Plenary Session Transcripts

Governors Attending:

Guests:

Discussion Subjects:

State administrative problems; the short ballot; conservation; the National Guard; post-war problems; and waterways from the Great Lakes to the Gulf of Mexico

Points of Interest:

Governors discussed the relatively new concept of a "budget" and the ways in which state chief executives could address the fast-growing problem of legislative appropriations exceeding revenue. Dr. Frank J. Goodnow, President of Johns Hopkins University, said that the idea of an executive budget originated in a self-denying ordinance of the British Parliament in the 18th Century, which deferred to the monarchy.

Governor Edward F. Dunne of Illinois made a presentation advocating construction of a waterway connecting the Great Lakes with the Gulf of Mexico. [In 1933, the Illinois Waterway in fact opened, providing a deep-water channel between Lake Michigan and the Mississippi River.]

A representative of the War Department's Bureau of Militia spoke glowingly of the assistance that organized militias of Arizona, New Mexico, and Texas--called up by President Woodrow Wilson through the Governors--had provided in fighting Mexican guerillas [i.e., Pancho Villa and his followers].

Memorable Quotes:

Governor Emerson C. Harrington of Maryland said: "A budget...is practically a new thing, at least in State Government, and has not been so sufficiently tried out in any State in this country with which I am familiar as to place us in a position from experience to decide whether or not it may prove a success or a failure...in my own State, over-appropriation by the Legislature created a crisis in our fiscal system and the question became so acute that the establishment of a Budget System became the leading issue of our State political campaign of 1915..." [leading to the adoption of a state constitutional amendment requiring the legislature's consideration of an executive budget and permitting them to initiate appropriations on their own only if they could demonstrate that a revenue stream was available to fund them.]

Governor Samuel W. McCall of Massachusetts, during a discussion of state/federal relations, said: "We have heard a good deal...about he immeasurable benefits that would flow if there was a United States of Europe. It is claimed that such a union would have prevented [WWI] But you cannot imagine a United States of Europe...that did not provide for the largest measure of home rule Governor Arthur Capper of Kansas (raised a Quaker) advocated the "League of Nations which shall establish a permanent international court of justice to which all justiciable questions arising between the signatories shall be submitted; all non-justiciable questions to be submitted to a council of conciliation for hearing...The members of the league shall first use their combined economic forces [against] any of their number that refuse to submit any question to the tribunal or council of conciliation before threatening war..."