also by the small pecuniary rewards which are paid for State service involving serious sacrifices for many men of proved talent who are without independent means. But whatever may be said of the advisability of providing juster compensation for State officers, it is not necessary in order to attain the ends of government to compete with the material rewards of distinguished careers in business or in professional life. Of far greater importance than the question of compensation is the proper recognition of the dignity of public service. This may be realized to some degree through that self-restraint which patriotic sentiment and the sense of justice should impose upon public critics, which should make them careful against prejudgment and slow to bring into disrepute those charged with public responsibilities. But on the other hand our safety largely depends upon the freedom of criticism, and in the main the public officer, though from time to time unjustly accused, will secure reasonable appreciation of his work. The American people are essentially fairminded, and in time a course of unjust censure hurts the purveyor more than its subject. What is most influential in securing due recognition of the dignity of office is proper care in the selection of officers. So far as we may be able to raise the standards of administration we make easier the task of drawing to the public service men of high capacity and unselfish motive. Conspicuous examples of administrative efficiency, and the appropriate tributes won from a grateful people, will do more to secure disinterested men of talent for public office and to maintain high standards, than either protests against the abuse of criticism or increase of pecuniary rewards. The problems which are suggested by these reflections are not peculiar to our State. With variant features they appear in all States. We rejoice in the notable talent which has been displayed in our great departments and a close examination of the work of the State will disclose to the just critic far more to merit praise than to deserve censure. The business of the State for the most part is well conducted and our insistence upon higher efficiency suggests no lack of appreciation of the fidelity and capacity which so largely are exem plified in State administration. We do not expect that in the representative activities of government we shall ever be free from the weaknesses inherent in our human nature. Nor on the other hand may we set bounds to progress. Our ideals must ever rise above our conduct and we can correct our practices only as we take counsel of our best aspirations and seek with unremitting persistence to attain the goals of free society. Government is merely an organ of the community to secure a basis of peace and order essential to individual liberty and opportunity, and also to maintain the collective rights which cannot otherwise be safeguarded. Our dependence for progress is not chiefly upon governmental agencies but upon the virtues of sobriety, industry, thrift and moderation, upon the realization of our mutual dependence, and upon the gradual supplanting of motives of mere self-interest by those inspired by the appeals of brotherhood. The influences contributing to this development multiply more rapidly and are more potent than those to which they are opposed. In many groups, notable in their variety but dominated by the same spirit, our citizens are devoting themselves to the endeavors of philanthropy and to the work of education and moral enlightenment. It is through these efforts, so largely humble and obscure, that the community is vivified by wholesome influences and that truth and justice extend their victories. I enter upon my second term of office with a keener sense of its responsibilities and of my own limitations. But I have an intense desire to render loyal service to the people. I congratulate the other officers who to-day assume official privileges and I voice your friendly interest in wishing them the highest degree of success in the discharge of their new responsibilities. We may not forecast the exigencies of the next two years; but we may cherish the principles of our institutions; and, each in his own province, whether in public or private life, answering to the best of his ability the calls of duty, we may seek to emulate the example of those who have illumined our history with their record of faithful service and at least we may make somewhat easier the task of those who hereafter may labor for the improvement of the life of the commonwealth. IN ORDER that endeavor may be crowned with gratitude; THAT we may appropriately express our appreciation of the opportunities of liberty and peace, of our freedom from disorder, of abundant harvests, of the manifold benefits of industry, of the gains of science, and of the widening efforts of philanthropy; THAT We may cultivate the joys of fellowship and that amid good cheer and the manifestations of brotherly kindness we may be drawn more closely together in mutual sympathy and in enhanced desire to promote the common weal; AND that with reverent spirit we may lift up our hearts in thanks to Almighty God for his goodness and in the united utterance of praise and hope find inspiration for public and private task; Now, THEREFORE, I, Charles E. Hughes, Governor of the State of New York, by virtue of the authority vested in me by the laws of the State, do hereby appoint Thursday, the twenty-fifth day of November, in the year nineteen hundred and nine, as a day of General Thanksgiving. DONE at the Capitol, in the city of Albany, this seventeenth day of November, in the year nineteen. hundred and nine. By the Governor : CHARLES E. HUGHES ROBERT H. Fuller, Secretary to the Governor. |