MESSAGE FROM THE GOVERNOR. The following message from the Governor was received and read, and was ordered printed in the Journal: To the Senate: EXECUTIVE DEPARTMENT, STATE OF CALIFORNIA, } SACRAMENTO, January 2, 1905. GENTLEMEN: I have the honor to respectfully acknowledge the receipt, through your committee, of the information that your honorable body has organized and is ready for the transaction of the public business. I congratulate you upon the auspicious beginning of this legislative session, and have every hope that our common labors will result in benefit to the State. I hope that you will feel that the Executive is at your service in all matters connected with the public good, and I assure you that any service that I can render you will be cheerfully and gladly performed. Respectfully, RECESS. GEO. C. PARDEE, Governor. At one o'clock and twenty minutes P. M., on motion of Senator Ralston, the President declared the Senate at recess until three o'clock P. M. RECONVENED. At three o'clock P. M. the Senate reconvened. Lieutenant-Governor Alden Anderson, President of the Senate, in the chair. REPORT OF SPECIAL COMMITTEE. Senator Ralston, chairman of the special committee, reported that it had communicated with the Assembly, as directed, and reported that the Senate had been duly organized. The committee was thereupon discharged. RECESS. At three o'clock and ten minutes P. M. the President declared the Senate at recess for three minutes. RECONVENED. At three o'clock and thirteen minutes P. M. the Senate reconvened. MESSAGE FROM THE ASSEMBLY. The following message from the Assembly was received and read, and ordered printed in the Journal: ASSEMBLY CHAMBER, SACRAMENTO, January 2, 1905. MR. PRESIDENT: I am directed to inform your honorable body that the Assembly on this day at twelve o'clock M., in compliance with the provisions of the Constitution and the Statutes of the State of California, with the Hon. Clio Lloyd, Chief Clerk, presiding, regularly organized by the election of the following permanent officers of the Assembly during the thirty-sixth session of the Legislature: Speaker-Frank C. Prescott. Speaker pro tem.-Thos. E. Atkinson. Chief Clerk-Clio Lloyd. Sergeant-at-Arms-John T. Stafford. Minute Clerk-J. Steppacher. CLIO LLOYD. RESOLUTION. The following resolution was offered: Resolved, That the Senate of California has heard with profound sorrow of the death of Hon. Orrin Z. Hubbell, late a Senator for the Thirtieth District; Hon. George H. Williams, late a Senator for the Twenty-fourth District, and Hon. J. D. Byrnes, late a Senator for the Twenty-ninth District; Resolved, That as a mark of respect to the memory of these deceased members of the Senate, an adjournment be now taken until 11 o'clock A. M., Tuesday, January 3, 1905. Resolution read, and unanimously adopted by a rising vote. ADJOURNMENT. In accordance with the above resolution, the President declared the Senate adjourned until eleven o'clock A. M. of Tuesday, January 3, 1905. IN SENATE. SENATE CHAMBER, Tuesday, January 3, 1905. Pursuant to adjournment, the Senate met at eleven o'clock a. M. Lieutenant-Governor Alden Anderson, President of the Senate, in the chair. The roll was called, and the following answered to their names: Senators Anderson, Bauer, Belshaw, Broughton, Bunkers, Carter, Coggins, Curtin, Diggs, Emmons, French, Greenwell, Hahn, Haskins, Irish, Keane, Leavitt, Leeke, Lukens, Lynch, Markey, Mattos, McKee, Muenter, Nelson, Pendleton, Ralston, Rambo, Rowell, Rush, Sanford, Savage, Selvage, Shortridge, Simpson, Ward, Welch, Wolfe, Woodward, and Wright-40. Quorum present. PRAYER. Prayer by the Chaplain, Rev. W. S. Hoskinson. READING OF THE JOURNAL. During the reading of the Journal of Monday, January 2, 1905, the further reading was dispensed with, on motion of Senator Leavitt. RESOLUTION. The following resolution was offered: By Senator Muenter: Resolved, That a temporary committee of three be appointed on Contingent Expenses and Mileage. Resolution read, and adopted. APPOINTMENT OF TEMPORARY COMMITTEE ON CONTINGENT EXPENSES In accordance with the above resolution, the President appointed Senators Muenter, Leavitt, and Emmons as such committee. APPOINTMENT OF STANDING COMMITTEE ON RULES. The President announced that he had appointed the standing Committee on Rules as follows: Senators Carter, Wolfe, Leavitt, Greenwell, and Emmons. RESOLUTION. The following resolution was offered: By Senator Woodward: Resolved, That when a bill is introduced and when printed amending an existing law, the new matter shall be underscored, and all portions of the law proposed to be omitted shall be included in brackets. Provided, however, that where the subject consists of an entirely new section, the words thereof need not be underscored. All bills reported favorably or for consideration, if reported with amendments, shall be immediately reprinted, the new matter underscored and the parts of the law proposed to be omitted included in brackets. Resolution read. MOTION. Senator Belshaw moved that the above resolution be referred to a special committee of three, to be appointed by the President, and that the report of said committee be made the special order for Wednesday, January 4, 1905. Motion carried. APPOINTMENT OF SPECIAL COMMITTEE. In accordance with the above motion, the President appointed Senators Belshaw, Woodward, and Sanford as such committee. MESSAGES FROM THE GOVERNOR. The following Biennial Message from the Governor was read and ordered printed in the Journal: STATE OF CALIFORNIA, EXECUTIVE DEPARTMENT, To the Senate of the State of California: I have the honor to submit herewith my Biennial Message for the years 1903 and 1904. Respectfully, GEO. C. PARDEE, FIRST BIENNIAL MESSAGE OF GOVERNOR GEORGE C. PARDEE. EXECUTIVE DEPARTMENT, STATE OF CALIFORNIA, SACRAMENTO, January 2, 1905. To the Senate and Assembly: GENTLEMEN: The Constitution of California commands that the Governor shall communicate by message to the Legislature at every session the condition of the State, and shall recommend the enactment of such legislation as he may deem expedient. Accordingly, I have the honor respectfully to transmit to and to lay before your honorable bodies my Biennial Message for the years 1903 and 1904 In common with other States of our Union, California has, during the last two years, enjoyed great material prosperity. Our many industries and interests have prospered. Employment has been steady and, in most localities, abundant. Wages have averaged as good as ever before, crop returns have been at least normal, and prices of products have, on the whole, been remunerative. With especial respect to California, not only has our State been a liberal sharer in the prosperity of the Nation, but it has enjoyed an abundant and independent prosperity. Our cities and towns have increased steadily and even rapidly in population and accumulated wealth; our larger areas of farming lands have, in large measure, been subdivided into holdings of moderate size and sold at prices which have been within the reach of men of moderate means. To a greater extent than ever before, at least in the northern and central portions of the State, new farms have been established and green alfalfa meadows and orchards now greet the eye where a few years ago only grain fields filled the landscape. Separated as California is from the more thickly populated portions of our common country by hundreds of miles of semi-arid mountain and plain, it is marvelous to see how our State has drawn to itself tens of thousands of enthusiastic home-seekers who have come to cast their lots with us. Although the means of travel have proven somewhat expensive and not a little tedious, even in these days of palace cars and swiftrolling trains, the tide of immigration is still setting our way and will continue so to flow so long as we extend an unfailing hospitality toward it. Our snowless winters, our intensified, diversified and yet highly specialized agricultural pursuits are proving irresistible to thousands who find Eastern summers exhausting, winters trying, and the production of a few staple products, year after year, uninviting. Our State is no longer looked upon as a land of unbelievable legends and unrealizable prophecies. The eyes of the world are turned in our direction as never before since the discovery of gold. The future is big with promise for California. The splendid exhibit of products made at St. Louis has proven conclusive as to the claims our immigration literature has set forth. California has made good for all that has been claimed, and achievement bids fair to rival the dreams of those who, loving California, have prophesied in verse and oratory of her coming greatness. It only remains for Californians to put aside individual and local jealousies and unite in helping forward everything that is likely to prove good for the commonwealth to make us all sharers in a prosperity hitherto unparalleled. God has been good to us; let us be good to each other, whether of the north or the south, city or country, mountain or valley. Let us be all for one and one for all. WORK OF THE LEGISLATURE. In meeting the Legislature for a second time I wish to congratulate the members upon the opportunity which they possess to benefit their constituents by a serious devotion to duty during the next two months. They can benefit them by exercising economy in making necessary appropriations and by vigilance in preventing appropriations which are not necessary. They can further serve their constituents by seeing to it that none but useful laws, and those carefully framed, shall be passed. Loose and careless laws fill the courts with litigation and impose a heavy burden upon all classes of citizens. Yet to guard against the passage of such laws is no easy task, when during a session of sixty days fifteen or eighteen hundred bills are introduced which must be read, printed, examined in committee, reported, and voted on. So many of these bills as are unwise, or are unnecessary, are stumbling-blocks in the way of the passage of measures which are needed. It would be no small legislative reform if some means could be found to impose a check upon the introduction of a multitude of bills which will never accomplish any other purpose than to waste the State's money when they are printed, or to cumber the files when they are reported. That the work of the Legislature is so well done, when the disadvantages under which it is conducted are considered, is remarkable, and shows how much earnest, intelligent effort is expended at each session. The biennial statute-book, which embodies, in four or five hundred pages, the net results of the session, may contain much that is unimportant, and that which is important may be marked by imperfections; but it enables the public business to be carried on, and there is a large balance of good over bad. The numberless interests affected, and the rapid changes in conditions under which business is done, render unavoidable many alterations in the statutes. And yet it is very true that every needless law enacted is a detriment, and the making of many minor changes at frequent intervals is to be deprecated. A more thorough revision at greater intervals would be much better. Laws of Last Session.-I am happy to state that the legislation of the last session appears to have been, in the main, sound in purpose and reasonably correct. With one or two exceptions, no acts have been declared by the courts to be unconstitutional, and, on the other hand, many acknowledged evils were corrected. This was done, for example, in the amendment of the ballot law, which previously had been so framed that many citizens had, through ignorance or carelessness, lost their votes. Under the Act authorizing the use of ballot machines, several counties introduced the machines, and their operation appears to have been successful. The law in relation to insanity and the hospitals for the insane, which theretofore had been very defective, was revised, and in its new form has obviated most of the former difficulties. I think I may also enumerate among the clearly beneficial acts of the late session the one altering the law of divorce, requiring the entering of an interlocutory decree and postponing for a year the time when a divorced person may remarry. At the same session several Acts were passed in the interest of labor, including one which regulated employment agencies. The probation and juvenile court laws enacted were intended to save from the prisons and from lives of crime many young men and boys who, although they have taken first steps in vice, are not irreclaimable. The Act providing a way to improve the common school text-books, by buying the right to use copyrighted texts, promises to be productive of much good. I especially advise the utmost care in the framing of statutes to avoid technical defects, which will defeat their purpose. Two years ago I felt obliged to refuse to sign a number of bills, otherwise meritorious, which were so faultily framed that it would not have been safe to let them become laws. The Codes.-A subject closely connected with the above is the California codes, to which at every session of the Legislature many amendments are proposed. It is now more than thirty years since the codes were adopted, the principal object at the time being to rescue the law from the uncertainty of many conflicting statutes and decisions It was recognized that there were objections to the code system, and in practical operation it does not realize all that was claimed for it by its advocates; but it has been a great improvement upon what existed before, and no one proposes its abandonment. But it is well known that the codes have not been improved and perfected to the extent they should be, and at each session many general statutes are passed embodying matter which ought to be incorporated in the codes. The integrity of the codes should be respected, and the system kept as symmetrical as possible. THE STATE FINANCES. I desire to call the attention of the Legislature to the improved financial condition of the State Treasury. Two years ago it was clearly foreseen that the General Fund would run short before the next succeeding collection of taxes. In order to prevent this condition becoming chronic, and to make it possible to replenish the treasury, it became necessary for the Legislature to provide for a tax levy in excess of that which would have been required had the one fixed in the year 1902 not been so far below what the actual appropriations called for. This excess for the year 1903-04 amounted to six cents on the $100, and for 1904-05 to nearly as much. But before the taxes for 1903-04 were collected the expected had happened, for the General Fund ran short, and borrowing from other funds was unavoidable. On June 30, 1903, the balance in the General Fund was only $432,415.74, with five months' expenses to be met before taxes would again flow into the treasury. This small balance was soon exhausted, and it became necessary, on July 31, 1903, to borrow from other funds the sum of $921,000, and again, on November 5th, to borrow the further sum of $447,000. This, as the State Controller points out in his biennial report, was a condition such as had not before arisen for nearly a decade, and it was, as before said, to prevent its recurrence that the Legislature ordered a larger tax levy than the appropriations demanded. The effect of this levy is shown by the vastly different condition of the General Fund on June 30, 1904, which on that date contained $2,058,610.11. a sum more than sufficient to meet all prospective demands. The State of California, like other solvent institutions, should maintain a credit balance large enough to guarantee it against having to practice unusual and unsafe methods of financiering. More especially is it wise to carry a credit balance if it can be made a means of profit, as, in another part of this message, I suggest can be done by adopting the deposit plan. Betterments during Two Years.-As an appendix to this message there is printed a table which shows the amount of money appropriated at the last session for buildings and other improvements in connection with State institutions; also the amounts expended from such appropriations to date, and the amounts expended from contingent funds for the same general purposes. The total of appropriations made two years ago for betterments was $800,800, and by adding to this $76,362.21 of former appropriations unexpended, the State had an aggregate of appropriations for betterments equal to $577,162.21 to use during the biennium. Of this there has been actually expended to date $685,742.61; to which must be added the sum of $108,200.85, which has been drawn from contingent funds and used for betterments. This makes an aggregate of $793,943.46 spent for betterments in the last two calendar years. As the whole amount of appropriations from all funds made at the last session was $7,733,840.73, the proportion which went for actual improvements was about 10 per cent. The expenditures made have been highly beneficial to many of the institutions of the State. At the San Diego Normal School a west wing has been added to the main building; the Los Angeles, Chico, and San José Normal Schools have also benefited through construction or repairs; the new building of the Southern California State Hospital is well advanced toward completion; the assembly hall of the Mendocino State Hospital is partially finished, and at the Stockton, Agnews, and Napa hospitals more or less extensive improvements have been made; for the Home for Feeble-Minded Children $52.500 was appropriated, and the result is much improved conditions at that institution, which is, however, still so lacking in accommodations that many applications for admission are necessarily denied. Extensive improvements have been made at the Veterans' Home, the machinery in the State Printing Office has received important additions, and California Hall, at the University, for which $250,000 was appropriated, is nearing completion. A good deal of construction work has been done at the California Polytechnic School in San Luis Obispo. The needs of the State in the way of new buildings are numerous, but they can be supplied only gradually. A certain amount of new construction can be provided for out of each tax levy, but many meritorious building enterprises must await the time when the funds can be spared. Bond Purchases for School Fund.-One of the pieces of legislation of the last session which has been followed by good results is the Act authorizing the purchase of munici pal and school-district bonds for the permanent school fund, which previous to that time could be invested only in bonds of the United States, the State, and the counties. |