The Carlisle independent., 1915-04-29
Investigating Committee Charges Irregularities in State Departments Report Furnishes Substantial Reason for Lnproued Accounting Systems and Publicity of Receipts
 and Disbursements Tn State
 Departnents.

The following letter. received by the committee, in response to a let ter of Inquiry, was written by c. B. COe of Tuckerman:
 Tn reply to yours of recent date concerning my automobile tag for 1914. The number 5154, motor No zS690. The sheriff, Mir McCustin. gave me my license. He said they would not cost him anything. My ap- plication for 1915 was returned to me because I had not sworn to same. I had no car in 1913"
 Fertilizer Analysis Expense.
 "As a supplemental report on the Department of Mines, Manufactures and Agriculture, we desire to call at tention to the fact that, in addition ;O the expenses of the fertilizer in spectors, amounting to many thou sands of dollars, operating from this department, there has been paid to a chemist, said to be in Little Rock, the sum of $2,210 for analysing feedstuff, and further sum of $3,735 for ana lyzing fertilizer, making a total of S5 945 paid to this gentleman for his services, and no on knows better than the farmers and stockmen of this state whether, after the expenditure or such great amount of money, tjey have had any better grade of commercial feedstuff or fertilizer" says the report. Hence we submit these facts"
 The report of the committee on the Department of Education, in full, fol- lows:
 We regret very much to report to your excellency that, on account of the recent decision of the Supreme Court, In the case where judgment of the low CT court was affirmed. making the in- Junction perpetual, and preventing this committee from paying the expense of the investigation of the State offices and institutions, We are unable to re- port our work that we have done un- der the resolution continuing us as an auditing committee by the General As sembly of 1915 officially but we are unwilling for your honor and the peo- pie Of Arkansas at large, to fail to know, or have the benefit of our in- vestigation which we have made since the adjournment of the General As sembly of 1915. and on which we have not made any report because of the in-
 n which prevented our paying for the printing of five hundred (590) copies, as provided by said resolution.
 We further regret the fact that the decision of the Supreme Court makes it necessary for us to discontinue this work, temporarily at least from the fact that we believe some few of the State institutions wish investigation. and We further believe that the peo- FRfg 1Tw~ would have to bear the expense of this committee work, are demanding that | they be advised specifically as to the manner in which the State officials are conducting their offices and the State institutions expending the money ap propriated for their use
 w nile we realize. $ we have said, that some few desire investigation. we are further constrained to believe that the suit brought to enjoin the furthe continuance of our investigation by the gentleman from the State at large, was not prompted by the incentive alone to save the taxpayers ef the State of Arkansas the expense of our inVes- ttgat1on. It is a matter of common knowledge that our investigations dur ing the sitting of the recent legisla- ture, heretofore reported, has not al- together shown. in our humble judg- ment, that the money paid by the al ready overburdened taxpayers has been expended judiciously or with a view of strict economy, to say the least, and we dare say that some of the State officials, and possibly some of the State institutions. lent assistance to the discontinuance of our investiga- tions-if not financially. in a moral sense.
 We believe that the democratic government which has guided the old ship of state so long in the State of Arkansas has reached a political crisis, and when so guided by officials who fear investigation and refuse to lend their moral support to same, that 1t is high time that the voters of the great State of Arkansas be advised and have an opportunity to say whether or not they will continue to honor such men with such exalted po- sitions.
 Do Not Criticise.
 we have no desire or inclination to criticise the judicial department of our State government for rendering the opinion that has discontinued the work l of this committee, but we are forced to the conclusion that the decision has defeated the will of great majority of the people of the State.
 We further regret that we are not able financially to continue the work at our expense, and if we were, from our previous observation we rather think we would be enjoined from in terfering with the books of the differ ent State departments, as we could no l longer act officially, and as we have stated before, we do not believe that i the parties desiring these investfga- tions discontinued, care for the expense we incur, but rather they object to the information that we gather being made i public.
 We base our conclusion that we i have reached in this matter from the i fact that the expenditure of the States money in the offices that we have al- ready investigated is inconsistent with 1 the fact that they are interested so very much in saving to the State. but seem to be more interested in their po- i liticai future and personal gain Our certified accountants submitted I their report to us on the office of the superintendent of public instruction on | March Is. It became necessary that we write various letters over the State to county examiners and county superin- 1 tendents, thus preventing us from pre- l pairing the final report for print until i the injunction was granted and we could not get the report printed as di- l rected in the resolution without be- i coming personally liable for the cost l thereof; hence we submit you here a condensed report in connection with l that of the certified accountants: