Clearwater Republican. [volume] (Orofino, Idaho) 1912-1922, 1912-10-24
MANY REFORMS INTRODUCED BY
Secretary Of State Clifford in Con-
duct of His Office.

On assuming the duties of the office
Of Secretary Of State in January, 1911,
at once set about the task Of familiar
izing myself with the manner in which
the business OF the office had been
conducted and the records kept by my
predecessors; the purpose being to con-
tinue such features as my years of ex-
perience in public office might de-
termine as good, eliminating what l
considered inadequate and introducing
such changes and putting into use such
new features as would tend to improve
the administration of the business of
the office.
consider that every public office,
where certain filings are made, in COM
pliance with some law, and where fee
is charged, should have and keep a
record commonly known as a "Recep-
ton Record" 1t appears that no such
record was ever kept by my predeces-
sors.
Realizing the Importance of a record
record. Whenever an instrument is
filed and fee is charged, the same is
given serial number, il it be corpor-
alton. the name is entered. The ma
ture OF the filing is also indicated and
the amount received as fees.
The law requires that each state Of
ficer keep record of his office eX-
pense. did not consider the record
heretofore kept adequate for this pur-
pose, and l substituted new record
book, in which each amount appropri-
ated is entered in a special column, as
well as record OF every claim allowed
against such appropriation, by the state
board of examiners. From this record
it can be readily determined, at a
glance, the exact amount remaining in
any Of the several appropriations.
We have lew which levies cor
poration tax on certain corporations
and exempts certain other corpora
tons, which tax is based on the author
lied capital stock. The state has
realized from corporations, both
foreign and domestic doing business in
the state, since the enactment of this
law, in 1907, to the present time, the
sum of 1921, 297.a2. r,s4.>
1t will readily appear that this is a
source of much revenue to the state.
From careful study Of the system in
use, did not consider it adequate to
the proper handling of this immense
volume of business, so turned my at
tention to the task Of working out a
system in keeping with more modern
methods.
After carefully considering the
merits of various systems and particu-
larly adapted to the needs of the office,
Fsdecided on, and installed a card index
system, using in CONJUNCTION cash beck
for original entry. This system com
bines accuracy, ready reference, per-
manency, and an expansive feature
which will accommodate itself to the in
crease of business for an indefinite
period.
l was enabled by this system to col
lect hundreds of dollars from corpora
tons which had been doing business in
the state and had never paid this tax.
We now have separate record for
each corporation and it is simple
matter to determine whether corpor-
alton has paid its tax or not. This sys-
tenn was installed in the forepart of the
year 1911 and to convey some idea OF
the amount of back taxes collected
from corporations which had not here
tofore paid, the following is given