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.