The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1898-10-18
regardless of party. are asking the Demo

regardless of party. are asking the Demo-
Gratis to answer.
Comes now E. NJ. Johnson, through an
afternoon paper and promises to reform
the Office and make it better than it was
when he ran it before-if he shall be elect
ed-not in so many words. but by inference.
He is quoted referring to a decision of
the Supreme Court as proving that no al
lowances'' are lawful. If they are not now.
they were not when he was auditor de facto.
Taggart was paid a salary under the law
of 1879 to do all the duties that fell to him
as auditor. aside from the duties in connec-
ton with managing the school fund. The
law of 1879 still governs What work Tag
CART did aside from his duties as auditor,
prescribed by the law of 1879, was done by
Thomas Taggart, individual. not by Thomas
Taggart, auditor Whether he was paid
anything more than his salary for doing his
duties as auditor can not be determined in
the absence of the vouchers. III he was al
lowed extra pay for doing his official
duties, that would have been a reason for
secreting the vouchers when he was a can
didate for mayor. If the bill had been for
work he did by contract with the County
Commissioners, and not in the discharge OF
his official duties, there could have been no
valid reason for spiriting them away, I'M
less they were outrageously exorbitant.
TRYING TO HIDE BEHIND TAGGART.
The candidate for county auditor and the
Democratic papers are trying to confuse the
people by crying:
"Taggart was not operating under the fee
and salary law
That is true. But the laws that governed
him were the same as they are now,
except that the auditor must now ul-
timately account for the fees OF
his office, and does not now get
paid for managing the school fund In all
other respects the laws that governed then
and now are the same. 1ne law then, as
now. fixed the duties of the auditor and pre-
scribed just what he must do. Under the
old law the auditor got a specified salary
for doing his Official duties. That is true
under the new law. Whatever of allow
ances that were made by the commissioners
in 1893 1894. 1S95--Taggart years-or 1898,
were made to the auditors as individuals.
The statements as TO the law given above
are on the authority of the attorneys for
the present auditor Hawkins and Smith,
who were of counsel in the fee and salary
law case decided by the Supreme Court and
cited by E. NJ. johnson in support of his
extra allowances illegal" The law with re
gard to what the auditor must do to earn
his salary has not changed since Mr.. john
son was auditor de facto.
''If it should be my good fortune to be
elected AUDITOR he was quoted Il will
perform every duty of the auditor for the
salary allowed by the fee and salary Law" "
That, according to his attorneys, is just
what Auditor Smith has DONE What he was
paid in the way of allowances, they say,
was for work he did as an Individual, by
contract, work that the commissioners
might have employed any one else to do.
Democratic commissioners might have en-
Moved any one else to do the work for
which allowances were made to Taggart.
The auditor was then, and is now, in a
better position to do this extra work than
any one else however. That it has been
done much cheaper is the main difference
between now and when Johnson was run
ming the office for Taggart. Auditor Smiti
saws that he has not profited by the allow
ances. as he has receipts from the men
who did the extra work. showing that the
money paid to him by the County Commits
sioners for contracts performed was al
used to pay the men who did the actual
work Here is the difference in dollars:
Taggart one year, eleven months,
seven days.. '$oU oooo0
Smith, entire term .................... 1855 Is
Difference in favor of taxpayers. .$l2. 1858.
This even total in favor of the taxpayer
will be very largely increased when figures
TO be given hereafter show what the mis-
cellaneous allowances to Taggart were 70
the year previous to that ending Nov. 8,
1894 a period corresponding to but shorter
than the time Auditor Smith has served.
Sight should not be lost of the fact that
of the $30.5SS.5O Taggart received in miscel
laneous allowances, $40, 1851 was "for serv.
ices for which there is nothing to sho
what he did. Every item that has been a
lowed to Auditor Smith is fully set out i
the records, so that any one interested in
knowing what he did to earn the allowance,
can inform himself by examining the
records.
Below is a statement of the salary, pa
for managing the school fund, miscellaneou
allowances and fees the Taggart regime re-
ceived from the county in the year begin
ming Nov. 3, 1893, and recapitulation sho,
ing the same facts on down to the end o,