Bismarck daily tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, Dakota [N.D.]) 1881-1916, 1913-02-23

C0MMENDS
ASSEMBLY,
More Legislation Considered
Than At Any Previous
Session
Makes Several Suggestions
IN Comment While at
Jamestown
Especial to The Tribune.)

Especial to The T%ribune.)
jamestown, Feb. 22.-ln an inter
view here today Gov. Hanna expressed
himself on several matters of state
and legislative interest, as follows:
The legislature has only some ten
or eleven days left. The work is
pretty we'll along. There have been
more bills introduced in this session
of the legislature. l believe, than at
any previous session-somewhere be-
tween eight and nine hundred, IN both
house and senate.
The House and Senate Committees
on appropriations have worked faith.
fully and hard to cut the appropria-
tons down so that they may come
within the revenues of the state and
has to a large degree been successful
in so doing. 1t is difficult in a state
like ours, Where the revenues are not
large, to take care Of The running e%.
penses of the Government of the State
to care for the institutions and at the
same time to provide adequate and
necessary buildings and appropriate
money for other purposes that are
needed and do this all at the same
time. .z .-Its.. g' 4. A.. .-.
have found the state officers will.
ing and anxious to help in every way
to ccOn0mize in their departments so
that the expenses may be kept down
to the minimum, and | really believe
that by practicins economy all along
the line, that in the next two years, at
the close of the biennial period, will
be able to show all bills paid. the ap.
preparations as made by this legisla-
ture, taken, care of and, | hope a small
balance at least, left in the general
fund. .
D ! have been especially interested in
getting the authority as Governor to
employ expert accountants to audit
the State Departments and State In.
stitutions, and also to start at least
the work of putting the counties upon
some uniform sysem of bookkeeping
and accounting. If this authority is
given me by the legislature. and | be.
lieve it will be. and consider 1t the
most important piece OF legislation
before the legislature at this session,
under this system | will employ char
tered, registered accountants, outside
of the state, who will come here. ex-
.perts in their line and who do their
work efficiently, AMI will have every
state institution thoroughly examined
and an inventory made of all the pro.
perry, and a careful system of book
keeping and reporting installed in
every one of them. The same to be
true as to every state office. Even in
the common school and institution
funds of the state, a fund a%ggregatin$
almost 1922, 600, 100000 OF dollars. This
money is invested in farm contracts,
farm mortgages, various kinds OF
bonds and investments of similar char.
acter. This fund has stood since
statehood, almost tw%enty.three years,
and has never had a thorough examin-
alton from statehood down to the pre-
sent time. This | shall have. done il
given authority to do so, and shall
have these chartered, accountants go
through every state office and bring
everything down to date, and they will
make suc: changes OF suggestions as
to bookkeeping methods and reports
as will simplify the work in the of.
fees, and will give us a cutoff so that
in the future it will not be necessary
to go back so far but we shall only
have to go back to the time that this
audit was made.
There have been various resolutions
introduced in the legislature this win
ter, calling for investigations and the:
investigations are now being made by
members Of the legislature and the
men upon these committees are doing
the best they can but they have other
duties to perform and they cannot go
into the. detail and get right down to
the bottom of matters as should be
done and as can and will be done by
registered, chartered accountants. !
regret these resolutions were intro
duced in the legislature, for the rea-
son that. l knew the Investigations
could not be as thorough as they
might have, and I do not like the idea
going abroad that there is any thing
wrong in any of the departments. If
there is the right way to get at it is
to have the examinations that l have.
asked the legislature to give me au-
thority to have made, and If | am
given this authority then if there is
anything found that is wrong, it will
be known, and if there is not anything
wrong, then the people of the state,
will know that also, and they will get
that information in the right kind Of
IA way, and It will be absolutely au-
thentic, and without partisan bias
whatsoever. An examination of the
kind as proposed by me will do away
forever with the resolutions that, may
be introduced in the Legislature for
partisan or for political reasons The
state officers and institutions or the
state want these examinations made.
Every honest man wants to be and is
glad to be examined, and every dis
honest man ought to he examined.
There are many matters before the
Legislature that ! hope to see become
laws.
In my message to the legislature, I