Editor’s Note: As we face huge deficits and proposals to restructure government, understanding how Rhode Island arrived at its current government organization, financing and services is important. This is the second part of a five-part series by Kenneth Payne on how we got to where we are.

The 20th century began as work on the new white-marble State House continued.

In May 1900, the General Assembly convened in Newport for the last time. A year later, lawmakers met for the first time in the Providence State House, even before it was completed in 1904.

The forms of government were familiar. For those in control, the system worked. The Yankee establishment held the reins of power.

The State House was an expression of that power — political and economic. Rhode Island was urbanizing, industrializing and generating wealth. Cities were burgeoning with immigrants. Together Providence, Pawtucket, Central Falls, and Woonsocket held more than half of the people in Rhode Island. Yet in 1901, political power was consolidated and effectively placed beyond popular control.

Rhode Island’s Constitution had been amended in 1900. This was logical — it would make little sense to build a grand new State House and continue to divide the General Assembly session between Providence and Newport, housing it in Colonial buildings.

The 1900 amendment was the lengthiest to date. It had twelve sections. The first provided that the General Assembly would meet in Providence beginning on the first Tuesday in January and that members would be paid 5 dollars per day for 60 days and 8 cents per mile for travel, a decent rate of compensation for the time. The second section set the first Tuesday after the first Monday in November as Election Day for state general officers and General Assembly members and specified that the terms of office began on the first Tuesday in January. The 3rd through 11th sections were mechanical. The 12th repealed the sections of the Constitution that were being superseded.

The first two Acts of the General Assembly in 1901, provided a statutory scheme for implementation of the just enacted amendment to the Constitution. The first dealt with eligibility to vote and the registration of voters. The second, Chapter 809, was “An Act Amending Certain Chapters of the General and Public Laws to Provide for the Continuance in Office and the Time and Manner of Election of Certain State Officers, and Amending the Same and Other Chapters so that They Shall Conform to the Provisions of Article 11 of the Amendments to the Constitution.”

Three sections at the end of Chapter 809 became infamous and merit a full reading. While their tone is matter of fact and lawyerly, their effect was a stark fixing of undemocratic power.

“Section 62. Whenever at the commencement of any session of the General Assembly there shall be in office any person appointed by the governor, when the General Assembly was not in session, to hold office until the next session thereof, and the governor shall not within seven days after the General Assembly shall be in session nominate some person as required by law to fill such vacancy for the remainder of the term, or whenever the Senate shall have been in session for three days after the governor has made such nomination and shall not have advised and consented to the same, the Senate may elect some person to fill such vacancy for the remainder of the term.

“Section 63. Whenever at the January session of the General Assembly, the governor shall not in the month of January make any of the appointments to office which he is required by law to make at said session, or whenever the Senate shall have been in session for three days after the making of any such appointment by the governor and shall not have advised and consented to the same, the Senate may elect some person to the office in respect to which such appointment shall not have been made or such consent has not been given.

“Section 64. Notwithstanding any provisions of law in relation to the tenure of their office, any officer appointed by the governor, with the advice and consent of the Senate, may be removed by the governor, with the advice and consent of the Senate.”

The final section of the Act repealed inconsistent provisions of law.

The General Assembly created offices, boards, and commissions — now the Senate clearly determined who served in the positions so created.

General Charles R. Brayton, chairman of the Republican state steering committee, was the architect of these provisions, which became known as the Brayton Act. In an age of political machines and bosses, Rhode Island had a Republican machine, and Brayton was the boss. Although he was lobbyist for big business interests, not a state official, he maintained an office in the State House. From business interests he obtained money that he used to support candidates and to secure election outcomes, especially in towns. Boss Brayton’s machine managed Rhode Island government at the beginning of the 20th century.

LUCIUS GARVIN, a Democrat, became governor in 1903, and in March he presented to the General Assembly a special message “Concerning Bribery in Elections:”

“Gentlemen:

“I desire to invite your attention to a question of the first importance. I refer to bribery in elections.

“That bribery exists to a great extent in the elections of this State is a matter of common knowledge. No general election passes without, in some section of the State, the purchase of votes by one or both of the great political parties….

“In a considerable number of our towns bribery is so common, and has existed for so many years, that the awful nature of the crime has ceased to impress. In some towns the bribery takes place openly; it is not called bribery nor considered a serious matter. The money paid to the voter, whether two, five, or twenty dollars, is spoken of as ‘payment for his time.’

“The claim that the money given to the elector is not for the purpose of influencing his vote, but in compensation for time lost in visiting the polls, is the merest sophistry and should not deceive any adult citizen of ordinary intelligence. It is well known that in such towns, when one political party is supplied with a corruption fund and the other is without, the party so provided invariably elects its Assembly ticket, thus affording positive proof that the votes are bought and the voters bribed….”

Governor Garvin asked for authority to appoint a commissioner, with the concurrence of the attorney general, to investigate such bribery. The request died in the General Assembly.

Two years later, the muckraker Lincoln Steffens, writing about bosses, political machines, and corruption throughout the United States, described Rhode Island as “A State for Sale.” Steffens saw the corruption of elections in Rhode Island as having major national significance.

Before 1919, U.S. senators were elected by state legislatures. Nelson W. Aldrich, U.S. senator from Rhode Island, was described in Steffens’ account as “the boss of the United States,” and “the general manager of the United States.” Aldrich was aligned with the great trusts and financiers. Brayton and Aldrich were political allies; Brayton controlled the General Assembly, which dependably returned Aldrich to the U.S. Senate. Never elected to his position by the people of the state, Aldrich was the longest serving U.S. senator from Rhode Island until Claiborne Pell.

The next Democratic governor, James Higgins (1907 and1908), a lawyer, also made an effort to overturn the Brayton system. He sought an advisory opinion from the Rhode Island Supreme Court on the constitutionality of the Brayton Act. The Supreme Court, all Republicans elected by the General Assembly, stated: “We suppose the question [submitted by the Governor] is prompted by a doubt whether the power of appointment is not the exclusive function of the executive branch of the government. It is not so prescribed or treated by the constitution.” The court did not find a constitutional problem with the Brayton Act and so advised the governor. Thus the Brayton system remained a basic fixture of Rhode Island government for a third of a century. As state government expanded, there was a way to control and manage it.

A THIRD MAJOR enactment of the 1901 General Assembly was the creation of the State Returning Board. Previously, elections were overseen at the local level. Now a state board would tabulate the votes and certify the outcome in elections for federal and general officers and for senators and representatives in the General Assembly.

State government was expanding by the standard practices of establishing boards and commissions — some of the members of which might be drawn from the public and some might be ex officio — and appointing state commissioners.

In 1903 voters approved a constitutional amendment making the Supreme Court an appellate body. The General Assembly approved a comprehensive, 403 page, “Court and Practice Act…. revising the judicial system of the state” in 1905. The Supreme Court was given “general supervision of all courts of inferior jurisdiction to correct and prevent errors and abuses therein.…” Superior Court was created with original jurisdiction, a presiding justice and five associate justices, and the functions of the old common pleas division of the Supreme Court.

ON THE WAY TO CARS: The actions in 1895 , mandating cities and towns, reducing the number of highway districts to a maximum of four, establishing the position of state highway commissioner and providing money for demonstration segments of well-built roads, proved insufficient. Roads did not improve much.

Travel ways for bicycles were the first issue. Bicycles were a new technology, which rapidly gained popularity for pleasure riding and for transportation.

However, roads and highways were used by carts, wagon, carriages, coaches, ridden horses, livestock and pedestrians, and their condition was often poor. Chapter 757 of the Public Laws of 1900 established a Sidepath Commission of five members, one cyclist from each county, to construct and maintain side paths along any highway, with local approval.

Sidepaths were not to be on sidewalks and were to be not less than 3 feet and not more than 6 feet wide. To pay for them, the act provided for a license fee of not less than 50 cents or more than one dollar. The statute also set basic rules: Cyclists must ride on the right-hand side when approaching and passing each other, and when encountering each other or pedestrians they were not to go “faster than a common traveling pace.” Willfully leading, riding or driving “any vehicle, other than a cycle, or any horse, cattle, swine or sheep or other animals” on a side path was subject to a fine not exceeding 10 dollars. Throwing or placing “any tacks, nails, wire scrap-metal, glass, crockery or other substance injurious to the feet of persons or to the tires or wheels of cycles” subjected a person to a fine not exceeding 20 dollars or imprisonment not to exceed three months.

In 1902, the General Assembly took a further and greater step passing an act “to provide for the construction, improvement and maintenance of state roads.”

The act created the State Board of Public Roads (five persons, one from each county), gave the Board an office in the State House, and provided an appropriation of $5,000 for clerical and engineering assistance and incidental expenses.

Its 1903 report recommended state road construction that would be attractive to all regions of the state. The names of many of the proposed state roads are familiar: Mendon Road, Douglas Pike, Hartford Pike, Post Road, Taunton Avenue, Child Street. Many stretches of the roads had been old turnpikes, privately maintained toll roads, and stage coach routes.

Rhode Island imposed a gasoline tax, a penny per gallon, in 1925. The tax was increased to 2 cents per gallon in 1927.

In 1904, the General Assembly authorized registration of motor vehicles, and a system became operational in 1908. Motor vehicle registrations in 1908 were 3,468, and by 1930 they stood at 136,423.

INFRASTRUCTURE: Roads and bridges were not the lone area of state investment.

Port improvements were made to accommodate shipping, and most goods and people arrived in Rhode Island by water.

A Metropolitan Park Commission was established in 1904, first with the duty to consider the advisability of laying out ample open spaces for the use of the public in Providence and in the cities and towns in its vicinity. The commission’s authority was extended in 1907 to acquiring, improving, and maintaining open spaces for exercise and recreation.

Tuberculosis was a leading cause of death, and a sanatorium was established in 1905 in Burrillville on Wallum Lake. Dr. Joseph H. Ladd endeavored to provide care for the mentally retarded, and in 1908 the School for the Feeble-Minded was opened in Exeter. Ladd was the school’s director until 1956. Investments were regularly made in expanding and improving charitable and penal institutions, with the voters approving loans for this purpose in 1909, 1913, 1916, 1922, and 1926.

In 1915 the General Assembly established the Providence Water Supply Board and authorized it to undertake the development of a reservoir on the north branch of the Pawtuxet River. The Scituate Reservoir was put into service in 1926.

THE PROGRESSIVE ERA: The Progressive era in political development in the United States lasted roughly from the beginning of the 20th century to the entry into the Great War. Theodore Roosevelt was its iconic figure. Progressivism was characterized by a belief in affirmative government, a commitment to good government reform, and a belief that there is a public interest in accordance with which government should act. Progressives were proponents of a strong executive and often saw existing institutions and arrangements as inefficient and corrupt.

Progress during the progressive era was modest. Strides were made in public health, in education, in curtailment of child labor, and in some areas of business regulation. The high point of progressive enactments came in 1912, the presidential election year. Woodrow Wilson carried the state, and Theodore Roosevelt got nearly 17,000 votes, thus two progressives garnered 65 percent of the total.

In Rhode Island, the General Assembly created a board of tax commissioners and a public utilities commission, and enacted regulation of fraternal benefit societies, registration of trained nurses, workers’ compensation, uniform transfer of shares of corporate stock, and regulation of lobbyists.

Voters approved three constitutional amendments in 1909. Article XIII enlarged the membership of the House to 100; each town was to have at least one member, and no community was to have more than one fourth of the total. However Providence was home to 40 percent of the state’s population. Article XIV made the lieutenant governor, rather than the governor, the presiding officer of the Senate and the General Assembly in grand committee, with the right to vote in the event of a tie. Article XV gave the governor the power to veto legislation, with the proviso that the General Assembly could overturn a veto by a three-fifths vote.

In 1911, the Constitution was again amended, this time to make the election of general officers and General Assembly members biennial.

THE ROARING ’20s: Although the textile industry was contracting, Rhode Island’s growth continued. Urbanization peaked in the mid-’20s when Providence’s population rose to more than 265,000, according to the census, and by 1930 it fell back to something over a quarter-million. Growth during the last five years of the ’20s was in the communities around Providence. Suburbanization was under way.

Faced with mounting competition, business owners imposed wage cuts. Labor conditions were volatile. In 1920, insurrection broke out in Bristol, and the National Guard was rushed in. In 1922, labor unrest was rampant in the Pawtuxet and Blackstone Valleys, again the Guard was called to action.

During the first quarter of the century, the state had invested steadily in armories, for the militia, renamed the National Guard, in part as a means of maintaining order. In 1925, the state police force was established, with the power to enforce criminal laws in any part of the state and upon the order of the governor to suppress rioting in towns and in cities upon the request of the mayor or chief of police.

Rhode Island government had increased in size and complexity during the first quarter of the 20th century and had more than 40 commissions performing significant governmental functions. In 1926, the General Assembly created the position of commissioner of finance with financial reporting, accounting standards, budgeting and management responsibilities. Frederick S. Peck, the Barrington businessman and state representative, who has been called the successor to Brayton as the Republican Party boss, was the commissioner.

Three constitutional amendments were adopted in 1928. The first provided for biennial voter registration. The second expanded the Senate by entitling communities with over 25,000 qualified electors to an additional senator for each additional 25,000 electors, with a maximum of six senators from any city or town. The third provided the right to vote on all questions to every citizen of the United States 21 years old who had resided in Rhode Island for two years and in the city or town of residence for six months, except in town elections, where the 1843 requirement of property ownership still applied.

The 1928 amendments were a partial victory for reformers and Democrats. In 1924, the General Assembly had ceased to complete the state’s business for the year.

During a long filibuster by Democrats to secure a vote on constitutional changes, a bromine gas bomb had been set off in the Senate chamber by hirelings of the Republican chairman. The chamber emptied, some members were hospitalized, and the Republicans decamped to Rutland, Mass. The vestiges of the Brayton system were thus preserved awhile longer.

In 1928, the state office building across the street from the State House was first occupied by the Board of Public Roads, and then by other agencies. Voters approved money for a state airport in Warwick, and the Industrial Trust Building, Rhode Island’s skyscraper and New England’s tallest building for 20 years, went into service.

On Oct. 24,1929, with great fanfare, the privately financed Mount Hope Bridge, the longest suspension span in New England, opened; it was “Black Thursday,” the stock market plummeted.

AFTER THE CRASH: Economic conditions did not right themselves but grew graver. In November 1931, Governor Norman S. Case called a special session of the General Assembly and asked that cities and towns be allowed to borrow an amount of up 1 percent of their assessed valuation “for relief due to unemployment.” Governor Case’s legislation was enacted. It reflected his position that it was the “obligation of cities and towns to directly care for the relief of their poor.”

The state’s duty was to help cities and towns to “fulfill their obligations.” One million and five hundred thousand dollars was appropriated. The program was extended in 1932. It was not sufficient.

Elected governor in November 1932, Theodore Francis Green secured passage of an act in early 1933 for the state to borrow $3 million for “emergency unemployment relief.” The measure included cancellation of the notes of cities and towns. President Franklin D. Roosevelt was inaugurated on March 4, 1933, and New Deal programs were quickly enacted.

About state government, Governor Green submitted: “Undoubtedly large sums, no one knows how much, may be saved to the state by a reorganization of the state departments and commissions. They have been created at different times through a long series of years, usually for a specific purpose. It is almost inconceivable that such an aggregation would prove to be logical or economical. No business concern would allow such a condition to go on without at least considering a reorganization.”

The General Assembly responded by approving four measures to enable Rhode Island to participate in New Deal programs; but reorganization again languished. In 1934, Governor Green reiterated his belief in the need for reorganization, extolling a bill by Republican Senator Vanderbilt, of Portsmouth, and again the matter died.

Kenneth F. Payne is principal of Systems Aesthetics LLC and adjunct professor of marine affairs and senior policy adviser to the College of Environment and Life Sciences at the University of Rhode Island. He has held policy positions in state, federal and local government.