written, it will not only be made up of the glorious achievement of its officers and men, but it will stand out forever because of the conspicuous honors that a combination of circumstances has brought to it. It will be recorded that for the first time in all history, a vast army is crossing the seas possessed of no desire and no lust for land or domain. Beyond question you will be ordered to the shores of France and you will bear the proud distinction of being the first to pay the debt we owe the Republic that helped our fathers to achieve their freedom.
"Of all the human emotions, none is more magnificent than gratitude. I like to recall a circumstance of Lafayette's visit in 1825 which impressively spoke the indissoluble tie between France and the United States. Jefferson had written the Declaration of Independence, and his genius had fired the soul of Virginia and the whole country. Lafayette had stirred the hearts of France into sympathetic action for the American colonists. As an old man, he came back to the land that he had helped to free. Every community that he visited proclaimed him the hero of the hour, and spoke its gratitude. In the course of his pilgrimage, he went to Monticello, and as he approached the threshold, Jefferson, with the unsteady
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tread of years, met him on the front lawn, and the sons of two Republics fell into each other's arms, and mixed their tears of joy.
"The sons of France came to us in time of stress, and now you go to them, when a military autocracy threatens to pillage their land and destroy their govern- ment. What a wonderful part you play in the most wonderful of all the world dramas-the most impressive service of gratitude that history will ever write.
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