Iron County news. [volume] (Hurley, Wis.) 1913-1950, 1915-08-21
STATE POOR BOOKKEEPER.
Is There One Who Can Tell the Cost
of State Government?



The details of the accomplishment
of this legislature will be long in COM
ing to the surface, because the legis-
| lators, the state officers, and the stu
dents of affairs who have been at their
elbows for almost eight months, are
all equally unable to tell what it costs
to run the State of Wisconsin. There
are no recordsin existence to give the
| information. This is reason enough
| for the fact. State bookkeeping,
where there is any, is of the most an
| tiquated sort, and when accounts can
| be avoided, none are kept. The State
! Tax Commission began, in 1909, by
direction of the legislature, an expert
investigation of state finances. It's
report was published in 1911. Up to
the present time that report is the
| best effort, and the most successful
one, made by anybody, to show the
total amount of the states income,
with the purposes for which it is
spent. That report frankly admits,
in many places, the inability of the
Investigators to find any record of col
lections or expenditures, or satisfac-
tory bookkeeping or reports. In other
cases no exact data is to be found,
and although the State Board of Pup
lie Affairs has been in existence since
1911, under command of the law to re-
port last July, and has spent two or
TIM ee hundred thousand dollars, the
people have not been enlightened, and
the most have ever heard from it
came at second hand from Chairman
Hatton, through one of his friends,
that the University could be properly
run for IS per cent of what it was cost
ing in 1914. That didn't mean much,
beyond the suggestion that Mr. Hatton
who is a business nan. saw extrava-
gance and waste there. But he never
said even that aloud.
Next, we have had Mr.. Allen and
bis doubtful efficiency" When he
came here, friend of Governor Phil
| ipp told me unpleasant stories of the
gentleman's career in New York, and
quoted in this correspondence some
very sarcastic comments upon him
from the New York Sun. In the East
| they said he was sensational selfad-
vertiser The impression at first pre-
vailed that he was here to whitewash
| the University. He didn't do that,
| but chose, in direction with the
wind, another sensational role. |
have never seen the man. but the
mere fact that he disappointed the I'M
| iversity gives me no faith in him. 1t
is matter of plain, ordinary account
ing and of common honesty to estab-
! fish the facts as to the cost of the I'm
iversity, or of any other branch of
the government. There is nothing oc-
cult in the undertaking. We ought to
have honest men and men of exper-
fence in accounting. without sending
to New York for experts.
AfhA We nave UCNlt tOtu AOb, llldl ut-
sides a special legislative committee
Governor Phillip has spent S15, 900
for Investigations of his own. The
great trouble is that some of the state
bookkeeping is done. or left undone,
with deliberate intent to deceive. The
Cniyersity's printed report is a model
NJ SORT ,,f oanNnrFipr VNl,A NJ.
NAL Schools have another system.
| am not surprised, therefore, in view
of the conditions, that some of the le-
gislators are waiting, now, that they
can't help it, and want to go home. -
George p. Mathes, in his correspon-
d9nee from Madison to the Milwaukee
Sentinel, on Wednesday, said:
A significant admission was made
by Senator Whitman on Tuesday in
/ speaking for the finance committee. He
said that there was no way by which
the committee could get at the bottom
of the requirements OF the University.
They had to take the word of the Of
ficialS of the University for the needs
of the institution
I In the same issue of the Sentinelth
Taxpayers League, which has been
Investigating on its own account since
last summer, says: 1T seems impos-
Si6le to get an exact, correct state
ment of the University fieances, one
that will not in some respect mislead.
sure Mike" You kraw that
year ago, just as well as you do now.
So did Governor Phillip. So did