The Worthington advance., 1879-04-17
THE FINANCIAL REPORT

Match in Furn.r Country
'Brains'' Beginning to sho,c its
Teeth
EDITOR ADVANCE: Since your intel
ligent correspondent County" has tax
en- it upon himself to champion the
cause Of officials, to explain and excuse
slight irregularities, such AS abbreviat-
ing bridge contracts ETC., there arc 9TH
er matters OF more weighty Importance
in wlicl, his boosted brain power could
be used advantageously.
After inviting IL contest which lie
trusts will be short and decisive, he
parties few thrusts, fires Il few shots
at the skirmish line, stigmatizes legal
voters as q ''l,erd of swine," and rctires
from the field with the air and grace of
q conquering hero, vainly imagining
that the contest is ended and victory
won, when, i'll matter of fact, it was
scarce begun.
We are willing to concede that SO far
as he has gone he has established the
fact, and that officials in consideration
for ''brains furnisled'' to run the coun-
ty, are entitled to ''ot1icial pickings" to
a certain extent. Also that their
hangers on and retainers are entitled to
q reward for services rendered.. The
question to be settled is as to whether
they do not put too high IN estimate on
such services. and whether they do not
draw too heavily from the public purse
for the amount and kind Of capital in-
vested.
Last year in the financial report, they
omitted to make any exhibit Of cash on
hand at the commencement Of the Of
ticial year, amounting to nearly Four
Thousand Dollars, which was not in
any way accounted for in said report.
Notwithstanding this they we're enabl-
ed to make a very fair showing, and
though the figures differed some $S,OOO
or 1000 from those made by the Coun-
ty Board of Audit and published in the
same paper, it was made to look like
the correct thing and apparently gave
very general satisfaction. y dnubtedly
value was received in the use Of
''brains" for the discrepancies.
In the Financial Report as recently
published we are glad to note that the
first item shown is cash on hand ut the
commencement of tie official year, Il
marked improvement. Besides this,
they show in said report the amount
''disbursed" to school dist riots and to
towns. Another Improvement. (omit-
ted last scasom.) While we are willing
to give due credit for all that is com
mendable, we are constrained to say
that it is quite us remarkable. on the
whole perhaps more remarkable. for
what is not shown. Also for the inge-
NOUS manner in which, figures and T.
mounts are put together to show bal
ances, as that Of the previous year.
The little item Of -Four Thousand
Dollars realized from the sale Of Coun-
ty Bonds during the year is wholly o.
mittetl, q slip of the pen no doubt, i
clerical error. not in any way ;lttribu-
table to Il lack Of brains. The Bonds
were used as caslLtO redeem county or.
ders, and should have been added to
the cash receipts. The figures, howev-
er, make very fair showing without
it. These people have done Il great
deal for the county. Slight di*crepan-
cies perhaps should not be noticed
County" can he excused from justify
ing the above irregularities if lie will
condescend to explain other points
which do not appear to he quite in the
regular line.
win lie please tell us why the total
amount of ord,rs issued "a large por-
tiOn ct which are known to be unpaid. J
are taken into the statement As account
ing for cash received? Why are they
all, those paid and unpaid. classed un-
der the same general heading of "Dis-
bursements?'' The definition of ''Dis-
burse," according to our dictionary. is
to pay out, and surely those only which
are paid are entitled to II place in the
cash account. In the same report it
Is afterwards shown that the following
amounts were unpaid. to.wit:
County Orders Genl. Revenue $4,950 q
y Road and Bridge 78l 81
Poor Fund 3 81
Interest on coupons $50 on