The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1898-10-29

The Democrats have virtually abandoned
all idea of electing their county ticket but
hope to defeat Col Harry b. Smith and Sc
cure the election of E. NJ. Johnson by filling
the columns of the Democratic papers with
false and malicious charges with reference
to the allowances that have been made to
Auditor Smith by the Board of County
Commissioners. The truth of the matter as
to these allowances is that there has not
for the performance of any act or duty
which he was required to perform as au-
ditor that the Board of Commissioners did
not have a legal right to make. 1t should
be understood that the statutes regulating
county business in this State apply to all
counties alike, regardless of the population
and business of the county; in other words,
counties like Switzerland and Brown, with
comparatively small populations. and Ma
rion, with its large number of people, are
all governed by the same statutes as to the
county business and the duties of the au-
ditors. The result is that in this county
very many things are absolutely necessary
to be done I'm carrying on the affairs of the
county that there is no occasion for in the
smaller counties and. therefore, it is the
duty of the County Commissioners to pro-
vide for these things as they are authorized
by law to do. For instance, there is no
provision of law requiring that the resi-
dence of each taxpayer shall be recorded
ana be placed upon the duplicate, and there
is no necessity for it in the smaller coun-
ties. but in county like Marion, with its
thousands of taxpayers. 1t becomes a neces-
sity to further the collection of the taxes,
and so for many years it has been done at
the expense of the county. Again, the an
nual indexing of tax sales is not necessary
in a small county, where there are few tax
sales made each year. but in this county,
where there are hundreds of such sales
each year. which affect the title to real es-
should be kept. 1t is no more the duty of the
auditor to do this than any other county OFF,
Ger. The election law requires that the coun-
ty shall be divided into voting precincts and
that they shall contain nearly as prac-
ticabe two hundred voters but not to ex-
coed 250 and when ii is made to appear
that any precinct contains more than the
latter number it becomes the duty of the
commissioners to make a division. In
small counties, where there is little change
in the voting population, the rearranging of
the voting precincts is small matter, but
in this city, with its 800 voting precincts it
becomes necessary every two years to re-
wise and change these precincts to make
them conform as nearly as possible to the
requirements of the election law. This ne
cessitates the taking of polls of voters, the
preparation of maps and descriptions and
boundaries of each of these precincts, and
the publication of them, and the expense of
doing all this has always been paid by the
reference to all of these allowances; they
are for things that were necessary in car
rying on the county business and were not
extra allowances to the auditor for services
that 1t was his duty as auditor to perform.
The charge that the work of making in
dicas was done by clerks in the time paid
for by the county is untrue. The persons
who made the indices were paid for the
work and Auditor Smith holds the vouchers
therefor. The books of the auditors office
are open: there has beer no disposition TO
cover up or conceal anything. The vouchers