USA > Ohio > Ohio legislative history, 1913-1917 > Part 7
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"Laws may also be passed * * k. to provide for the regulation of methods of mining, weighing, measuring and marketing coal, oil, gas and others minerals."
The bill as presented by the mining commission differs from that passed in 1898 in that the rights of the operators are now amply safe- guarded as against the further disadvantage of being required to accept and dispose of too large a percentage of fine or slack coal in their product.
In the closing days of the regular session of this assembly the sev- enteenth amendment to the Constitution of the United States received formal and complete ratification. This amendment provides
First: "For the election of United States Senators by the direct vote of the people instead of as formerly by the State legislatures.
Second: "When vacancies happen in the representation of any State in the Senate, the executive authority of such State shall issue writs of election to fill such vacancies; provided, that the legislature of any State may empower the executive thereof to make temporary appointments until the people fill the vacancies by election as the legislature may direct."
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Taking these in order, the first provision requires certain changes to be made in our primary and election laws to provide the necessary machinery for the new manner of election.
The second provision also necessitates certain action on the part of the legislature. The federal Constitution as it formerly read con- ferred by its terms power on the State executive to fill any vacancies that might occur in the representation of any State in the Senate of the United States until the legislature of the State should meet and fill such vacancies in the regular manner. This is now changed by that part of the seventeenth amendment quoted in full above. If a vacancy should now occur before the Governor can act power must have been conferred upon him by the Legislature of his State and, unless such power has been conferred by act of the law-making body, there is no way of filling such a vacancy until a special election shall have been had in the manner provided by law. An instance of this very kind occurred in the sister State of Alabama, being brought about by the death of Senator Johnson of that State. The Governor desired to fill the vacancy by appointment, but it was held that he could not do so as no such power had been given him by the Alabama legislature since the adoption of the seventeenth amendment to the federal Constitution.
I therefore recommend the passage of a bill which would provide for the nomination of candidates for United States Senator in exactly the same way as State officers are nominated. This gives force and effect to the spirit of both the national provision for the direct election of Senators by the people and the State-wide primary law passed in this State. The people now have the right to elect the Senators. The change herewith suggested would place the nomination of candidates upon the base of popular government.
It becomes our duty, also, by force of a change in the federal Con- stitution, to provide by legislative enactment for the filling of a vacancy occasioned by death, resignation or removal. We have operated for years under the arrangement of having the Governor fill any vacancy in State offices by appointment until such time as the people could elect. This plan with reference to the Senator obtained here in the past and is being carried out in other States under the federal amendment, and I recommend its adoption here.
It will be gratifying to the members of the general assembly re- sponsible for the passage of the budget bill to know that under its opera- tion tremendous economies are being affected. Large sub-divisions of government all over the world are adopting the system. The science of the budgetary plan consists in segregating departmental expense. The work is placed in charge of an expert who labors the whole year. His
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service and the information which he derives will so buttress the com- mittees of finance in both the House and Senate that the disbursements of the State will be placed on a purely business base. It is my informa- tion that the budget chief, through the chairman of the committees on finance, will point out to you very large economies which can be made by the repeal of the 1914 appropriation bill and the passage of a budget to replace it. It is my recommendation that this be done.
At the last session the Warnes Automobile Law was passed. It provided that two-thirds of the net proceeds of automobile licenses should pass to the general revenue fund of the State and that one- third should be used for the repair, maintenance, protection, policing and patroling of the public roads and highways of the State under the control of the Highway Department.
The development of the automobile industry and the increased utility of this form of mechanism make it certain that the police power of the State must be exercised in added measure for the control and regulation of this traffic. The science of government suggests concen- tration of all kindred activities; and in keeping with this principle it is herewith recommended that the Warnes Law be so changed as to place all funds under it derived with the Highway Department. Under this plan there can be co-ordination of the state's activities with refer- ence to the maintenance, protection, policing and patrolling of the public highways.
The principle of direct legislation is so well grounded in genuine democracy, and laws based upon it will result in such ultimate good to the state, that some legislation should be provided for the fullest pro- tection of the Initiative and Referendum
It is but a simple narrative of the facts to state that the same interests in the commonwealth which tried in the first instance to prevent the adoption of the Initiative and Referendum sought, with the arrogant and corruptive use of money and the reprehensible methods of forgery and perjury, to bring these measures into such disrepute as to bring about their repeal. The effort to defeat progressive and humani- tarian laws which was made during the last summer - particularly the Workmen's Compensation and the Taxation Measures - with the de- fensible tactics which joins to it, are so well known as the result of decisions by the highest judicial tribunal in this state and the Secretary of State that they need not be recounted here except to observe that they have rendered necessary the passage of amendments to the general code which will provide against abuses and at the same time preserve the principle.
Other states which have adopted the Initiative and Referendum
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found it imperative to refine and strengthen the laws as experience suggested. A reform of such magnitude can hardly be expected to work perfectly at the outset. Every great invention, even though con- ceived along fundamentally correct lines, must be perfected by experi- ence. This observation should be a sufficient answer to those who sin- cerely, or otherwise, hold any misgivings as to the wisdom of the Initia- tive and Referendum because of the frauds which were perpetrated last summer.
The constitution provides that the bill which is to be initiated or upon which a referendum is sought must be published in full on the petition. Other states have devised the plan of publishing also a synopsis of not more than seventy-five words. It seems to me that this could wisely be adopted.
In Montana, California and Maine the checking system has worked well, and it is now proposed in a constitutional amendment in Missouri. Under this arrangement the circulator of a petition in a county contain- ing a city where registration of voters is required shall submit the petition to the deputy supervisors of elections for the purpose of com- paring the signatures with those on the registration lists. If names are contained that are not found on the registration lists the burden of proof as to the legality of the signatures shall be upon the circulator.
Court decisions in Oregon and in this state would suggest a pro- vision that if five or more fraudulent signatures are found on a petition circulated by any person, all signatures shall be presumed to be fraudu- lent, and the burden of proving them genuine shall be on the person filing the petition.
The constitution does not provide for a hearing, a procedure which is obviously necessary and which, it is admitted, should be before the Secretary of State. A law should be passed which will facilitate the matter of determining the legitimacy of any initiative or referendum project. This has been done in Oklahoma.
The underlying spirit of the corrupt practice laws in the state and nation is the ascertainment of the influences behind candidates or meas- ures. We can with profit compel a sworn itemized statement when the petition is filed showing all money or things of value paid, given or promised for circulating such petitions. The experience in Oregon and in Ohio would seem to point out the necessity of having no one circulate petitions in any county except legal electors of the sub-division.
A vicious practice was established of signing the same name more than once to the same petition. This should be made a misdemeanor ; and any one who steals or attempts to steal or wilfully destroys or
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mutilates a petition which is being or has been legally circulated, should be deemed guilty of a felony or misdemeanor.
The notarial abuses have been a disgrace to the state, and a law should be passed providing that any notary who takes and certifies to any affidavit to which the oath or affirmation of the affiant thereto has not been taken should be guilty of a misdemeanor.
A stringent measure should also be adopted with reference to . forgery and perjury.
In order to correct the abuses growing out of circulating the petitions for pay, the Oregon suggestion of permitting no one to file a petition with more than two hundred names upon it might be adopted.
It seems to me also that the possibility of intimidation should be provided against by prohibiting the circulation of a petition in any factory, industrial plant or mercantile establishment by the owner, manager, foreman or any other person acting in a managerial or super- visory capacity.
Section 24 of the general code provides that every Monday each state officer, department, board or commission shall pay to the treasurer of state all proceeds of fees, penalties, fines, costs, sales, rentals or other- wise collected during the preceding week, and shall at the same time render a statement of the same to the auditor of state. Subsequent to the passage of this act certain laws were passed which authorized the receipt by a number of departments and commissions of licenses and other collections which could not be well construed as being within the purview of the language of section 24. Certain departments also had the right to pay certain expenses out of such collections before accounting for the same. As it is in the interest of an efficient account- ing financial system that all state moneys, no matter from what source or by whom or by what branch of the state government received, should pass through the state treasurer's office, a comprehensive amend- ment is now suggested requiring every person or agent of the state, no matter how designated, who receives any money for the state, no matter how the same may be termed, to deposit the same weekly with the state treasurer and render report thereof to the state auditor.
The Currency Law recently passed by Congress will place the state banks at some disadvantage unless they are, by state authority, permitted to become members of the federal reserve banks, and are given the privilege now accorded to national banks to act as trustee, executor, administrator, or registrar of stocks or bonds under certain conditions. The importance of these two changes in the banking laws of the state are so apparent that they need not be elaborated upon.
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Section 4 of article 18 of the constitution (The Municipal Home Rule Amendment) as adopted in the fall of 1912, provides as follows :
"Sec. 4. Any municipality may acquire, construct, own, lease and operate within or without its corporate limits, any public utility the product or service of which is or is to be supplied to the municipality or its inhabitants, and may contract with others for any such product or service. The acquisition of any such public utility may be by condemnation or otherwise, and a municipality may acquire thereby the use of, or full title to, the property and franchise of any company or person supplying to the municipality or its inhabitants the service or product of any such utility."
Section 3939 of the general code states the purposes for which the council of a municipality may issue bonds. The Mills Bill (H. B. 351) adds to these purposes the following :
"28. For acquiring, constructing, improving or extending within and with- out its corporate limits, any public utility, the product or service of which is or is to be supplied to the municipality or its inhabitants."
Further, in the same bill section 3949 was amended in this way, under the present law there are exempted from the limitations of the Longworth Act any bonds issued for the purpose of purchasing, con- structing, improving and extending waterworks when the income from such waterworks is sufficient to cover the cost of all operating expenses, and interest charges and to place a sufficient amount to a sinking fund to retire such bonds when they become due. The change proposed by the Mills Bill is to strike out "waterworks" and insert "public utility" in lieu thereof, thus making exempt from the limitations of the act bonds issued on account of any public utility when the income from such utility reaches the standard now set for waterworks bonds.
The Mills Bill further authorizes the private sale by the municipal treasurer of bonds which remain unsold after having been advertised and offered at public sale. The 79th general assembly enacted two sec- tions of the general code, both numbering 3939 and differing from each other in their terms. To straighten out this conflict it became neces- sary to repeal both sections as contained in volume 102 Ohio Laws. Unfortunately in attempting to do this the language of the Mills Bill was so changed by amendment as to apply to more sections of the general code than the particular two sought to be repealed. To prevent this it became necessary to disapprove the Mills Bill. The recommenda- tion is submitted for the repassage of the bill as a matter of good faith with your honorable body and for the further reason that the public interests will be conserved by this legislation. The Longworth Act was passed in 1902, and never contemplated the conditions developed
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by the change in the constitution. The measure suggested now not only makes the Longworth Law harmonious with the present situation, but places the operation of municipally owned utilities on its own footing. Those who favor municipal ownership contend that the plan will yield not only improved service but lower rates. There will be no way of demonstrating this except by the dissociation of the utility owned by the city and the purely municipal fiscal operations.
On the other hand, those opposing municipal ownership claim that apparent low rates and profitable operation, are mere matters of book- keeping, and that the city as a whole is assessed through direct taxa- tion to make up a deficit growing out of inadequate rates or incompetent management or both. The Mills Bill will establish the wisdom of municipal ownership where occasion calls for it, and with equal force reveal any lack of the necessity of the project if that should be the case in other cities.
I deem it proper to submit to the assembly a brief statement of the fiscal affairs of the State. The loss from the floods was very severe. The items making up the expense taken from the auditor's records are as follows :
Ohio National Guard, for relief work. $300,000.00
Liquor tax refunders caused by the flood. 75,000.00 Board of Public Works to repair flood damages. 345,000.00 Relief for flood victims and incidental flood expenditures 300,000.00
making a total of over a million dollars.
In addition to this there were other extraordinary expenses which it was necessary to pay in the year just past. Among the important items may be named the cost of printing and circulating the constitu- tional amendments and advertising same, $150,000,000; advertising ex- penses incurred by the constitutional convention, $63,000.00; Perry's Victory Centennial, $110,000.00; deficiencies authorized by the emer- gency board and debts of 1912, $215,023.23; unauthorized deficiencies and claims against the state on liabilities of former years, $98,813.63.
Notwithstanding these disbursements occasioned by circumstances beyond our control, there is in the treasury today more money than at any time in the history of the state. The auditor of state in his report states that for the first time the records of the commonwealth will show at the end of the fiscal year an unencumbered cash balance, free of all liabilities, appropriations, etc.
In this connection, it is of interest to know that under the com- petitive bid plan for state funds, there was derived this year from in- terest the sum of $277, 165.89 - sufficient to pay the entire cost of the
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following departments : Executive, Lieutenant Governor, Attorney General, Treasurer of State, Secretary of State (main office), and Sec- retary of State (vital statistics). Since this plan was put into operation under the administration of Governor Harmon the state has received as interest on public moneys $850,924.56.
In the past the emergency board has been really a second legislature, without any limitations whatsoever. At the regular session the law was changed, placing a positive limitation on the board, and appropriating for its use a stated sum beyond which it cannot go. It has been a com- mon practice for many years for the emergency board to authorize certain expenditures which were regularly appropriated at the subsequent ses- sion of the legislature, the result being that no year has shown its real expense because inheritances came from the previous annual period. The real situation can be made more comprehensive when it is shown that the administration of Governor Herrick inherited deficiencies amounting to $152,404.54; Governors Pattison-Harris, $304,576.71 ; Governor Harmon, $144,530.16; and the present administration, $313,836.86. Under the new plan not a dollar of the expense incurred during the present year by the emergency board will go into the next year because the appropriation for the emergency board was carried in the budget of 1913. The conveyance of expense from one administra- tion to the next is done away with.
In my message to the regular session I congratulated the members of the assembly on the privilege of participating in the great movement of reform which had been consigned by positive mandate of the people. I am sure that the circumstances warrant the expression of executive felicitations to the legislative branch at this time upon the demonstrated wisdom of your work. The laws reflect not only a broader humanity, but the advantages along practical and economic lines are very striking. The present satisfactory condition of the state's finances is due, in considerable degree, to the policy of making each state department, which is operated for the regulation of business, self-supporting, by the collection of fees from the interests which profit by state supervision. A contributing factor also is the consolidation of state departments and the elimination of duplication in expense and human energy. The merging of the labor and agricultural departments is yielding the results which were procured by Governor Harmon in putting to- gether the state institutions under the control of the Board of Ad- ministration. The first year's operation under the new plan in Governor Harmon's administration saved the state over $400,000.00. The budget department assures us that the economies next year over 1913 will be approximately $400,000.00. There is every warrant for the belief that
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as the result of reforms within the state government, you will be enabled, in writing the budget for 1914, to make up the smallest appropriation bill in years.
The State Tax Commission has just submitted a report which shows that if the Warnes Taxation Law had not been passed the cost to the counties in Ohio, assuming that no increase were made over 1912, would have been $2,373,839. The commission estimates that at an out- side figure the cost this year of assessing real and personal property of paying boards of complaints and district assessors will be not to ex- ceed $883,278, a saving of approximately $1,500,000.
No program of legislation has ever been so viciously attacked and so misrepresented as the laws which were passed at the regular session ; and yet every succeeding day they rise higher in public estimate, and the character and purpose of the opposition become more apparent. One million men and women in the shops and institutions of this state go to their labors now protected by the Workmen's Compensation Law. Government for the people and by the people, as an institution has never been more eloquently justified than by this humane provision.
It will be observed that the matters presented for your consideration are the aftermath of the last session, in large degree. I urge upon you the importance of taking such action, as in your judgment, seems fitting, and bringing about the conclusion of your work at the earliest day possible, consistent with the magnitude of the task imposed. The country is now called upon to adjust itself to tariff and currency changes, and within the state the reforms brought about by the constitution are being set in motion. You will not only give vitality to the work of the: regular and special sessions, but you will conserve the interests of the commonwealth in contributing your part to an era of legislative rest.
If emergency matters develop during the course of the session, they will be submitted by subsequent messages.
[SEAL]
IN TESTIMONY WHEREOF, I have hereunto subscribed my name and caused the Great Seal of the State of Ohio to be affixed, at Columbus, this 6th day of Jaanuary, in the year of our Lord, one thousand nine hundred and fourteen.
JAMES M. Cox, Governor.
CHAPTER IX Eightieth Session Ohio General Assembly, 1914 - Extra Session Beginning January 19
SENATE BILLS ENACTED INTO LAWS.
S ENATE BILL NO. 1-Mr. Mooney (Cuyahoga). This act
amends Sec. 24 of the General Code, declaring that before or on Monday of each week state officers, department heads and institu- tional officers receiving state aid during the preceding week from fines, sales, etc., shall file with the State Auditor detailed receipts. Where tuition is paid to educational institutions, officers in charge shall retain a sufficient amount to make refunders of tuition, and, at the end of the institution's term itemized statements of all fees received and the dis- position of them shall be filed. Effective May 18.
Senate Bill No. 2- Mr. Friebolin (Cuyahoga). This act amends the General Code relative to the election of common pleas judges, pro- vides for at least one in every county to be elected for six years, his successor to be chosen at the election in the even numbered year next preceding the expiration of his term. Time for electing such judges and the date of the beginning of their terms are fixed. Effective 90 days after March 8.
Senate Bill No. 3, Mr. Green (Coshocton). An act to regulate the weighing of coal at the mine. Provides that miners and loaders shall be paid according to total weight. The State Industrial Commission has power to enforce the act, and violations are penalized by fines run- ning from $300 to $600 for each offense. Effective May 18.
Senate Bill No. 5 - Mr. Herner (Huron), provides that all official seals shall have engraved upon them the state's coat of arms, and fixes the diameter of the "great seal of Ohio" at two and one-half inches. Effective May 18.
Senate Bill No. 6- Mr. Weygandt (Summit), provides additional safeguards to the initiative, supplementary and referendum petitions and inspectors for the counting votes, and a means for proposing a law or constitutional amendment by initiative petition, or the filing of a ref- erendum, and declares the Secretary of State not later than 40 days
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before an election shall decide as to the efficiency of a petition ; defines corrupt practice in connection with obtaining petitions, penalizes viola- tion of the I. and R. petition act with fines from $100 to $500, provides a penitentiary sentence of from not over five years for stealing, mutilat- ing or destroying a petition, forbids threats and intimidation, under severe fines, and provides how those opposed to petitions may name inspectors at elections. Election judges are empowered to appoint in- spectors when they are not otherwise nominated. Effective as an emer- gency act February 17.
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