The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1900-01-25


cred Number of Cases Which
May Result in the Hold Up of the
Pay by Various County Auditors
Money SQuandered for Political
Purposes.
Gen. e. M. Pope, public examiner, has,
through the county examinations made
by his deputies, discovered that in sew
eral counties printing contracts have been
Illegally let to newspapers. The law Is
very specific upon the subject, being to-
the effect that all contracts shall be let
to the lowest bidder. Instead of this a
custom has been very prevalent Of split
ting up the contract and giving every
paper Of the same political faith with
the board. q slice Of the contract. Gen.
Pope in a letter to county auditors has
called attention to the section Of the law
bearing upon this subject, and while
nothing Of that kind has been done 1t Is
not at all likely that the bills for some
of this printing will be hung UP by the
county treasurer under direction from the
public examiner.
Gen. Pope states that It is immateria1
to the state If the county printing is split
up, but 1t must not exceed the amount
that would be paid If the entire contract
was let to one newspaper. To degree
the matter has q political color, as 1t lie
claimed that the newspapers have
pull with the county board and in turn
the papers help these same commissioners
get elected to office. The claim: is made
hat ha of r,Ytr1t iY,c tn, n
number of counties Is very close cor
poration affair and no one except those
on the inside is able to break in and get
any of this work.
Gen. Pope does not believe that the law
authorizes any board Of county commits
sioners to squander money in this way
for political purposes. AS long as the
legal publication rate Of rs cents per
folio for the first insertion, and So cents
for subsequent publications is not ex-
ceeded, the matter Is In no way open to
criticism. However, the printing being
split up each newspaper gets as much as
possible out of 1t and it Is not uncommon
for one paper to receive as much for its
share of the county work as was paid
for the publication Of all the county pro-
ceedings and tax list a few years ago.
The boards Of county commissioners
meet early in January and let the print
ing contracts. The financial statement Is
published in January and thirty days
later the tax list is published. The board
does not meet again until some time in
March, when most Of the printing will
have been done. The matter therefore
cannot be brought to the attention OF
the board until the March meeting, but
Gen. Pope contends that the county
auditor Is empowered to see that the law
is properly enforced and to this end he
has communicated with all the officials
holding this Office in the state. He be-
heves that the board cannot make a
county auditor carry out any Illegal ac-
ton Of the board, and warns auditors
against exceeding the amount authorized
by law to be paid for county printing.
The question has been raised, If these
contracts are illegally let will 1t affect
the publication. Gen. Pope says no, be-
cause In the case Of the proceedings of
the board and the financial statement 1t
records something that has already BEEN
done, and therefore the publication, whils
required, will have no effect as to its
manner upon business transacted by the
board In the case Of the tax list; the
method of letting the contract is differ
ent and Gen. Pope believes that the legal
ity of the notice is IN no way affected.
Three counties, 1t is learned, have split
I'D the contract for printing and exceed
ed the legal rate, and it may be found
that others have done the same thing as
the public examiners Investigation is pur,
sued. Gen. Pope, as before stated, has
taken no radical action In such cases.
but 1t is wholly within the functions OF
his office to order the county treasurers
not to audit the warrant, and hold up
the bills. until it can be determined how
much they are in excess Of the legal rate
Blue Earth, Marshall and W1nona are
the counties referred to.