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xxxii Oliver Max Gardner
and for debt and as businesses were approaching bank-ruptcy,
the people looked upward to find some one in
authority to blame. In England it was the prime
minister, in the United States it was the president, in
North Carolina it was the governor. Never was the
old saying truer: "Uneasy lies the head that wears a
crown." The governor met this storm with courage—
-
undaunted and unafraid.
When the General Assembly convened Gardner was
ready for it. His antidote for the wave of discontent
was a well-devised, comprehensive program for reor-ganization
and reform which he had been developing
since the spring of 1930. The keystone of the arch of
his program was, to quote his own words : "Of one con-clusion
I am absolutely certain—taxes on property
must be reduced." He transmitted to the General
Assembly as soon as it convened complete and authori-tative
reports on the State—its fiscal situation and its
economic condition, and proposed broad recommenda-tions
for meeting the situation. He had continuously
worked with the Tax Commission on the revenue and
debt problems of the State and its subdivisions. He
had employed the Brookings Institution of Washington,
D. C, a nationally recognized authority, to study the
organizational and administrative set-up of the state
government and of county governments. A survey of
the county and township road system, in which every
mile was mapped, had been cooperatively made by the
Tax Commission, the State Highway Department, and
the United States Bureau of Public Roads. He had a
special commission at work on penal problems and
another one studying the public school system. These
reports he promptly sent to the Legislature together
with his recommendations and appropriate bills.
His program met with tremendous opposition from
certain political and economic interests. Opposition
is naturally to be expected to any program which takes
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