Brownsville herald. [volume] (Brownsville, Tex.) 1910-current, 1916-05-31

lands were abandoned by their owners,
and in the course Of time they had to be
sold for taxes. A few brief notices of
the sale would have described the par,
cells sufficiently for all legal and prac--
teal purposes. but the county politi1-
ans arranged for a separate noiice for
zach LOT. thus running up an enormous
series Of notices. for which the news
papers rendered bills totalling Sos 600
= handsome advertising appropriation
considering that ii was for the lsrpose
Of collecting. if possible. the sum of
S3i 600 Of accrled taxes.
Very little Of this public advertising
is of any value kept 10 the newspapers
that prink il. 1t does not advertise
How utterly useless il may be is illus
trated BY the fact hat corporations
when desiring to keep cranky minority
stakeholder from making trouble at the
annual stockholders meetings will exer-
else the option allowed 10 them by the
law and instead Of milling letter TO the
stockholders. will advertise" their an
Inual meeting in order To conceal il from
him. Such IA notice is rs safe from oh
s~ervation rs the proverbial needle in the
havStack.
Various cities save most of such mon
ey through the publication by the city
itself of a City Record into which all
such notices. 80 far as the laws permit.
are ~inexpensively put: but IA county ga
zette is far. far away. Charles +. Hughes
has about as much backbone as any GOV
ernor ever had. but when il was sugges-
ted that he take steps to abolish the
printing of the session laws III all the
counties of the safe il is reported that
he smiled sadly and affirmed that there
were some things which even he would
not venture TO tackle unless he was pre-
pared TO sacrifice his whole legislative
programme.
Outlines little papers are published
solely for the purpose of getting this
public advertising. Certainly ii is an i'm
portant asset to any paper. The honest
rural editor gets d meager living out
his little weekly, but "A county politician
can come along, buy the paper from
him aud make "A very much better living
from il. The publisher can very well
afford 10 make the county boss a pres
ent If D nice block of stock or to run
free of charge the advertisement OF the
boss private business if he gels this
public advertising.
SO il comes about that the first prac-
teal steps toward the reform of county
politics must usually take the shape of
an attempt to buy the control of a news
paper and run ID uncontaminated by pub
lie advertising patronage highly pre-
%carioUs business venture.
Behind The Censorship.
Now let Ms lift a corner Of this blan-
kct Of silence that covers county gov
eminent and see what We find. The
comptroller of the STAKE of New York
has power 10 send examiners TO amy
county 10 investigate and report upon
its financial methods. The law was a
dead letter until Mr.. Giynn, afterwards
governor. became comptroller and Sc
cured an appropriation for the salaries
Vi ~ NV tAihiiii't~. ivy ndt It Nllti-
Gully in finding wanton use of the tax
payers money i'll nearly every county.
not with criminal intent. TO be sure. but
in 4 spirit of simple rc.kleSsncSS. They
found irregularities in every county
They have now covered fifty seven of
them and the head of the staff says: In
not ! single comfy examined has there
ben found compliance with every pro
vision Of law
In Broome Comfy the county boss
had 50 manipulated things that he was
able 10 draw upon the county's funds
for his private benefit whenever H.
pleased and he pleased rather often. The
unexpected visit of the c~omptrollcr's cx-
aminerS caught him with a large short
age and he commit cd Suioidc. The i'm
preston which the event made upon the
people of Broomc County was probably
quite fairly expressed by his successor
in office. who stood before a committee
Of the constitutional convention not long
after and asserted that there was no
popular unrest in Broome nor any de
sire 10 change the system,
Graft in county government itself.
just fashioned as county government it.
self. just as mIs-h behind the times. Just
as lacking in modern refinement When
You enter county politics yon step back
into the days Of Tweed. If you protest 1T
things, you find, You get the same ans
wer. what are you going 10 do about
it?' And there isn't much you can d..
When a commit cc of citizens ventured
to ask the treasurer III Cook County. IL