Governor Smith's reasons for vetoing the State Auditor Bill, the W&A Commission Bill and the Newspaper Bill, August 23, 1911

Governor Smith's reasons for vetoing the State Auditor Bill, the W. & A. Commission Bill and the Newspaper Bill.
Senate Bill No. 4 is entitled '' An Act to create the office of Auditor of State accounts, to provide his duties, and fix his salary.''
.f earnestly uetiire t0 see the creation of the office of Auditor for the State and regret that the present bill does not accomplish this result in a way that can be carried into execution.
The title of the bill only provides for an Auditor. The provisions in the bill allowing two assistants to the Auditor, one to be placed in the Treasury Department, not being included in the title, is therefore unconstitutional and void.
If this bill could be carried into effect at all, which it. can not, it would take in my opinion a number of expert bookkeepers to aid the Auditor and more than one man in the Tlreasury Department to do the additional work required there.
The bill provides that no money shall be paid out of the Treasury after its passage except in pursuance to its terms. To approve the bill, if it cannot be executed with the machinery furnished, would be to stop the business of the State.
There is no provision for the salary of the Auditor, no appropriation for his assistants and no assistants legally provided.
The office called ''Auditor'' should more properly be called "accountant, paymaster and Auditor." The Auditor
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is required to audit all claims against the State or against any State institution before the same are paid, except those of State House officers, payments of interest and principal upon the public debt and pensions. His work, therefore, covers the educational institutions of the State, the University, the State College of Agriculture, the Technological Institute, the two normal schools, the North Georgia Agricultural College, the eleven district schools, the public schools of the State so far as they receive money from the State, the Blind asylum, the Deaf and Dumb Asylum, the Sanitarium at :Milledgeville, and salaries paid by the State except State House officers.
The bill provides that all officials now charged by law with the disbursements of State funds and the management of the State charitable and educational institutions must submit or cause to be submitted to the Auditor of the State each month all bills of every character whatever incurred by them in the support of State institutions or for the support of any department of the State Government for which appropriations are made by law. It requires that these accounts involving the expenditure of $4,500,000.00 annually shall be itemized and it shall be the duty, of the Auditor to carefully examine them for the purpose of ascertainins if they are accurate and if they are contracted by the proper parties and if they are authorized by law.
Aifter the Auditor approves the accounts it is his duty to submit them with his approval to the Governor, and it is then made the duty of the Governor to examine these accounts to ascertain whether or not they are just demands against the State and in that event to draw his warrants for them upon the Treasury.
Then the accounts must be submitted to the Comptroller-
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General to be examined in the same way before he approves the warrants.
The warrants for these accounts from time to time are issued by the Governor in favor of the Auditor, after that the money for which they are drawn is to be credited to the Auditor by the T,reasurer on the books of the Treasury. 'l'hen the Auditor is required to prepare a voucher in favor of each person who has an approved bill as above provided, and this voucher must contain an itemized statement of the account due to such person, and it shall be in the form of a sight draft on the State Treasurer providing that when the same is receipted by the party to whom it is payable it shall become a sight draft on the Treasurer.
It is made the duty of the 'I1reasurer to see that these sight drafts when presented are in proper shape and they are to be paid by him only out of money set apart by the Governor's warrants to the Auditor's account. The Governor, is, however, authorized to draw warrants in favor of the Auditor for sums of money necessary to be deposited in cash with the officers of the various State institutions to pay incidental expenses, and if such warrants are drawn in favor of the Auditor the Auditor is to give his check for them to such officers.
The provisions of the Act are also made applicable to all special appropriations. Where contracts are made by any institution by competitive bid, copies of the bid must he filed with the .Auditor, and it is his duty to compare the prices with those submitted in the bid.
It is hard to estimate the number of individual accounts that this bill requires the Auditor to pass upon. He, of course, would be compelled to keep books in his office covering records of the accounts. After the same have been
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approved and the money passed to his credit with the State Treasurer, the sight draft which he must make, containing itemized statements of each account, would involve an enormous amount of work. The itemized accounts for which these sight drafts would be drawn would practically pla<-e upon the auditor the entire bookkeeping of all the institutions, including the educational, in the State, and very much more besides. The amount of correspondence with these various holders of claims would necessarily be considerable. I do not believe that less than half a dozen men could do the work required in the Auditor's office.
These various sight drafts would come to the Treasury for payment. The Treasurer is required to examine the sight drafts before he pays them. This would involve a large amount of work, much more in my opinion than one man could possibly perform in the Treasury office. Indeed, there is no provision made in the Act which furnishes the Treasurer the necessary information to pass upon the drafts as they are sent into him. One man is now occupied in the Treasury keeping the books. This new work would involve several times as much bookkeeping as that already required.
The Auditor has practically transferred to his credit in the Treasury Department $4,000,000.00 annually. He is made the State's disbursing officer but is required to give no bond. The Act requires the Governor and AttorneyGeneral to pass upon each one of these accounts from the various institutions and approve them after the Auditor has approved them. It is utterly impossible for these two officers to do this work. Certainly not and attend to the other dut.ies which the law places upon them.
I regard the duties put by this Act upon the Auditor and other State House officers as cumbersome and certainly
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impossible of performance with the force provided by the Act. If the Act had provided an Auditor and two assistants and left their duties to be prescribed by the Governor, the Secretary of State and the Attorney-General, the serviceS' of an expert in such matters might have been brought to the assistance of these three State House officers and a practical plan made for the preparation of rules governing the work of the Auditor and his assistants.

Not desiring to be governed by my own view alone, I called upon the Department of the Comptroller-General and the Department of the Treasury to review the bill, and in the absence of the Comptroller-General, Captain Harrison examined it for the Comptroller's Department. I attach his letter upon it. I also attach a letter from Mr. Anderson, Assistant Treasurer, approved by the Treasurer. Each of these officers pronounced the bill in effect impracticable and impossible of execution under its present terms.

I also invited its examination by Mr. Joel Hunter, an expert accountant of this city, and he also expressed the opinion that it was utterly imposBible for a force of three men to carry it into execution as required by its terms.

I earnestly desire to see the office of Auditor with at least one assistant created. They should visit the various institutions of the State, prescribe their plan of bookkeeping and audit from time to time their books. Thef should be ready to go where called on by the Governor or the Comptroller-General to do auditing work for the State, but I am compe1led to disapprove the present bill and it should never become a law unless the legislature sees fit to create a much larger force to aid in its execution.

August 23rd, 1911.

(Sgd.) HOKE SMITH, Governor.
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EXHIBIT "A."
OFFICE OF COMPTROLLER-GENERAL,
ATLANTA, GA., Aug. ~2, 1911.
HoN. HoKE SMITH, Governor:
DEAR Srn: I have carefully examined the Bill to create the office of State Auditor and respectful1;v make the fo1lowing report thereon.
(1). The Title does not provide for any expense other than Auditor's salary. It does not cover salaries of any bookkeeper or clerk or other assistants.
(2). This act places large amounts in hands of the Auditor. It requires no bond of any sort of him.
(3). The duties required of the Auditor fully carried out would in my opinion require not less than ten accountants and skilled bookkeepers. The items of expense for Academy for the Blind, School for the Deaf, School of Technology, Normal and Industrial College, Normal School, Eleven Agricultural Schools, College for Colored, North Georgia A. & M. College, Agricultural College, State University, Tuberculosis Sanitarium, School accounts, salaries of teachers, etc., Soldiers' Home, Summer School, Farmers Institu~e, and the State Sanitarium and Prison Farm, will all have to be handled, recorded by, and filed with the Auditor.
This would involve a mass of detail work now being performed by possibly fifty bookkeepers, clerks and disbursing officers throughout the State. The services of the present men so employed would not be dispensed with, but each Institution would have to continue keeping books and accounts.
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(4). The plans of the bill would add much additional work to the already heavy demands upon the ComptrollerGeneral and to the State Treasury Department.
(5). It will complicate and confuse the now perfect system of keeping the State's accounts by State Treasurer.
(6). The bill carries no appropriation, and unless the general appropriation act prov1des for the expense it could not be put into operation until after the next session of the General Assembly.
(7). A law creating the office of State Auditor authorizing frequent checking up of the disbursing officers of all State institutions, and all State departments with competent and sufficient help would be a good law, but this act is crude and cumbersome and calculated to create confusion in Treasury Department. Our State Treasurer gives a $200,000 bond. This act takes much responsibility from him and provides no bond for the officer who is to be entrusted with large sums of the State's funds.
Respectfully,
(Sgd.) w. H. HARRISON,
Tax Clerk & Bookkeeper, Comp. Gen.
EXHIBIT "B."
STATE OF GEORGIA, TREASURY DEPARTMENT, ATLANTA, GA., Aug. 22, 1911.
HoN. HoKE SMITH, Governor, Atlanta, Ga.
DEAR Sm: I have studied the Bill creating the office of State Auditor, and have endeavored to give every feature
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of the Bill close consideration. It is my honest opm10n that the many complications and disadvantages this Bill would cause the Treasury Department and other Departments through which records are made of the receipts and disbursements, renders it impractical as it applies to the State Treasurer. The Bill provides for an Auditor at a salary of $3000 per year and two clerks at salaries of $1800 each, one of whom shall serve in the Auditor's office .-and the other to be employed in the office of the Treasurer as a clerk of the Auditing Department. The Treasurer~ under the Bill, would not have the power to appoint said clerk, but would have the right to reject him. The Bill further provides that all Executive Warrants shall be made in favor of said Auditor, and when the same is presented 1the money for which it is drawn shall be credited by the 'Treasurer on the books of this office to the credit of said Auditor of State Accounts. This method of keeping ac.counts will conflict with the present system, now in force, and with all due respect to the author of this Bill, it does not embrace points along many lines essential to practical bookkeeping in the Treasury Department. For instance, when a warrant is drawn upon the Treasury to make a payment, or part payment of any appropriation, a check is drawn for such warrant, or the cash is paid, and the Treasurer immediately takes credit for this disbursement and he is no longer custodian of such funds. This B_ill would cause the Treasurer to be the custodian of the funds even after he has ma:de the proper disbursement, and if such a, sum is placed to the credit of said Auditor-then it would be necessary to hold such sums in reserve, just as the Sinking Fund, public property and other funds of like nature that are required under the laws to be held in reserve, because it would be necessary to have the money to meet the large number of drafts that would be made upon the
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Treasurer by the Auditor. I think it is very clear that it would require a large number of extra men to keep up with the bookkeeping in this office that the requirements of this Act would put upon us, for where one payment is now made there would be at least one hundred.

The office of the Treasurer is badly crowded with work and every available space is filled with files, books, desks and records and there is really no room for an Auditor to do the work in this office.

Yours very truly,

(Sgd.) J. 0. ANDERSON,

Approved
(Sgd.) w. J. SPEER,

Assistant Treasurer.

Treasurer.

w. & A. COMMISSION BILL.
Resolution No. 12 authorizes the appointment by the President of tlie Senate and the Speaker of the House of a joint commission to investigate and report to the General Assembly upon the matter of a new lease of the Western and Atlantic Railroad and upon the advisability of leasing the property of the State along the lines of the road, and provides "the manner of appointment of said commission, their terms of office, duties, remuneration, etc." It provides that the President of the Senate shall appoint three members of the present Senate and the Speaker of the House shall appoint five members of the present House of Representatives, who shall form a joint commission.
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The commission is charged with the duty of investigating the following subjects: The matter of a new lease of the Western and Atlantic Railroad; the question of the price at which the property of the State along the line of the road can be leased; all matters of interest to the State concerning the terminals of the road in Atlanta and Chattanooga; the matter of leasing the State's property above the tracks of the railroad in Atlanta; the question of extending the road and ascertaining all facts pertinent to be considered in reference thereto.
The Commission is to continue in authority unless abolished by subsequent legislation until the leases are completed or the work with reference to all of the property is finished. The office of commissioner, therefore, under this joint r~solution, is to continue for a number of years after this legislature goes out of existence and after the members of the commission created by this joint resolution cease to be members of the legislature. It creates eight new offices to continue an indefinite term of years, but certainly, unless hereafter repealed, for many years beyond the service of the present legislature, and it provides compensation to the members of the present legislature holding these offices.
I regard the work assigned to this commission of the greatest importance to the State. While there are men designated upon this commission of fine business ability and capacity for the work, I consider it a mistake to limit the selection of representatives upon the commission to members of the legislature. If the service was simply one to be performed during the vacation of this legislature and report back next summer, the selection could properly be
limited to members of the present legislature, but as these
eight offices are to continue for eight years or more, there is no reason why the selection should be limited to the
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present legislature. Those men in Georgia best prepared by experience to do the work without regard to whether they are in or out of the present legislature, should be selected for the service.
Tue number upon the Commission is also unnecessarily large. Three could do the work more effectively than eight.
My convictions are so strong upon this subject and the State's interests so great that I cannot approve this resolution.
There is also even a more serious objection to the resolution than one of policy. The Constitution of the State, Gode Section 6420, provides :
"Nor shall any senator or representative after his qualification as such, be elected by the general assembly or appointed by the Governor, either with or without the advice and consent of the Senate to any office or appointment having any emolument annexed thereto during the time for which he shall have qualified."
While it is ordinarily proper for committees of the legislature to sit in vacation to investigate questions and report to the next session of the legislature, this is entirely different from creating eight new offices in the shape of Western & Atlantic Railroad Commissioners to last for eight years with compensation attached thereto and putting in these offices members of the legislature during the time for which they have been elected. I believe that the resolution is unconstitutional.
I regret exceedingly that the resolution did not provide simply for the appointment of a joint committee to sit between now and next summer and make investigations and
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report to the next session of the legislature, that the legislature might then give direction to the subject. As it is, however, I am constrained to disapprove the resolution.

August 22nd, 1911.

(Sgd.) HOKE SMITH,

Governor.

NEWSPAPER PASS BILL.
Senate Bill No. 165 provides '' that it shall not be unlawful for any railroad company in this State to issue transportation over its lines in this State to the editors of weekly and daily newspapers in this State, their employees and immediate members of their families in exchange and payment for advertising space and for advertising matter in said newspapers.''
No restriction is placed upon the issue of this transportation except that it shall be in exchange and payment for advertising. It is not required that the exchange shall be made on the basis of the usual price paid for advertising. There is no limitation upon the amount of transportation that may be iS'sued in exchange for the most limited amount of advertising.
It is not required that the railroads shall simply furnish mileage books in exchange. They can furnish annuals or innumerable passes at their pleasure provided it is done in exchange for advertising and provided the transportation is used only by editors, their employees and their immediate families.
For years we have fought the pass system in Georgia. For years we have fought to stop railroad companies and
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other public service companies from granting special privileges.
vVe know that when they grant special privileges to a few in return they place extra burdens on the many.
The special privileges granted are to make a1lies that will prevent that regulation and supervision so essential to the rights of the balance of the people who deal with these companies.
Largely by the votes of Democrats in the National Congress an anti-free pass bill was enacted so far as interstate commerce was concerned.
After a discussion of this subject which lasted months before the people, free passes from transportation and public service companies were prohibited in Georgia.
Our Georgia law goes no further than the national law in prohibiting free transportation. Our Railroad Commission in construing the rule with reference to intra-state transportation innarmony with the rulings of the Interstate Commerce Commission applied to interstate transportation.
In connection with the abolishment of free passes in Georgia passenger rates were reduced on the railroads of the State. The people of Georgia are now saving in consequence of this reduction over one million of dollars each year. We cannot afford to take a backward step.
This bill if it becomes a law, would practically furnish free transportation to thousands of people.
The true doctrine is that everybody should pay and when the returns of the railroads justify it, a reduction in price should be made to all, instead of giving free passes to a few.
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The people have won a temporary victory in Georgia, but there will always be a struggle by the special interests for special privileges.

The press of the country must be relied upon as a great factor to protect the rights of the masses of the people. It is essential to the prevention of special privileges that we should not at the very outset arrange for special privileges to the press.

If an exchange similar to this one could be made with the press, then it could with equal propriety be made with those engaged in any other line of business. It could be made with telegraph and telephone companies, street car companies, power companies and all lines of public service companies.

I would not arouse antagonism to these companies. I believe in their great value to the public, but it is absolutely essential to the preservation of the rights of the individual that they should be ~upervised and controlled, and it is also essential that their services may be reasonably good and their charges reasonably low to all who do business with them.

If they are allowed to make gifts to a part of the people they must place extra burdens upon the balance of the people, and the gifts made will hinder just regulation and supervision.

rrhis bill 1s a first step and a long step in the wrong direction.

I regard it as thoroughly objeetionahle and therefon, disapprove it.

August 2:3rd, 1911.

(Sgd.) HOKE SMITH, Governor.
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