The Green Forest tribune., 1917-01-19

exceeding sS.ooo and necessary trav- i cling expenses.
 County Audit System n Farce.
 Complaint Is heard on every hand that our county auditing system Is a l mere farce, because the commi oners | of accounts appointed by our circuit i Judges are not expert accountants and l often times are not versed even in tho primary principles of commercial law and tho laws of Arkansas. recom- mend to the General Assembly your serious consideration of plan that has been proposed to abolish the of- fees Of county commissioners of ac- counts and substitute in lieu thereof either district auditors. one for every congressional district in the State, or assistant travelling state auditors to be selected by the travelling state audi tor, subject to the approval of the gov ernor. The approval of the governor would prevent too many assistant au- ditors being selected. and thereby cur tail the expense attached to such a sys- tenn, because every governor feeling a responsibility for the success of his administration and pride in record of reasonable economy, would only ap- prove the employment of such cleri- cal force by the state travelling audi lOAS OA COi4IuliSSlOnST OI Sldle dCCOunlS, as would be absolutely necessary to do the work efficiently. The successful experience of our state bank depart ment in checking up the banks under their surveillance, with a very small clerical force, furnishes an eloquent argument for the practicability and economy of such a system.
 MiIlaEe Basis for Educ donaI Institu- tions.
 At every meeting of the legislature the question of making appropriations to the State educational institutions comes up for consideration. Under present conditions 1t Is absolutely necessary for representatives of those institutions to spend a considera ble amount of time at the legislature at tempting to secure the necessary ap- propriatlons for operation and mainte nance expenses. This results in a scramble for appropriations and any institution which does not engage in 1t will almost certainly fail to secure the money needed to carry It's work.
 Furthermore, when an institution Is unable to know until after the meet Ing of the Legislature what appropria tion it will receive for the following biennial period. it is impossible for that institution to follow consistently any plan of advancement and improveme mt. Oftentfmes an institution will hesitate to begin a line of work which seems to be very necessary, for the reason tht it does not know whether 1t will have sufficient funds to continue it.
 After thorough study of the Ques- tion, I have come to endorse and to recommend to the General Assembly for adoption plan that has already been adopted in IS States of the Union, and has proved far better than the old system of making biennial appropria- tions from the general revenue fund My recommendation Is that 8 special tax be levied and collected each year for the support of the State supported educational institutions, including the state university, the state normal school, the four agricultural schools the medical school, and the branch normal college. The total amount of the tax levy for this purpose should be determined by the General Assem- bly and the percentage of the tax to go to each individual institution should be stated in the law. The tax should be large enough to support adequately the various institutions, which are all doing a splendid constructive work for Arkansas with very limited means at their disposal. When the amoynt of the special tax for this purpose is de- termined, it can be deducted from the levy for general purposes
 ""rhe idea of special tax for tho state edu- cational institutions is simply an extension O. the idea of specific tax levied in the various local school districts of the state for school purposes, As is we'll known, such a tax is levied in every school dis triet in the state and no attempt is made to support the public schools from the gen eral revenue fund of the counties cities and towns.
 To Improve Educational System.
 "Arkansas is to be genuinely congratulated the adoption by an overwhelming ma jority of constitutional amendment No. 12, empowering school districts to increase their local schools leyies from maximum of mills IF mills provided a maj jority Of the electors in each school district go de- cree. In my humble opinion, the passage of this progressive measure will stand out the Magma Charter of our educational advancement and will forever remove the stain of ranking forty-third among the States of the Union in educational progress and forty-seeond in nHteraey from the fair eseuteheon of Arkansas Much has bsen done, but much more remains to be done for the e4s,oSs children of school age in State.
 The following educational legislative pro- gram has been mapped out and approved by board of education, and l heart fly approve of every measure contained in this program and recommend it's adoption by the general assembly.
 "1. Compulsory School Attendance Law law that will really compel school at tendance in the State. There are at pres ent statute books three compulsory attendance laws. but they loosely drawn and very little attention has been paid to their enforcement.
 "2 Provision for the payment of in- terest and investment of the 16 section school fund.
 "3 Law to encourage and aid in the teach ing of agricultural cooking sewing and manual training in public schools and for the training of rural teachers
 A"4. Changing law as to method of making annual State apportionment of school funds
 ''The present basis of making this appor- tionment Is the enumeration or the mum Der of educable ehidren-this Is faulty There have been from time to time in the State suggestions and charges of padding the school enumeration.
 Whether these things are true not the present plan is weak for the following req sons
 Let the State apportionment be made on the basis of daily school attendance-this will put a premium school attendance; II will stimulate teachers. school directors and patrons to secure better school attend anee; 1t will greatly enhance the value of school work the State
 "5. Law to properly safeguard the is- suance of district school bonds in the state.
 "s. Law to change the time of holding county teacher institutes, with view to making these institutes more practical and Of worth to the teachers of the state.
 TT. Law Creating County Boards of Edu- ChIlOH-1Htee county podFuS to cOnSISl or seven nine members elected by the vot- at the annual school election. the mem bers of these boards to without pay. Duties of boards in general to look after and direct the educational work of the county.
 "8. State Illiteracy Commission-To con- sist of 12 members of whom the State su- perintendent of education should be offieio chairman. who shall serve without pay appointed by the governor. The duties of the commission shall be to devise plans for eliminating tlliteracy in state.
 8. Statewide uniformity or general coun- ty uniformity of text books.
 Uniform Text Books.
 Negotiations for uniform text books fer