Governor Whitman’s Report TO THE VOTERS OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK 1915—1916 CONTENTS The Governor PAGE To tthe: voters 22.35 hccs cane ages an, aes as om eee ane onsen 5) Appointments On basis of merit and efficiency 45 v0. 6 fe hielo eee ee 6 Finance Reform Open hearings — itemized appropriations................+-- 15 Pay-as-You-Go Democratic; debiss Paid scan cecil sancti soo 6 kta: eee ee 18 Highways One thousand five hundred miles of road built............... 21 Agriculture Indemnities paid — education advanced..................+- 24 Conservation Policy not polities — service to the future................... 28 Canals One hundred and fifty-four miles of new waterways opened.... 33 Labor Protection forthe ‘worker... . aly. . eas ae eee eee 39 Preparedness Prompt mobilization— proper organization — physical train- PTF ae SGN Ae ay ane Sin ne ealis une R's ee tana eee ee 42 Public Service A people’s Public Service Commission..............200e000- 48 Health Disease checked — mortality lowered..............00 cee eeee - 50 Quarantine Station Transferred to -Hederal-contral).25% eee ee ee ere o4 Elections Useless positions abolished — work centralized............... 56 Civil Service Laws enforced —'squaredealto all v.y.%. deo. eee ee oe 57 Taxes Cooperation with ‘local assessors. Joo. 32 ee eee eee 59 Prisons Sing Sing to be rebuilt — reforms advanced.............-0%% 65 The Insane More and better accommodations — scientific segregation..... 68 Charitable Equipment increased — deficiencies met...............-00-- 75 2WIG~C.R, e =~ \ A Cp ‘e \ Governor Whitman to the Voters of the State | ~ , ™ Q fom, | ff / 7 : [ State oF New York — Executive CHAMBER, . _ Atpany, September 7, 1916. | I assumed the duties of Governor of the State of New York on Janu- ary 1, 1915. I found that the preceding Democratic administrations of Governors Dix, Sulzer and Glynn had brought the State’s business to the verge of chaos. I determined to reorganize and revitalize the State Departments and to bring them to the highest point of efficiency possible. | | I am a candidate for re-election. I believe that you should have before you: the complete record of my administration. I believe that this record entitles me to your support. If you disagree with me, vote against me; if you agree with me, I ask your vote that in your interest I may be enabled to continue the work in which this administration is now engaged. In considering this question, it is proper that you should bear in mind these facts concerning the administrations which preceded me; Governor Dix was denied a renomination by his own party; Governor Sulzer, refusing to obey Tammany Hall, was impeached; Governor Glynn, controlled by Tammany, was repudiated by you in favor of me. Any candidate of the Democratic party in this State will be nomi- nated and dominated by the identical forces that elected and controlled. my Democratic predecessors named above. Because of that domination, any such candidate can promise you at best no more than a return to the conditions which obtained under Governors Dix and Glynn or under Governor Sulzer. It is for you to determine by your vote whether the record I present to you justifies the continuance in office of my administration, or whether you will elect to return the State to the control of the forces which dominated the administrations of my three Democratic prede- cessors. Herewith I present the record of the present administration, sum- marized in the form of a report to you and supplemented by the reports of the department heads to me. [3] Four Years of Democratic Destruction Two Years of Reconstruction In’ the finances of the State, I found a tremendous accumulation of - unpaid debts and a system of lump sum appropriations concealing the purposes for which your money was to be spent. In the face of the most | F adverse criticism I provided for the payment of the State’s debts and for a system of itemized appropriations by: which you can tell where every dollar of your money goes. I vetoed items and bills totaling the sum of $4,466,366 presented to me by the two Legislatures which have met during my administration, and I decided upon these vetoes at open public hearings at which for the first time in the history of the State the Department Heads were called upon to justify their demands for their appropriations. I found that the Civil Service Laws were ignored and violated. I ap- pointed and supported a commission which has insisted upon a strict ad- herence to the spirit and the letter of the Civil Service Laws of the State. In the Conservation Department, I found an extravagant three-headed Commission, politically appointed and politically inspired, and I sub- stituted therefor a single-headed Commission, headed by a conserva- tionist of national repute, who wiped out extravagance and enforced the principles and laws of conservation equally toward all. The Highway Department was best known throughout the adminis- trations of the three preceding Governors, by the sensational scandals, both political and constructive, which emanated therefrom. We have stopped the activities of the ‘‘ bagmen”’ and are confining our energies to road building. Over fifteen hundred miles of road have been built during my administration. In 1913 it cost the State $1,040 per mile for the maintenance and repair of State and county highways. In 1916, it is costing the State $655 per mile, a difference of $385 per mile. In the Health Department, I have accepted the policy of its head, that ‘‘ public health is purchasable” and, by increased appropriations and the provision of proper equipment for a centralized State labor- atory, have advanced the cause of efficient disease fighting in this State. I secured legislation transferring the health office of the Port of New York to the Federal Government and upon my request to President Wil- son, a Federal officer was detailed to take charge of and is now directing this work. This office had been a political plum since its organization. In the Department of Architecture, I have abolished political pay- rolls which made a scandal of the capitol reconstruction and have used the services of that Department to assist, supervise and control the con- struction activities of the State. In the Prison Department, I found that the start made by Governor Hughes on the problem of a substitute for Sing Sing Prison had been [4] stopped by the Demoeratic administrations which followed him and pre- ceded me. In spite of a practically unanimous sentiment that the Sing Sing cellhouse should be either demolished or practically reconstructed, . I found that there had been no forward step in prison construction mado at Sing Sing under any of my Democratic predecessors. .. ec ce + 6 sive wies cess ees 80,000 In addition to these failures to provide for obvious and pressing needs of government, the preceding administration had made another excursion into high finance with respect to the cash balance in the State Treasury. When that administration came into office there was approxi- mately $11,000,000 available in excess of liabilities. The Glynn administration thereupon proceeded to make appropria- tions in excess of the income resources of the State whereby this balance was exhausted to the extent that the State Comptroller was required to borrow $6,000,000 to meet the current expenses of govern- ment during the following mid-summer of 1915. The only apparent reason for this kind of financing on the part of the preceding administration was that the then Governor, who had obtained the office through the impeachment and removal of his prede- cessor, proposed to be a candidate for election and assumed that a lower level of legislative appropriations, regardless of how it was brought about, would be helpful in obtaining votes. No matter what the motives underlying the policy, it created a condition for the incoming Governor of being obliged to assume the distasteful burden of paying the debts of his predecessor or ecntinuing 19 J the inherited system of bad finance, paying what little was. sa ome and passing all possible obligations on to the future. | I took a stand at once firmly for a pay-as-you-go policy. I insilstadl that it was financial dishonesty for the State to conceal the cost of government by dividing the appropriations for any activity or depart- ments between two legislative sessions where they could properly and intelligently be made at one time. I also took the position that further neglect to provide for the proper housing of the State’s dependents was a public wrong. I also took the position that the State was in honor bound to provide funds for the completion of such contracts as it had entered into with contractors upon the Barge canal and elsewhere. As already noted there was a deficiency in the item of Barge canal construction of $3,654,000. Although, at this time, the current expenses of the State, chargeable to the present adriinistration, were increasing in several items, notably contributions to Sinking Funds, a mandatory increase of $1,500,000; support of common schools, mandatory increases of $316,000; and other mandatory items of similar character, yet I felt that no matter what criticism might be brought against my administration it was my duty to see that appropriations were made to meet the future obligations which properly belonged to the first legislative session of the adminis- tration, and that the creditors of the State should know that the faith of the State with them would be kept. This was the first test of a pay-as-you-go policy which required the State to face its obligations, mostly inherited, and meet them as soon as those obligations could be ascertained. Naturally, a storm of Demo- eratic protest was aroused, particularly in the Democratic newspapers of New York City. This storm of protest was systematically accelerated with two purposes in view, first to obscure the acts of financial vandal- ism perpetrated by the former Democratic State office holders, and second to make political capital out of the increased appropriations of their successors which this vandalism had made necessary. Notwithstanding the outcry, however, the administration stood stead- fast with the result that today the Treasury of the State of New York (which in the first year of the administration was a borrower to the extent of over $6,000,000 to meet its current obligations) is now on a sound financial basis with ample resources to meet every dollar of Hability incurred or projected by the State in the appropriations of the Legislature ‘of 1915 and that of 1916, or by the Legislatures of pre? seding years. Story of Departmental Efficiency Told in Following Reports. In the foregoing I have given you a report of my own work and have told you something of the men whom I have named to fill the important departmental positions ofthe State. [ 20] In the following pages of this pamphlet I submit reports from these departmental heads. These reports I believe demonstrate the ability of these men to render you the same quality of service in governmental business which you expect in private business, and justify my judg ment in their selection. I believe in your interest that you want a continuation of this sort of teamwork and not a return to the conditions in this State that pre- ceeded my administration. These department heads have now reached the point where they are familiar with your business. If I am re-elected this teamwork will be continued ; if I am not re-elected many of them will be removed. This is the question you must decide. Taken together their reports show the results attained by an efficient organization working harmoniously for the good of the State. CuarLes 8S, WHITMAN. HIGHWAYS ROAD CONSTRUCTION RECORDS BROKEN, GRAFTING ELIMi. NATED AND THOUSANDS OF DOLLARS OF MAINTE. NANCE COST SAVED UNDER GOVERNOR WHITMAN Hon. Cuarrtes §. Wuitman, Governor: Str.— Highway improvement in New York State was commenced by a Republican administration in 1898, and conducted until 1911 under Republican auspices with such success that the United States census of 1910 showed that the valuation of the 22,000,000 acres of farm lands in the State had increased from 1900 to 1910 by three hundred and eighty million dollars, as compared with a decrease of eighty mil- lion dollars during the ten years preceding highway improvement. A comprehensive system of roads was planned; a systematic method of maintenance and repairs inaugurated and the work was rapidly progressing when a Democratic administration obtained control im 1911 with the immediate result that 187 miles of road were built im 1911, as compared with 430 miles during the preceding year, while maintenance and repair, which is recognized as a most vital part of the Department’s work, was entirely neglected. The history of the fol- lowing years of Democratic administration of the Department is a record of incompetency, inefficiency, extravagance and scandal. Over fourteen million dollars of highway money were diverted from the equitable apportionment provided by law and expended in favored localities, leaving important sections of the State entirely unprovided for. [21] I find that hundred of contracts were awarded upon plans prepared in such haste and with such disregard for requirements that cancella- tion of contracts amounting to over half a million do'lars were subse- quently found necessary, ‘and damage claims against the State for enormous sums resulted. Vast quantities of materials were used under specifications so drawn as to exclude competition. Many contracts were awarded for untried and previously unknown types of construction which speedily proved so inadequate as to necessitate changes at a large additional cost to the State. Contracts for over a quarter million dollars in one year were awarded without competitive bidding, and distributed among political leaders throughout the State. Favored contractors were paid extravagant prices one year for placing material which they were paid the succeeding year to remove. The administra- tive and engineering expense of the Department jumped from nine per eent. under Republican control to eighteen per cent. under a Demo- eratic regime. Insistent demands for campaign contributions were made upon contractors doing work for the Department, and the law prohibiting solicitation of campaign contributions from Department employees was flagrantly violated. An era of investigation ensued. ‘Twenty-two indictments were found. Convictions of guilty parties were obtained. Final payments amount- mg to one hundred and fifty thousand dollars have been withheld by the State for noncompliance with the specifications. No greater contrast can be imagined than that which is shown in sonditions as they now exist when compared with those which prevailed during that four-year period. By strict economy and eareful methods of administration and a rigid inspection of all labor and material, together with a constant insist- ence upon the full requirements of contractual obligations, I have tried to bring the State Highway Department to the highest point of effi- eiency; and instead of furnishing sensational headlines for the daily press, as was the case during the Democratic four years of administra- tion, to confine the Department to its lecitimate functions of rapidly imcreasing and properly maintaining New York’s great system of improved highways. The work of a great organization, such as the Highway Department, @onsists of a vast multitude of details. It is the culmination and com- bination of efficiency in all of these which tends to bring the general efficiency of the Department to its highest point, carrying with it a corresponding degree of inteerity. It is along these lines, and in con- formity with the standard which you demand of all State departments, that I am now endeavoring to conduct the Highway Department, by a thoughtful study of the requirements in the preliminary stages, the avoidance of the use of unknown types of construction and an orderly and systematic procedure in the work of the Department. [ 22] Under this administration expensive advisory boards and so-called experts have been dispensed with. Unnecessary and useless positions have been abolished; appointments have been made from Civil Service lists of persons who have demonstrated their ability for the work which they are to perform; and an efiiciency rating plan adopted which, instead of political influence, forms the basis of advancement of employ: ees. Savings to the extent of over $200,000 were made in the first year of the Republican administration of the Highway Department by the careful and thorough scrutiny to which all plans for highway improvement were subjected before final adoption, and by adaptation of the type of construction best fitted for each particular locality, taking into account the traffic and the availability of road-making material. For the first time in the history of the Department, proceedings have been taken to secure payment by bonding companies of losses sustained by the State through the failure of contractors to complete their :con- tracts. Civil actions have been brought, and damages in large amounts obtained for payments made upon work improperly performed. The selection of the highways to be improved is now being made solely with the view of completing so far as possible the original system outlined by law, instead of by arbitrary designations of roads without regard for State-wide necessities. Unimproved gaps are being filled as rapidly as possible with a view of providing a comprehensive system of through routes. During 1915 approximately 1,100 miles of first-class roads were con- structed as well as 1,070 miles of town macadam and gravel roads, while contracts for even a larger mileage are now in force and work progress- ing as fast as possible in view of the extraordinary scarcity of labor due to the European war. Special attention has been paid to the problem of maintenance and repair, and great economies have been effected in that Department.