The Ottawa free trader. [volume] (Ottawa, Ill.) 1843-1916, 1879-02-01
AN ORNAMENT THAT DON'T ADORN.

AN VnNhmENA AhhA OVN hOVhN.
There is in this state sort of fifth wheel o
political machinery, known AS the Board o
Equalization. 1t was intended for Il useiu
lpurposc-that Of equalizing the state taxes be
tween the counties, 50 that each should bear il
proper share but practically it is Il mere
bureau of offices for the benefit of whichever
political parry happens to get majority OF it
members. They draw fat salaries and have II
pay small army Of undcrlings 10 wait OF
them, while the body of the work Is done by
the clerks in the Auditors Office This wholly
unOrnamcntal and useless machine cost the
state S9,G,3.OO IN 1877, besides sos allowed
clerks for finishing up work left undone-ir
all Sl0,31S00 Their bills for 1873 do not ap
pear in the Auditors report recently published
but will doubtless foot up several thousand
dollars more. According 10 their report for
1878, the State Board of Equalization met at
Springfield August -, 1878 There are nine
teen of them, one representing each congress
sional district The Auditor presided. This
dimlnutivc body, about half the size OF our
Board Of Supervisors, elected a doorkeeper,
an assistant dOOrkccpcr in defiance of law, and
a page, probably to keep the doorkeepcrs
awake and hand around cigars and lights
when needed. They held sessions on an aver.
age three days in "A week, costing s. per diem
each for Sundays, holidays and all other days,
together with mileage at 10 cents each way.
As this body of twenty men could not permit
their lily-whitc hands TO be soiled with ink or
their aabastcr brows to he bothered with fig
urcs, they employed couple of clerks for
each of the six committees into which they
divided themselves one probably to keep the
other from being lonesome. That Is, the young
fellows from the Auditors office did the iigur-
ing, while the committee clerks looked on,
smoked cigars and gossipcd, and the kid
iourncd, or oafed about the city, visited St.
Louis and Chicago, and dincd and wincd
or were breakfasted, dnnered,
suppcred and balled at the states expense, and
had good time generally.
Some Of their minutes would decorate II
humorous novel as burcsque on the pro-
ceedings Of dclibcrativc bodies There was
often no quorum present for several days, rs
heir own printed report shows; and when
meeting after such an absence the only action
would be TO approve the minutes noting mol
quorum.
On one occasion, finding an error in the re.
port of the taxes from Cook county, they sent
4 messenger thithcr, at the states expense. toI
ret it corrected Their messenger failing toI
bring back satisfactory figures, it was made
he preteXt for grand jamborcc to Chicago
by the whole board, This, however, struck
)ne Of the members as looking bad on paper,
and he had the record amended so as to make
i appear that the president had appointed al
committee oithrce to visit the modern Babylon,
but as there was no quorum at Springfield forI
i've days afterwards, the presumption is that
hey all went.
The first day they had Il quorum after this
Chicago spree they ordered certain printed
abes Of Cook county to be corrected by slips
o be pasted in, slight effort looking towards
but next day this good intention
vas frustrated by the state printer, who
brought in the entire tables reprinted, The
book which gives their tables rs prepared by
he clerks is singular specimen of the state
printers ingenuity in strnging out figures
md repeating the same table in various forms,
of about 140pages. Running short
If matter to fill up" he republished few
lozcn tables Of 1876 and 1877, and inserted
ouplc of costly Illuminated maps, worth
lothing to any one except the draughtsmen,
and printers. The same tables
re nearly all repeated in the auditors report,
yelling that volume unnecessarily. These
acts may help to account for the enormous
tate printers bill of $2l 0S2.3G.