or an auto truck from a nutmeg to a carload of flour. Yet these wards are being cared for economically even in these critical times.

Notwithstanding the fact that this great fiscal supervision has operated over a period of some fifteen years under the same general statute, the work accomplished is but little understood, is but little known by the great masses of people making up the Empire State. The institutions are so varied as are their geographical locations, and they are scattered from Lake Erie to Lake Champlain from Lake Ontario to Long Island Sound.

One institution teaches the blind to use such facilities as they possess. At another institution, Indian children are taught to become self-supporting, following the various avocations of their white brother. Again, crippled and deformed children are made to walk and are restored to their rightful place in the world of activity. Among the health giving pines of the Adirondacks, the State has provided for adults in the incipient stages of pulmonary tuberculosis. There they are nourished and taught how to protect themselves against the ravages of this dread disease. Feeble minded juveniles and adults male and female, are trained according to their capacity to learn, and those who are markedly defective are housed and supported by the State. Epileptics are nourished back to health if possible by the State or that failing, they are maintained at the expense of the State. Youthful offenders, boys and girls, by courses of prescribed training and discipline, are brought to a standard of living whereby they may become useful citizens, all of which has been a large part of the State's interests. Aged army nurses, and wives, widows and mothers of soldiers, are given a home under the State's watchful care. Soldiers and sailors of the war have their home provided for them with every comfort which the State can conserve for them in their declining years. The fiscal

supervision of all this comes within the scrutiny of the Fiscal Supervisor of State Charities.

Frank R. Utter the present fiscal supervisor appointed by Governor Whitman began his five year term of office June 9, 1917. He is a native of Friendship, Allegany county. His experience in business methods as banker and farmer thoroughly equips him for the duties of his important position. He has been an active member of the Republican State committee for years and was postmaster of his town, but has held no other political position until appointed by Governor Whitman last year to his present office.

This sort of criticism would puzzle my people very much," he said. "I think we have pushed democracy farther than you have. I am now serving my second term as governor and I shall probably be re-elected for a third. In the eyes of my fellow-citizens, perhaps my principal qualifications for the office is that I am the most unprincipled man in my country. Nobody has been able to make out what I really believe or if I believe anything. Do not misunderstand me- of course I have my private principles which I presume are as good as those of other citizens. But in public matters I have no principles at all. Why should a governor have any? I am elected to enforce the law. I can certainly do this more efficiently if I have no strong bias of my own for or against any set of policies. From my seat in the capitol I view without sympathy or prejudice the struggle for control of the various political ideas."

"That is all very well, governor," said I, now that you are in office. But, didn't you have to be a partisan to get there?

"Quite true, in a sort of a way. But perhaps I can make the matter clearer to you by giving you a brief outline of my career. Very early in life I developed a liking for public office. I don't see any reason to deny that I was personally ambitious. My relations and friends were mostly members of the political party which had controlled our State for a generation. So I joined it: though, had the other party been in power I would have

joined that — and my relatives and friends would have, too. I served my party and my State in minor capacities. For a while I held a position which enabled me to attain a great reputation for enforcing the law. I was able to do this the better because I understood criminals; indeed I have sometimes thought that had I been born in an inferior grade of society, I might myself have had some conflicts with the law.

"Gradually the idea of my promotion which I had long entertained dawned upon the leaders of my party. Everybody wanted to see the law enforced against others - especially the lower classes in the community. And so I was nominated and elected to the highest office in the State.

"I don't mind telling you, because I know your paper has no circulation in Altruria, that I was very much surprised, after my nomination, when people began pestering me for my views on various questions agitating, or said to be agitating, the public. All I knew about these questions was that if I took any clear-cut position on any of them I would alienate a lot of people who would usually work harder against me, than the people whose cause I espoused would work for me. I therefore decided to put all the mental effort which it would require to get a grasp on these public questions, into framing a policy which would make it seem that I was in favor of all sides and against none. It took some skill and I confess that I am proud of the result.

"The questions over which the people divide in Altruria are different from those under discussion here, and you find some difficulty in understanding them. But suppose you had an official in your State who was able to be at the same time the friend of the prohibitionists and the saloonkeepers, the suffragists and the antis, the Catholics and A. P. A., the politicians and the independents, the farmers and the commission merchants, the franchise companies and consumers, the haves and the have-nots, would you not admire his dexterity and envy his good fortune? Now I am in that position. And why should I not? I cared nothing for any of their issues, for I did not understand them. Indeed after a while I deliberately strove not to understand them. I feared that if I did understand some of them, I might really take sides from conviction, and that would be fatal to my fundamental policy, which was to ascertain on which side of a question public opinion was aligned and to make that my side - not too soon, for public opinion might veer, but as it could be safely determined. Now I think that is being a good governor. The people don't want a mulish person there, who forsooth, because he holds what he is pleased to call ideas of his own, will impede obedience to public sentiment or conceitedly try to educate it. Whatever the people wanted was good enough for me. Didn't one of your great men say, Everybody knows more than anybody?'

"Of course I have made some enemies. This I regretted very much, but they were mostly political bosses whose ambitions were not compatible with my own, and the people enjoyed seeing me trample on them. I have

incurred the criticisms of some intellectuals, but that again is helpful. I sympathize heartily with the dislike of the man in the street for the high-brow. Indeed I am the man-in-the-street raised to the purple.

"There are some in Altruria who hold that it is well for a man who seeks public honors to carry, at the beginning, a cargo of principles, discarding which he can rise, much as a balloon used to do by throwing out sandbags, but I do not hold this view at all. No one can accuse me of betraying a cause, because I have never espoused one. Some men, it is true, accuse me of having broken promises, but the career of your most distinguished politician shows that the public at large thinks no worse of a man for that - and our Altrurians are much the same. Mere politicians who break promises are in a bad way because their credit is their sole asset, but a high official with patronage at his disposal does not have to keep his promises. He can pay on the nail for service he requires.

"So really I see no reason why I should not go on being re-elected indefinitely just as Diaz was in Mexico. There is a curious superstitution against a third term candidate but I don't think it need apply to me. You see, my freedom from prejudices has made me popular with the party which is supposed to oppose the party which elected me to office, and it is quite possible that I shall be able to select my opponent.

"I suppose such conditions as I have described are quite unknown in the affairs of your State, but for that reason they may interest people who like to hear about our far-off land.

"On my next visit about three years from now I shall perhaps have some interesting news to give you. I may by that time be translated to a higher office, outside Altruria. If so I shall arrive there by the same road that I have traveled thus far. Indeed it is the only road that I know how to travel.

"The moving picture is the ideal of the populace. The screen on which it is flashed enjoys the expectant gaze of the populace between the acts. I am content to be the screen on which the public mind projects its will. I am a necessary and conspicuous part of the equipment of the democratic show. If I were green or brown or yellow, I would distort the picture, sɔ I am neutral and bask between the acts in the undimmed glow of the limelight. The pictures may, indeed must, change but the screen remains. I am what the people want me to be and never worry.

I

T is not often that the members of the legislature voluntarily recognize in open session the good work of a State department. This happened, however, in the assembly on March 21st, when the legislative reference section of the New York State library was praised by the assembly leaders for its preparation of a document relating to federal constitutional amendments in congress and the State legislature.

The question came up because the federal prohibition amendment was before the members of the legislature. The federal amendments ratified by the State legislature since the beginning of the government was, of course, interesting and valuable data for the members during the pendency of the prohibition amendment. Few people know how valuable the legislative reference section of the State library is to senators and assemblymen during each session. The same information, of course, is always available to the public. The document, which was compiled by James Hodgson, sub-librarian, is reproduced here by STATE SERVICE. It is No. 37 and may be had upon application to the State library.

So valuable was the information which it contained, that the leaders in the assembly, Republican, Democrat and Socialist, all united in complimenting the library. The following is a stenographic report of what was said on that occasion:

Mr. ADLER: The legislative reference section of the New York State Library prepared last week a chart which is a very admirable piece of work and which shows a great deal of careful labor. It sets out the amendments to the Constitution of the United States from the first down to the seventeenth, telling the dates at which they were passed by congress, the vote in congress, the date when the amendments were submitted to the legislature of the State of New York, the dates when they were approved by the State and other memoranda with refer

ence to these amendments which at this time is very interesting to all of us. This work I am calling attention to now, not only because it is a valuable piece of work which should be placed in the hands of all the members and in the libraries of the State, but in order to call the attention of the members to the fact that in the public library there is such a department which is always ready and willing to do this kind of work for the members and will take from the members a great deal of research work which they have been in the habit of doing themselves, so I am going to move that this be printed as a public document and distributed among the members.

Mr. SHIPLACOFF: I believe if there is any department of the State that deserves recognition here it is this legislative reference library. I know I have found it during the three years I have been here of inestimable value. They are more than ready, more so than any other department I have been in, to take the work off your hands and do it for you, and there is no place where one can get it so quickly and so well as at the reference library. I think this is one of the finest pieces of work ever produced by a State institution.

Mr. MCELLIGOTT: I would like to add my compliment to that department, and particularly to Mr. Hannan, who conducts the work over there. I have had occasion to receive many courtesies at his hands in the course of inquiries I have made regarding legislation, and one of the best means of encouraging his work and the work of that branch of the library is to give publicity to this document, which is so elaborately and carefully prepared. Mr. Hannan is a man who is entitled to a great deal of recognition by the legislature, and I think if an opportunity is presented at any time I will be glad for my part to aid him in any advancement.

Mr. AMOS: It gives me great pleasure to subscribe to the sentiments expressed by Mr. Shiplacoff, Mr. McElligott and the majority leader.

Mr. DONOHUE: The expressions of thanks testified to by the members who have already addressed you upon the subject, I think, echoes the sentiments of the one hundred and fifty members of this body in connection with the admirable work of the New York State legislative reference library, and what they are doing. They don't wait until the legislature convenes, but instantly, when they secure the roster of the men who have been elected to the legislature, they immediately get into communication with them, calling attention to the advantages of the reference library. It is a tribute to this house to know that quite a number of members avail themselves of the helpfulness of the legislative reference library in preparation of the debates and in preparation for the legislation that is under consideration by this house.

STATE

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ACQUIRE

THE TOLL BRIDGES

The old toll bridge in New York State will soon be a relic of the past. Automobile owners have long complained of the nuisance in this day and generation of

having to stop at either end of the bridges crossing the Hudson river at Albany and Troy to pay toll. Under proceedings recently taken by the commissioner of highways, these two bridges will soon become the property of the State and become a part of the highway system. Edwin Duffey, commissioner of highways, in this article tells the story of the passing of an old institution which long ago, in the opinion of the people, should have been banished. EDITOR.

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HE State-wide demand (which has been yearly increasing in volume and intensity) for the elimination of toll bridges across the Hudson river located on, or connecting, State routes, has been met by the State authorities, and proceedings incident to their acquisition by the State, and the consequent elimination of the payment of tolls, is now well under way. An agreement has been reached between the State commissioner of highways and the Albany and Southern railroad company for the purchase by the State of the so-called Greenbush bridge for the sum of $890,000, which agreement will become effective and the bridge open to the public as soon as the necessary appropriation is made by the legislature. The commissioner was unable to agree with the Troy and West Troy bridge company, the owners of the Congress street bridge of Troy, upon a purchase price, and has so notified the attorney-general, who is authorized by law to institute condemnation proceedings for the purpose of fixing the price at which the State will acquire that bridge as soon as an appropriation is made therefor. While neither of these bridges will be open, free of toll, during the coming

season, yet the situation now is such that their acquisition is possible as soon as the legislature sees its way clear to provide the necessary funds.

The Greenbush bridge crosses the Hudson river between the cities of Albany and Rensselaer, and is situated partly in Albany county and partly in Rensselaer county. Two state routes, both located on the easterly side of the Hudson river, approach and join at the city of Rensselaer near the eastern terminus of the bridge. Four State routes, all located on the westerly side of the river, center at Albany, which is the western terminus of the bridge.

The volume of vehicular traffic, especially of automobiles, has been increasing enormously at this point in recent years. Tourists from the north, south, east and west enter at this bridge. Exaction of toll, therefore, is growing more and more of a nuisance.

The Congress street bridge crosses the Hudson river between the cities of Troy and Watervliet, and is located on, and forms a part of, a through State route extending from the Massachusetts State line westerly across the river to Schenectady, at which point it joins State route No. 6, which extends across the entire State to the city of Buffalo.

In the earlier history of this State and before the population and wealth of political subdivisions or of the State at large were sufficient to provide the facilities so urgently required, a wide field was offered for private enterprise in the construction of toll roads and the erection of toll bridges. Their necessity and importance were early recog