The New Orleans daily Democrat. [volume] (New Orleans, La.) 1877-1880, 1879-07-22
STATE AUDITORS OFFICE.

EMO true business man will allow his busl-
ness to suffer for want Of sufficient clerical
force to conduct Improperly. There is proper
medium to be observed between sufliciency
and insuf1lcency Of force required to 60 The
work Of an office properly, and thus protect
public interests from suffering by extrava-
giant expenditure.
Take the office of the State Auditor, who
has to pass upon and audit all the accounts
Of The State. involving millions of dollars,
and more complicated Ia keeping than those
OF banks Or many great financial enterprises.
As tho sole accountant of the State he has to
watch and protect It's finances, as far as bad
legislation will allow him to do So,
and for that reason Is o moro i'm
portant officer, perhaps, SO far as the
States material welfare is concerned,
than the Governor. In many conflicting
issues he has.to provide the Attorney General
aud district attorneys in every parish with
proper data and official information from
accumulated records. extending back for
wears. necessary for conducting prosecutions
and making defenses lii its behalf, besides
giving information daily to citizens as to
taxes and sales OF property and furnishing
the Convention and Legislature with numer-
GUS and elaborate statements. Neither
the general public, nor Convention,
nor Legislature, seem to understand
the amount of work required in this
office, and though the Auditor has, we
understand, repeatedly asked for committees
to examine into the matter, none have ever
taken the time and opportunity to properly
inform themselves on the subject. which is to
be regretted And as to compensation Of his
employees. salaries should be allowed ade-
auste to secure fully competent assistants,
such as would be required and are allowed In
any enterprise equal In magnitude and i'm
portance to the requirements Of his office.
! Promising this much, we venture to say
that no bank president or head of q CONNER
clal house in this or any other city, having the
same amount Of important work to accom-
4 pllsh us has to be done in this Office, would
expect OF even hope to accom- pllsh it satisfac-
torly with such assistants as could be prop
erly compensated out Of the niggardly allow
ance for clerks which the Convention pro-
poses to establish. And why not grant to SO
important an officer as Auditor OF the Ac-
counts of the State sufficient allowance to
enable him to secure as many and as efficient
assistants as are employed to do the same
amount of work in a benk or commits
sion house, supposing their accounts to
be similarly important, complicated and
laborious 1t is to be hoped then
that the Convention, in wisely endeavor-
ing to retrench, will not unwsely run into the
other extreme, but allow the various State
officers, sufficient force and compensa-
ton to their employees proportioned tc
the requirements Of each Office to have their
various duties faithfully performed. This
and nothing more nor less, is due them, not
Tor their own interest, but for the interests o.
the public. for the people expect to be served
/ faithfully as we'll as economically in the adj
ministration of the government; and lest the
Convention fail to consider fully, for lack o.
time or proper Information, we will endeavol
to give them some idea or exhibit OF the work
in the Auditors office, which must necessarily
, be incomplete, as it would require too much
I space to go into all the details
| In the first place. the Auditor has consider
} able supervisory work to attend to as er
/ o1icio a member and secretary Of the Fund
> ing Board, and has to have assistants to keeI
. It's accounts. the magnitude Of which the
| public understand, and which are all con
| nected with other accounts of the office. HI
has to have accounts kept not only with sixty
tax collectors and every State official, but
, various miscellaneous accounts, in which set
Elements with auctioneers and parish officers
, and school treasurers, ETC., are concerned
The accounts with tax collectors alone, by
reason OF back taxes, have to be kept fol
each year for about ten years back, embrac-
ing taxes proper and poll taxes for eacf
i year, and licenses for the current and preced.
il ing year, together with accounts Of miscella
neo,ls receipts and expenditures for each
i year, aggregating about 1900 accounts, com.
/ plicated by debts and credits and counter
4 entries and division and subdivision Of