Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1914-12-18

the State institutions should set a
good example to the private institu-
tons, and with that end in view it has
sent to the trustees and officers of the
several state institutions and to the
state auditor the following memo.
randa:
Acting under authority of the la ~
creating a State Board of Charities and
Corrections permitting the Board t.
prescribe such forms not inconsistent
with those otherwise prescribed by law
as 1t may deem necessary to secure
uniformity and accuracy in the state
ments of the several institutions AMI
officials reporting a form of annual
fiscal statement has been adopted,
which is necessarily a compromise; d
form which appeared to most nearly
conform to the accounting records al
ready being kept by the majority of
the institutions reporting. The final
form of such a statement ought how
ever. to be based upon the accounting
needs of the several State institutions
and be in harmony with the books Of
account prescribed by the STATE Audi
tor, and private Institutions receiving
State aid be required to conform
thereto. 1t should provide for gem
eral classification or summary of all
of the assets and liabilities, sources of
income and objects of expenditure
which will be absolutely uniform in all
institutions and yet so elastic in its
divisions and subdivisions as to make
it possible for each institution to carry
its accounts into such detail with re-
spect to any or all departments or
units as it's administrative and ex-
ecutive officers may deem advisable
and the State Auditor require or APP
prove; but still ensure those details
being closed in the same summary or
general accounts at the end of the
year. In that way. only will the an
nual reports of the several State insti-
tutions be at all comparable one with
another and the annual reports of the
State Board of Charities and Correc-
tions to the Legislature do absolute
justice both to the public and private
institutions reported upon. Such a
ella ssification does not exist today even
among the State institutions, but 1t
must eventually come about in these
latter; if not through the cooperation
of this board with them, and with the
State Auditor, then through his order
alone under pressure of public opinion
and the authority conferred upon him
as to prescribing books of account.
The secretary of the State Board Of
Charities would like to see, as soon as
opportunity offers, a conference of the
executive and accounting officers OF
the State institutions, the chief ac-
countant of the state Auditors office
and the secretary of the State Board
to work out the details of such a
classification, to be presented to ana
finally adopted by the State Auditor,
the several Boards of Trustees and In
speetors and the State Board of Chart
ties and Corrections. Meantime. the
following tabulation of the present
classifications illustrates somewhat
forcibly the differences now existing
some of them important, some of them
trivial, some of them difference in
the letter rather than the spirit. These
classifications, with the exception 81
the Orphan Asylum, have been taken
from the printed voucher jackets of
the several lhSlitulioiist lHooe VI IN
Orphan Asylum from it's last printed
annual report"
The list above referred to contains
some $50 different classifications used
by the several state institutions, which
can no doubt be reduced to six or
eight general headings for the small
institutions, divided and sub divided
as the individual needs of the larger
institutions may require.