The Salt Lake tribune. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1890-current, 1907-06-13
INVALID OBJECTIONS.

In the rather lightweight and neg
hgible opinion of the Salt Lake Her.
aid, the public finances of this city
are in tremendous confusion and un.
certainty. The financial condition, ac-
cording TO its notion. is deplorable and
the auditor S Office is behind i'm it's work
and Its accounts are Sin such shane
that an expert could not tell what shane
the treasury is in without spending
weeks on the books; the city enpi-
ncer s department is overwhelmed with
work and unable to retain competent
men because the salaries arc inadeuuate:
the street department is. and has been,
helpless and lmpotent under Raleigh s
direction And the Herald adds that
son top of this muddle the Council is
unable TO untanglc the confusion and
wanders around in its business, bent
only on spending money whether it has
money to spend or not. And all this
merely because the Herald is incompe.
tent to understand the plainest princi
pies of fnanciering and fails TO grasp
the significance of the figures which
are freely set forth for it's informa.
tlon and direction.
The truth is that the legislation en-.
acted by the late Smoot Legislature
caused an enormous addition TO the
work Of all the departments of the
city, and especially in the departments
of the City Attorney, the City Engi-
neer, the City Auditor and the CITY
Recorder. Instead of proceeding TO let
contracts for sidewalks, for sewers, for
paving, AS units in conveniently ar.
ranged districts as heretofore, that leg
lslatiou requires that separate accounts
must be taken of every separate piece
of property, separate contracts made for
each, and the whole matter so handled
as TO increase the work by lust the
difference between including in a sim
gle item the whole district and sepa-
rating that item into the detail Of every
separate piece of property in that dis
trict, 1t is easy to see that this has
added tremendously TO the work of the
departments, and that they might fairly
be supplied with additional help. At
the same time there has not been that
addition, though the work has been
pushed as eXpeditiously as possible. And
there is, in fact, no serious delay in
pushing on the improvements, except
that made by the ill-considered Smoot
legislation, The delay was in getting
the matter arranged so that the pro,
cedure might conform to the punitive
and damaging legislation which the
Smoot Legislature put upon the statute
books, to harass the city because il
dared TO put the American party in
power,
1t is not in the least true that the
city accounts are in any confusion; on
the contrary. they are in better shape
than they have ever been. Under the
Morris administration, for instance,
which the Herald is continuously cham
pioning and referring to as something
delectable and desirable, the accounts
were in such wretched shape that when
a refund was asked for sidewalk i'm,
provemeDts where it was admitted that
the sidewalks could not be built for
months. if at all, it was openly con-
fessed that the city records were in such
shape TINT the amount which each prop
erty owner WAS entitled TO have re-
funded could not be ascertained; and
still the champion of that sort of ac-
count keeping has the gall to come for
ward with complaint against the bet
ter system which now prevails, simply
because he is unable to understand the