The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1884-02-14

render an account. by KIND OF mutual
agreement no accounts such as the rule ap-
pear to require are made. The truth is
that the committees themselves are much in
the habit of leaving their business to the
chairman, and it is probable that often he is
is the only man of the committee who knows
the exact condition of things as to money
expended and owed. 1t is sometimes the
case that he does not know, and happens from
this loose and irresponsible method that bills
90 over from one city government to anoth-
er, to the embarrassment of the inheritors
Of these debts Of which the City Council as
body never hears.
Regarding the Advertisers excuses for,
or, If 1t pleases, defence of, the queer and
inexact report made by the City Audi
tor, recently, we do not see that 1t amounts
to much. The Advertiser says that the re-
port wa. made under section of the ordi-
nances which requires him to keep an &C
preparation Ito the end that whenever the
appropriations for the specific objects shall
have been been expended he shall immedi-
ately communicate the same to the City
Council, to the end that they may be APP
prised of the fact" etc. We have read that
section several times within the past six
months, wondering why the Auditor did not
perform the duty enjoined ON him. When
the specific appropriation for repairing the
Chestnut street school house was exhausted
did he Immediately notify the City Council?
If he did we failed to notice 1t, although
watching for 1t carefully. We believe theCity
Council did not learn the facts about that
piece of extravaganza; into which they were
led by the folly of the Mayor and Council
man Prince, until those gentlemen got ready
to make their statement, long after the job
was completed, and to ask for the money they
had taken the responsibility of expanding in
excess of the appropriation. Does the Ad-
vertiser mean to say that the five appropria-
tions which the City Auditor, on the 4th in
slant, reported to be exhausted, had been
exhausted since the last previous meeting of
the City Council? That is not in accord
ance with our information and therefore we
were Of opinion that the Auditor had neg
lected to do bis duty under ths ordinance.
Furthermore, nothing in this ordinance or
in any ether requires him to make any of
the other statements which he volunteered
in that report. But we should not have criti-
cissd them If they had been characterized by
exactness and been confined to such an ex-
position as the Auditor might properly have
made. But when we read his inexact and
Bunsby-ish statements that appeared to have
been composed in an effort to seem to say
something that wsuld vindicate Mayor Deer
ing's administration, while in fact saying
nothing that was to the point, we thought it
worth while to call attention to the inconse-
suential and unsatisfactory character Of the
document.
The custom which has prevailed in Port
land of re-electing the City Auditor and
Treasurer from year to year Gas servants Of
the entire community and not as represents
tives of party" is a good one. But it will
be high time to change these officials when
they begin to regard themselves not as SER
wants Of the entire community but as
representatives of the party in control of the
administration, or the person who sits In the
Mayors chair, bound to reveal or to conceal
important facts, interesting and useful to
the community. as may suit the whim or the
interest of officials desiring to be reelected.
Months before the PRESS made any public
criticism of the Auditor's conduct it had APP
piled to him in a respectful way for certain
information which it was perfectly proper
for the PRESS to seek and for him to fur
nish. To furnish 1t would have been SER
vice to the whole community, and an injury
to no enc, unless it was of character not to
recommend the wisdom of the persons re-
sponsible for the existing condition. The
information was refused to us and refused
to others, under circumstances which indi-
Gated that somebody, or some party, was in
terested in preventing knowledge of the
truth as it appeared by the Auditors books
from coming to the public, and that the Au-
ditor considered himself bound to respect
the interests of that person or that party.
To ask the Auditor to make public certain
facts of record in which every citizen has an
equal interest is not to ask him to take part
in "a political squabble," any more than 1t
would be asking the City Clerk, or the
Clerk Of either house of Congress, or the
Secretary of the Treasury, or the clerk Of
= court, to take part in political squabble
If they were asked fer transcript of certain
records Of public nature in their offices.
Of course it is not to be expected that pub
lie officer will neglect pressing public duties
to accommodate private citizen. We
were careful to say that we should be
obliged If he would supply US with the in
| formation asked for at his convenience, and
he was equally careful to make us under
stand that it would never be convenient.
We asked for nothing which 1t would not
have been quite legitimate for him to fur
nish to any newspaper of any politics which
applied for it In respectable way.
We have since endeayored in many ways
to obtain this information for the public.
We have called upon the mayor, who can
obtain 1t if he will, to publish it. We have
tried to induce the Argus, which has special
facilities under this administration, to spread
the facts before the community, but all
without success. 1t appears to be deter
mined that,in advance of the election.no ex.
act statements Of the city's financial condi-
ton shall be made. 1t remained for the
Advertiser to intimate that the Auditor
books are partisan books, that statement
taken from bis ledgers of the exact condi-
ton of the years appropriations would sim
volve him in political squabble," and to
insinuate that faithful performance of his
duties as Auditor requires him to suppress
any information about the city's financial
condition which might occasion criticism of
those in Office. We do not subscribe to this
absurd theory of official responsibility.
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