The Lu-Lu System

New York's state legislators get an annual salary of $2,500, second highest of any state.* But in New York, as in most legislatures, there are ways of eking out such a meager sum. For years, the men in Albany's hideous State Capitol have voted themselves and their friends odd petty sums "in lieu of detailed itemized expenditures." In time this custom came to be known to legislators and correspondents as "the wonderful lulu system."

Last week there came testimony as to just what a lulu it was. One of two Albany grand juries, launched by Governor Tom Dewey to investigate legislative graft and Albany's corrupt O'Connell machine, reported that in 1943, under the lulu system, legislators and legislative employes had cost the state $1,433,544.

Hauled before the grand jury, some of lulu's recipients squirmed out explanations: "I didn't do much of anything"; "I ran a few errands." One flatly admitted: "I guess I didn't earn the money."

* Highest: Pennsylvania, $3,000; lowest: Kansas, $150 a session.

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