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About The commoner. (Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-1923 | View Entire Issue (March 1, 1923)
of the state as pertain to the banking depart ment, the insurance department and the public highways and irrigation departments. Although the Governor now has all this authority, I do not think it Is businesslike or safe for one per son to possess such powers, and I have there fore recommended and provided a bill for creat ing the executive council composed of state of ficers who are to determine, the policies of the state, in which group the governor only has one vote in five, but these bills as now drawn fix in the governor the responsibility for conducting the banking department, the insurance depart ment, the labor department, the department of highways and irrigation, and the game and fish department where they formerly were. There must be a complete governmental plan that will co-ordinate and function if the state’s business is to be conducted on a business basis. The code system which is now in effect is a com plete system in itself. The executive council plan which I have presented to you is also a com plete and distinct plan in itself. One cf hese plans cannot function in part, and one m ist re main or the other must take its place if rhe state’s business is to be transacted and the tax payers’ welfare considered in your deliberations. If this plan which I have submitted and these bills are enacted into law, the responsibility for conducting the state’s business affairs for the next two years at an expense Qf $21,000,000 to the taxpayers will rest with me. If the code system is to remain as it is, or if it is to be amended with popgun legislation where the prin ciple of the code system remains and any of these middle men knowm as code secretaries are to be retained and have the responsibility that . the present code law attempts to give them, the appropriations for the next two years must be greatly increased above the araounis named in my supplementary budget. If this duplicate form of government or any part of it is to remain, the responsibility for the impositions on the taxpayers which have existed for the past four years, and which will cont'nue to exist during the coming two years, must be » borne by this legislature and not by the chief executive of the state. I submit this plan of placing the state govern ment back on a business basis for your consid eration. We have been elected regardless of party affliliation to protect the taxpayers and to cut out the unnecessary and wasteful dupl'ca tions that the present form of code government has imposed upon the people. If I were inter ested in partisan politics and wanted to retain the large political machine that has been built up in this state during the past four years, where the governor has more than four hundred political appointments to make and where he has the supreme power to determine, execute and administer the policies and-the laws of the state, I would wrant the present code system retained. We, however, are not elected as partisans; we are elected to give the people relief from their tax burdens and from unjust impositions of irre sponsible employees who have been vested with unlimited power to use the taxpayers’ money as they see fit. These bills provide for a complete, economical and business administration of the state’s affairs regardless of partisan belief or party advantage. We are not building for the present alone, but for the future as well. One administration is only in power a short time but the state’s busi ness affairs should be so organized that the pub lic would be protected forever. I will be glad to confer with or supply infor mation to any members of the legislature or any committees representing the legislature in an ef fort to enact these bills into laws at the earliest possible moment, and I feel confident that this plan as presented to you, and as these bills pro vide, will meet wdth the approval of a large ma jority of the taxpayers of this state if they had an opportunity to express themselves thereon at this time. Rspectfully submitted, CHARLES W. BRYAN. Governor. LABOR FOR GOV. BRYAN’S PROGRAM To the Members of the Forty-second Session of the Legislature of Nebraska: Gentlemen: As an organization and as individuals, we wish to most heartily endorse the stand taken on leg islation, economy and tax reduction by Governor Chas. W. Bryan in his message of January four and January eighteen. Especially we would urge the repeal of the Code law and the replacing of it by adopting his recommendations for the reorganization of the state government and also his budget recom mendations, realizing that by so doing the state expenditures, and consequently taxes, will be re duced by over $6,000,000.00 (Six million dol lars.) We urge that you enact these recommenda tions into laws without delay. We are fully in favor of Governor Bryan’s pro gram for tax reduction and equalization and are strong for the repeal of Senate File No. 65, and replacing it with a law that will tax rich and poor alike according to their financial standing. Governor Bryan’s attitude toward labor looks good to us, particularly the principle lie stands on, that human rights are superior to and de serve first consideration over property rights. We are watching your actions with great in terest and as all this legislation is for the good of the whole people, regardless o<f party affilia tions, we hope you will show yourselves patriots rather than politicians, and promptly enact the above mentioned legislation for the relief of the people of the State of Nebraska. Respectfully submitted, J. D. WORSHANE, Secy-Treas. B. G. JENKINS, Pres. v A REFERENDUM TO THE PEOPLE Governor Charles W. Bryan, in a statement is sued- February 24, made a direct appeal to the voters of Nebraska to support him in his plan to reduce taxes by asking them to urge their legis lative representatives to take immediate action to replace the code system with a governmental system that will place the state’s government back on a bus'ness basis. The statement follows: To the Taxpayers of Nebraska: For the past two years you have been demand ing a reduction in the cost of government. For two years you have been protesting the increase in your taxes and the increase in the number of tax-eaters on the pay rolls of this state. At the state election last November you elected me as governor of Nebraska by a majority of 50,000 votes. I told the voters during the campaign that I thought the taxes in this state could be re duced twenty per cent. I promised the taxpay ers that if I wrere elected, I would do all in my power to cut out the duplications of government, to take off the pay rolls of the state all the use less tax-eaters possible, and to reduce the num ber of inspectors. * rom the standpoint of the taxpayer the situa tion in the state legislature has now reached a crisis. In compliance with the demand of the taxpayers, and in accord with the pledges that I had made to them during the campaign, I have submitted to the legislature forty-five bills which provide for a reorganization of the state govern ment. These bills, together with the recom mendations made in my budget message to the leg'slature, provide for a reduction of $9,000, 000 in taxes for the coming two years. These bills provide for reducing the number of state employes one hundred and fifty from the number employed by tha state last year to conduct its business. If your taxes are to be reduced, if these un necessary tax-eaters are to be dropped from the pay roll, it will be necessary for the bills to be passed by this legislature that I have introduced. This is a representative form of government. You elected a governor and members of the state leg'slature to carry out your wishes. These bills which I have drafted, which provide for the sav ing of $9,000,000 and a reduction of one hun dred and fifty in the number of employes, I be lieve, represent a majority of the sentiment of the taxpayers of Nebraska. The members of the legislature I feel sure will carry out the wishes of the majority of their constituents if they are ' informed of what the majority wants. Tho legislative program which I have laid b*e .fore the legislature is either in the interest of the taxpayer or it is against him. Every tax payer in Nebraska should immediately write the members of the legislature from your respective districts and notify them whether you want them to support the program which I have laid before the legislature for tax reduction or whether you want them to oppose it. If you are in favor of tax reduction and reducing the unnecessary num ber of employes, you should immediately write your member of the legislature and tell him to support the bills. If you are not in favor of re ducing the taxes $9,000,000 and discharging the unnecessary state employes, then you should im mediately write your members of.the legislature and tell them to oppose the bills which I have introduced for tax reduction, etc. It is now the taxpayer’s time to be heard. You must either tell your member of the legislature to vote for the bill that Governor Bryan has introduced or you must be contented with two more years of high taxes. ^ I want to know whether I will represent the majority of the taxpayers of Nebraska or not when I urge upon the legislature the importance of passing these b'lls which reduce the cost of government $9,000,000 or whether I am not in accord with what the people of the state want, I urgg~ every person who. reads this statement to immediately w~rite a postcard to your member of the legislature and to tell him whether you want him to vote for the bills to reduce taxes as in troduced by Mr. Bryan or whether you want him to vote against the bills introduced by Governor Bryan, I urge you also to immediately call up your ne’ghbors antf ask them to notify by postcard or letter the members of the legislature whether they want the bills introduced by Governor Bryan to reduce taxes supported or whether they want the members of the legislature to oppose them. I then urge you to send me a copy of the letter or postcard that you write to your mem bers of the legislature so that I will know wheth er I am carrying out your wishes or not when I try to reduce your taxes and put the state gov ernment on a business basis. The decision is In your hands. The result will be what you want it to be. I am now asTcing for a referendum vote of the taxpayers of Nebraska, and I urge you to immediately take action either for 6r against. My plan to reduce the taxes $9,000,000 and to discharge one hundred and fifty unnecessary employes and inspectors that are riding on the taxpayers backs. Write at ortce to your members of the legisla ture and to me and tell us what you want. Ad dress letters to Lincoln Nebr. State House. Your obedient servant, CHARLES W. BRYAN, Governor. RACQUET CLUB BOOZE LEADS FOUR TO JAIL ^ A New York dispatch, dated Feb. 9, says: Jail sentences for bootlegging were imposed today on four La Montagne brothers, distillers, all of them socially prominent and one internationally known as a polo player. Bail of $15,000 each was con tinued until Thursday that they might wind up their business affa'rs before entering the Essex county, N. J., penitentiary. The quartet recently were indicted by a fed eral grand jury which investigated a dinner at the fashionable Racquet and Tennis club on Park avenue at which liquor was alleged to have flowed freely. The charges against the brothers were conspir ing to violate the Volstead act and defrauding the government of taxes through removal of liquor from bond on forged permits. Charged with having released 30,000 gallons of liquor, the brothers at* first entered pleas of not guilty to both charges against them. Today, however, they appeared in federal court and changed their pleas to guilty. A jail sentence of two months and fine of $2, 00 0 was the punishment given Montagu La Montagne, president of the corporation which the four controlled. Four months in jail and fines of $2,000 each were imposed on the other three— Rene M., the polo player; Morgan E., and Wil liam A. Montagu was in France on business when the offenses were committed, but admitted general knowledge of them. Distinguished lawyers appeared in court to plead for the brothers. The defendants, they as serted, had suffered all the public disgrace pos sible; had had their lesson, and should be freed with fines. rI he court was filled with men and women, many of fthem socially prom'nent. Friends of the brothers showed .almost as much emotion as the "society bootleggers.” The day’s proceedings opened with the state ment by United States Attorney Hayward that the pleas of guilty would have no effect on the cases of nine other defendants indicted with the Montagnes. These defendants, except tw*o who had not surrendered, would be placed on trial immediately, Col. Hayward told the court. Then the pleas for the defense began. Joseph Auerbach asked the court to consider the recent pronouncement of Dr. Nicholas Murray Butler of Columbia university that the prohibition laws did not represent the common will and that, therefore, violation of them wars not a crime against society. Former Deputy Attorney General Wade Ellis declared any sentence greater than a fine was an unjust and cruel punishment of the "splendid wives and innocent children of the defendants.” Col. Hayward said it was not his duty to de bate prohibition in or out of court with Dr. But ler, whom he described as a "justifier of crime.” He urged jail sentences on the ground that the people must be taught that the majesty of the law must not be defied.