Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1907-12-07
BOARD IS SXAMPED
Can Not Complete Its Work
Thoroughly BY Time New
Law Goes Into Force
BIGGER THAN ANTICIPATED
Legislature Failed to Realize Amount
Of Work Observation-Disclosures of
Blanks Required for Various County
Officials County Inspection Will
Come Next.
Special to Times-Republican.

Special to Times Republican.
| Des Moines, Dec THE uniform
| county accounts commission is
swamped and the chances are t vii!
have to get together hastily arranged
report, file it with Auditor Carroll and
call the work done. Members of the
commission are convinced that their
work cannot be done in the way it
should be and have it finished by jan
uary /, the time when the counties are
required to put in operation the sys-
TEN.
The commission has adopted 100
blank forms to be used in the county
treasurers' offices Of the state, ia
blanks for the auditors and there will
be about 800 blanks for the county
clerks. None of the state officials nor
members of the legislature had any
idea that there We're SO many or tina.
the task would be so great.
The last legislature provided that
each county should use the same sys-
tenn of accounts and to secure uni
form system it directed the auditor to
appoint commission Of county Of
ficials or ex-county officials to pro-
vide the blanks that should be used. A
commission of seven was appointed
and this commission has been at work
ever since the first Of last July. The
members serve without pay, only their
expenses being paid by the state.
1t was the expectation of the legis-
lature and of Auditor Carroll as we'll
that the commission would be able to
formulate a report inside of a few
days. The commission met, appointed
the county treasurers on the commits
sion. as a subcommittee to draft the
blanks for the treasurers' offices, the
clerks to prepare the blanks for that
office and the auditors the blanks for
the auditors offices. The commission
then adjourned and the sut-commit
tees have been at work at their homes
and by correspondence the entire COM
mission having met here three or four
times during the summer.
County Clerk DeWell, OF Algona,
turned over his office to his deputy
and has been working ever since the
first meeting Of the commission on the
blanks to be used in county clerks Of
fees The subcommittee has COM
pleted and the commission has adopted
about 200 Of these, there are yet about
100 more to be completed and passed
upon. 1t was the hope OF the COM
mission that proofs Of the various
blanks could be printed and revised
before finally adopted. 1t is now de-
cided that this is out of the question
with the exception Of those which were
gotten to the state printer early. The
printing of the sample blanks will cost
the state about $1,000, there are so
many of them.
1t is believed now that the work of
this commission can be used only as
foundation on which to work and it
will be necessary for the next ses-
sion Of the legislature to arrange to
complete the work. The blanks
adopted by the commission will not
cover all the blanks that must neces-
sarily be used in the county office of
the state Because of insufficient time
the commission has been compelled to
prepare only the more important
blanks. If the next legislature APP
points another commission it will
probably be with more time in which
to work and with some provision for
compensation for the work done.
In the opinion of members Of the
commission the next legislature should
provide for system of county ac-
count inspection by state inspectors
just as is done now In the inspection
of the municipal accounts. The trend
Of opinion Of public officials is that
separate department of state should
be provided for the inspection of both
county and municipal accounts and
that this department should be pro-
vided with sufficient inspectors so that
1t can not only audit the books but
look into the expenditure of public
money and ascertain whether the tax
payers are getting their moneys worth.
In other words the inspectors will be
used to inquire into the efficiency of
county and city officials and not
books balance.
The source Of the persistent oppo-
sition to the prison Irvine bill, intro
duced at the last session of the legis
lature was uncovered yesterday when
the legislative committee of the imple-
ment dealers reported to the con-
vention. This measure, which if sue
cessful would mean cheaper binding
Irvine to the farmer, was fought
secretly by the organization of imple-
ment statesmen of the state. 1t was
thru their influence that the bill was
finally defeated.
In reporting for the legislative COM
mittee Chairman A. j. Sewers OF
Bedford stated that they had given
but little publicity to their work and
to outsiders it would appear that they
had accomplished but little in the
year He declared that the fact that
there was no prison Irvine factory
plant in Iowa was the result of labor
of his committee ard his audience
showed their attitude in the matter by
responding to this announcement with
applause.
talk a dealer arose and declared that
Iowa was literally fenced in - by
prison Irvine plants, there being such
manufactures in Illinois, Missouri,
Kansas, Nebraska, South Dakota
and Minnesota. That there was none
in Iowa was due to hard work of the
legislative committee, he said.
An important action was taken
when Secretary Arraknecht was au-