The Green Forest tribune., 1915-04-30
Investigating Committee Charges Irregularities in State Departments Report Furnishes Substantial Reason for Ln1proued Accounting Systems and Publicity of Receipts
 and Disbursements m State
 Departr7enfsi
Depdrtmenfs.i

The following letter. received by the committee, in response to let ter of inquiry, was written by c. B. Coe of Tuckerman:
 ''In reply to yours of recent date, concerning my automobile tag for 1914. The number 5154, motor No. 2S690. The sheriff, MT. McCustin. gave me my license. He said they pIication for 1915 was returned to me because 1 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 tO the expenses of the fertilizer in- spectors, amounting to many thou sands of dollars, operating from this department, there has been paid to 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 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 Of such great amount of money, ttey 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 repor, 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- YestiSatton which we have made since til0 duJOuI uIIeII Ol the NTenefa1 AS sembly of 1915, and on which we have not made any report because of the in-
 2n which prevented our paying for the printing of five hundred (50O copies, as provided by said resolution.
 We further regret the fact that the decision of the Supreme Court makes 1t 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 further halieNa hot 10 Die generally, who pay the taxes and would have to bear the expense of this committee work, are demanding that they be advised specifically as to the conducting their offices and the State institutions eXpending the money ap- propriated for their use
 w hile we realize. as we have said, that some few desire nvestiga tion, we are further constrained to believe that the suit brought to enjoin the further continuance of our investigation by the gentleman from the State at large, alone to save the taxpayers of the State of Arkansas the expense of our inves- tgat1on. It is a matter of common knowledge that our investigations dur ing the sitting of the recent legisla- tufe, 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- dons-if not financially, in 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 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 eritieise the judicial department of our State government for rendering the opinion that has discontinued the work 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 i ent State departments, as we could no i longer act officially, and as we have l stated before, we do not believe that l the parties desiring these inyestiga- tlons discontinued, care for the expense we incur but rather they object to inc lnformation that we gather being made public. ---e'No
 We base our conclusion that we
 nave reached in this matter from the fact that the expenditure of the States
 money in the offices that we have a11 ready investigated is inconsistent with the fact that they are interested SD very much in saving to the State hut
 seem to be more interested in their no-
 litical future and personal gain.
 | Our certified accountants s,Ibroi++ad Il their report to us on the office of inc superintendent of public instruction on
 March IS. It became necessary that we write various letters over the State to
 county examiners and county sunerin
 tendents, thus preventing us from nre-
 pairing the final report for print ,intil the injunction was granted and we
 could not get, the report printed as dis rected in the resolution without he
 coming personally liable for the cost | eTeOf: hence c1h