and extravagant practices; and, from the necessity of the case, economy and good business management will pervade every department of the state and its institutions.

To reach this desirable condition of affairs, there is no way so direct and efficient as the limitation of appropriations to the actual needs shown to exist and the denial of appropriations for deficiencies, unless caused by some unexpected emergency, or a plain showing that the amount appropriated was insufficient for actual and necessary expenses. The custom or habit of allowing deficiencies to occur, in the expectation that the legislature will, without inquiry, and as a matter of course, make appropriations to cover them, ought to receive a good, hard bump against the bedrock of legislative economy and good sense; and another custom, thought lately to be in vogue, of devising schemes to expend an appropriation when its legitimate uses would leave a surplus to lapse in the treasury, is still worse, and deserves the severest reprehension.

When the legislature shall take any effective mode to ascertain how many persons are employed in a department or institution, the salaries or wages paid its officers and employés, the nature and amount of work performed by them, the kind and quantity of food consumed, the methods of procuring supplies, the extent and variety of purchases, the expense of growing grain or stock, the means for economizing food, clothing, fuel and drugs, and carefully scrutinize all matters and things connected with the support and expenditures of such department or institution, as a business man would who expected to provide funds for the same, you will then get at the bottom of their needs and be prepared to estimate their expenses and the amount of appropriation necessary for their support and maintenance. This kind of scrutiny is always beneficial to the public service. It tends to weed out the incompetent or corrupt official and reward the capable and honest. An upright official stands in no dread of a rigid scrutiny of his affairs. If any of our heads of department or superintendents of institutions have pursued vicious methods in doing the public business, or have been guilty of reckless expenditures, let them be exposed; but, on the other hand, if they have discharged their duties with fidelity and economy, give them the credit due a faithful public servant. I believe and assert, taken as a whole, the administration of these officers in their respective spheres of duty has in general been economical and honorable; that expenses have been in the main curtailed; that the public service in many respects has been considerably improved, and that the public interests have been steadily guarded and maintained. For them, I challenge the most searching inquiry that you may institute. I assert that they stand in

no dread of you or your power to investigate the truth, and I say that they despise, as every honest man should despise, the perfunctory or "fixed" committee, constituted to gloss ugly facts and manufacture fraudulent reputations for dishonest, worthless or incompetent officials.

CONCLUSION.

Gentlemen, as representatives of the people, it is your prerogative to enact legislation that shall better our laws, promote our growth and development and advance the cause of civilization and good government. My duty of coöperation with you in this laudable and needful work now comes to an end, but I doubt not that my successor is ready to join with you in a resolute effort to reduce expenses and lighten the burden of taxation; to promote reforms and protect the public interests.

Profoundly grateful for many honors bestowed, and deeply sensible of aspirations not fully realized for bettering economic conditions in my state and enhancing the well-being of its people, I now surrender the high trust confided to me by their partiality, sustained by the consoling reflection that-whatever may have been my shortcomings-my constant aim has been to administer its powers on the side of right and justice, of law and public order, for safeguarding personal liberty and protecting the right of private property, in furtherance of educational progress and general enlightenment, for bettering social conditions and pronoting economic reforms, in extirpating abuses and encouraging a high standard of public duty, for advancing the interests of my state and the happiness of its people.

Chief Justice C. E. Wolverton thereupon administered the oath of office to Hon. T. T. Geer, governor-elect.

His excellency, Hon. T. T. Geer, thereupon delivered his inaugural address as follows:

INAUGURAL ADDRESS.

Elected by my fellow citizens to serve them during the next four years as their chief magistrate, I come before you to assume the official obligation which requires me to support the constitution of the United States, the constitution of the state of Oregon and to see that the laws shall be faithfully executed. Deeply conscious of the great responsibility attaching to the position which has been assigned me and profoundly grateful for the expression of confidence in me, which has been so generously shown, I approach the performance of my new duties with a clearly defined ambition and intention to serve all the people of Oregon with fairness and with fidelity.

In compliance with a constitutional provision which requires the legislature to meet every two years, you are now assembled for the purpose of considering the wants of the people and of improving their condition wherever it is possible by legislative enactment. By virtue of another requirement of the same instrument it is made the duty of the executive to give an outline of the measures which, in his judgment, should engage the attention of the legislature. In obedience to this mandate, I will ask your consideration of a few suggestions, the heeding of which it is thought will subserve the best interests of the people. Your biennial assemblage is not to be regarded as a period of recreation, but rather as one of work and application. Your coming together is simply a plain business proposition. You are ninety men bearing the great distinction of having been chosen to transact important business for 500,000 people, and the same adherence to the principles of economy that governs you in your private matters should guide you with double force in the care and expenditure of public money. While ours is believed to be one of the most economically administered state governments in the union, the fact furnishes no reason why still further reductions should not be made wherever possible.

Fortunately, as it seems to me, there is no demand and, therefore, no necessity for any great amount of general legislation. The condition of the state does not require it. No radical changes are needed anywhere, and during the pending session I advise every legislator to be careful as to what public or private interest he undertakes to affect by his proposed legislation. The most searching investigation would find it difficult to recall a period during the past twenty-five years when there was so little adverse criticism of existing conditions by the people or the press, or when there was so little demand for any kind of new legislation. The general trend of our law-making efforts during the last few years seems to have been in the interest of the people, and, since the world is governed too much anyway, you can, perhaps, pursue no safer policy than to accomplish what little legislation seems necessary within the next thirty days and adjourn without further expense to the state or yourselves.

This consummation is not only desirable, but feasible, in view of the work already done by your honorable bodies during the special session in October last. The same industry shown during the next thirty days would easily meet all the demands of the people, and it is, therefore, earnestly hoped that you will give them a shorter session than the constitutional limit of forty days. Each day you are at the capital, whether in session or not, costs the state more than $1,000, and since your own compensation is too small to offer any inducement to remain longer than the pub

lic interest actually requires, it is hoped that the general wish for an early adjournment will be granted. During the special session in October you appropriated $28,000 for your own expenses besides $40,000 for a legislative abortion two years before for which the people did not receive so much as one cent in return. In view of this, it is hoped that we are not now confronted by another appropriation of $40,000 for a full forty days' session. The various committees appointed to pursue certain lines of investigation during your vacation have worked diligently and their reports, being now ready, will materially advance your work at the outset. As a rule, the best legislative results are secured during the first few weeks of a session, and if any scheme, job or ill-advised measure succeeds it is always the product of the leisure time which the longer session affords. I am extremely anxious that this legislature shall make a record that will meet the approbation of the people, and there is not a taxpayer in the state who would not speak approvingly of an adjournment at the end of a thirty days' session.

It will not be possible to do so, however, if the usual custom of introducing a flood of bills on all conceivable subjects is to be perpetuated. The number of bills introduced at the average regular session almost, if not quite, equals the whole number of laws on our statute books; and since few of them are of an original nature it follows that, as a rule, they are simply attacks, in one form or another, on existing laws. No sooner does the common citizen become acquainted with what the law is, than a subsequent legislature changes it, and he finds himself in trouble before he knows it. Even the practicing lawyer, with the aid of a large library and the help of the courts, finds it difficult to fathom the meaning of the average legislature, and when this is so what is to become of the working man in the foothills of a distant county who has no assistance in the matter but his weekly newspaper?

The interminable multiplicity of conflicting laws is the curse of our legislation, both state and national, and burdens our judiciary whose principal business is to interpret obscure or ambiguous legislative enactments. No law should be passed the intent and effect of which cannot be easily understood by the plain citizen who is patiently building himself and family a home in a remote part of the state and thus upholding and strengthening the outposts of civilization. The laws passed here are for his government; he represents a class of people to which nine-tenths of our fellow citizens belong and to whom we are indebted largely for that subjection of seemingly insurmountable difficulties which gave us originally this magnificent inheritance. This citizen and his class should be in your minds at

all times during your deliberations, and especially during the third reading of bills. He is engaged today in that struggle which, if successful, will bring our state to that degree of industrial development which we are all hoping to realize in the near future, but his interests are not represented here save as they find expression in your votes in these two chambers. He is never represented by the professional lobbyist, and any kind of crooked legislation always results in his injury.

It would be difficult to find better proof of the excellent condition of our state, even without any additional legislation, than is furnished in a public statement made by the distinguished retiring secretary of state only last year. Among other things he said: "There are fewer state officers in Oregon than in most other states and expenses are on a very economical scale. Most of the taxes collected are to carry on municipal and county governments. The rate of taxation for all purposes, municipal, county and state, is lower than the average in other states, and the assessed valuation of property is not more than one-third of its real value, while in nearly all other states property is assessed for taxation at about its full value. For this reason, a three per cent. tax in Oregon is only about one-third as costly to the owners of real and personal property as is a similar tax to owners of property in neighboring states. The assessed valuation of all property in Oregon for taxation is about $150,000,000, or little if any more than one-third of its real value, so a three per cent. tax on that amount is, in fact, no more than about one per cent. on the actual value."

This is a strong statement, and true, save that as to the tax levy the outgoing board has been compelled to almost double the rate for the ensuing year. This has been found necessary partly because the tax levy last year was too low to supply the needs of the state government, and deficiencies must always be met by an additional tax. Besides, the expenditures authorized by a session of the legislature one year must be charged to the next year. These levies and appropriations necessarily vary from year to year, but this increased tax levy is brought to your attention as a deterrent force in the matter of making appropriations that can, without crippling the state, be avoided.

It is to be hoped that you will give the people the minimum. quantity of legislation at this session. I am disposed to speak with some plainness on this subject for the reason that I have had a somewhat extended service in your ranks and have seen. and felt and even been controlled by the tendency to be over-industrious in the matter of new legislation. It is a mistaken idea to suppose that to meet the approbation of your constituents, you must necessarily be conspicuously active; sometimes a man's ac