The St. Johns herald., 1886-08-12

authorizing the county of Apache to IS. sue bonds to raise money for the cree ton of a jair' approved, March 6th | 1883; demonstrates these facts:
 ! First: that the county of Apache was authorized to issue, in its corporate
 name of Jail Commission of the County
 of Apache, bonds to be known as ''Jai
 Bonds" in the aggregate sum of ter thousand dollars ($1O, ,OOO), pledging the
 faith of the county for their redemption
 in ten years, the said bonds to bear in
 terest at the rate of ten per cent. pel annum.
 Second: The duty was imposed upor
 the Boaid of Supervisors, each year, tC
 levy sufficient tax to pay the interest or such bonds and to provide for special
 fund, to be known as the "Jail Bond In.
 terest and Sinking Fund.-. to pay the principal and interest of the bonds is sued under this Act.
 Third: The Board of Commissioners desiring to dispose of the whole or part of said Bonds were directed to advertise the fact, specifying the amount, in a newspaper published in the county Of Apache for thirty days, stating when and where the bids should be opened, and award the same to the lowest bid der; provided, that no such bonds shall be sold for less than ninety cents on the dollar.
 Fourth: The proceeds, from sale of ] these bonds, were to be applied exclu- sively, so lar as is necessary, to the building and furnishing of jail for said county-the surplus, if any, to be paid into the General Fund ofApache county.
 Fifth: The Governor was empowered and directed to appoint three persons to constitute the Board of Commission con templated in the Act; who, before en- terng upon the discharge of their duties as commissioners, were to enter into a good and sufficient Bond, payable to the county of Apache, in the penal sum of two thousand dollars ($2,000), each, such Bond to be approved by the Treas urer of Apache county.
 Sixth: That Governor F. 4. Trtle, as empowered and directed on the 14th day of March, 1883, duly appointed and commissioned, H. F. Franklin, J. L. Hubbell and Benigno Lopez as such commission. These are the essential provisions of the Act. You ask, to whom are these commissioners reSpon- sible for their acts? they claiming not to be subject to county control and as- serting themselves to be power unto themselves amenable to no one. Such a position is wholly untena5le and fla grantly inconsistent with the we'll recog- nized principles of official responsibility :; because the law which called them into existence failed to charge them, in sl ecific terms, with the duty to report their acts to some designated power, they are not relieved from that respon- sibility. The science of government would be very imperfect did it entrust the peoples money into the hands of commissioned officers, and not some where provide for an accounting Not so, the provisions of law govern and con- trol those commissioners and they can not escape its mandates. They are the official trustees of county fund for the building and furnishing of q iail in Apache county, provided by an act of the Territorial Legislature: the county certainly has the right, through its local executive authorities, to enquire into the disposition of it's own funds and de- mand 'balance sheet'' from this com mission. If refusal is made the courts of law are open to ask for writ of man. damus to compel such a showing. If the commissioners admit as is asserted that they are Territorial officers; then under section chapter 13 of compiled laws, the Governor may require infor- nation in writing from them relating to the duties oftheir office. Ifthey decline to render an account of their doings to the Board of Supervisors of the county. the way is clear for the remedy. It is subject matter of deep regret, and in fact IS growing to be a serious considera- tion, that men, commissioned to pub lie trust, show such reluctance te "open their books" and let the people whose funds they are handling examine into their doings, such a course IS in conflict with every sense of official decency and and in the interest of honest government must be stopped. Officials, whether high or low, are all responsible tC the people, who are under our tbeorp of government the masters. The peo-