The Lake County times. [volume] (Hammond, Ind.) 1906-1933, 1910-05-13

paid for supplies that never were fur
nfshed, and all that sort of thing. Sew
eral of the officials who were caught in
| this net by the examiners have already
| stepped up and settled and paid back
| to the county or township or city the
amount of money which 1t was foA.nd
they owed Thousands of dollars has
been collected back In this way. In
many cases settlements are now under
| way, and in others suits will be brought
to enforce settlements.
Only Just Begun.
And the work has only begun. There
are 100 special examiners at work In
| all parts OF the state under the direc
ton of the state accountant. The pro-
| cess of making a thorough examination
OF a public official is a long and tedious
| job and takes much time, so that it will
/ be long time before even the hundred
| examiners can get all over the state
and complete the examination OF all
| Offices
| The public accounting law was not a
party measure. 1t was purely a nom
| partisan proposition, and when it was
| enacted into law last year by the legis-
lature not a single man in either house
voted against it. The vote In favor of
it was unanimous. So 1t cannot be
| called a democratic measure or a re-
publican measure. Both parties realized
the need Of such a system of public
| accounting in this state. and both fell
in behind the plan to put such a law
| on the statute books TO put an end to
graft and crookedness in public ONCE.
The public accounting bill was original
cd by the commercial clubs. boards OF
trade, chambers of commerce, manu-
4 facturers associations, and other SINH
lar organizations all over the state.
The only opposition that appeared
against it came from some of the state
associations of county officials and like
bodies, some of which did not care to
have a bill OF that character passed
But when it came to a show down IL
was found that it would be extremely
dangerous to oppose It's passage. To
oppose the passage of the bin on the
general grounds that It was bad policy
would have attracted Immediate atten-
ton to the person making such oppo-
sftion, and the people would have said
at once that that man was afraid to
have his books examined by a public
accountant. So there was practically
no opposition at any time. and none at
the time of the passage.
Just why the democrats should take a
notion now to attack the public ac-
counting law is not plain. OF course
the plan to ignore the law in the state
platform did not work out, for Bell was
voted down on 1t and the platform com
mends the law. But it may be diff
ferent in the legislature. If the demo
Gratis carry the legislature ii will be
filled with Taggart members. This
seems a certainty. Taggart and his
forces will be in control il the Demo-
Gratis win. If the Taggart forces are
opposed to the public accounting law
pow it is reasonable to expect that they
will be opposed to 1t next winter in
the legislature.
It is hard to believe, however, that
even the Taggart forces could rnutilate
the public accounting law. Tt has done
! so much good in the first few months
of its life, and there is so much more
for the law to do that it seems that
even the Taggart people would hesitate
before seeking to render it useless.
| Some time ago the accounting board
| issued an order that caused a few OF
the county treasurers a good deal of
worry This was especially true in
this city and Fort Wayne. In these
two counties 1t has been the practice
of the county treasurer to make out In
advance all of the ak receipts so as
to save time at tax paying time. The
accounting board issued an order to the
treasurers using this system to keep
on file in their offices the unpaid re-
ceipts which had been made out in ad-
vance. Thas was done in order that
the examiners might see that every re-
ceipt was accounted for. If the tax
payer paid his taxes his receipt was
given him and the amount paid was
placed on record in the tax books The
board insisted that all of the unpaid
receipts should be kept on file.
The treasurers affected by this order
objected, because it meant an extra
amount of work and Inconvenience
So yesterday the board modified its
order and instructed the county treas
urers to keep on file only the stubs of
all paid receipts. The books them
selves will show all persons who have
mr. ma hejr IA