The Barre daily times. (Barre, Vt.) 1897-1959, 1919-01-11

coded him in the office, That he viii be
just and impartial presiding officer
one may assume with safety. And the
state joins with him in his request Of
the House that The members apply them
selves with diligence to their work to
the end that rapid dispatch of business
may be obtained ST. Adams Messenger
The CONVICTION Ct Mr.. Williams.
Many peculiar and unusual features
are presented By the cases involving the
alleged shortage OF Horace f. Graham
while state auditor of accounts and the
failure of State Bank Commissioner Will
liams TO discover and report that short
age To the legislature. If these cases had
been taken up IN chronological and log
zeal order, il seems 20 Us the state would
have first determined the question wheth
CT or not The governor was guilty. If he
were found guilty, then the question
would be whether another state officer
supposed to keep check on his accounts,
failed to discover the shortage, or failed
to report ii or both
As the situation NOW stands, with
Bank Commissioner williams convicted
Of malfeasance III office, IL looks to us as
though the state had either presupposed
tie guilt Of the governor, who has not
yet had trial, or satisfied the jury Of the
governors wrong doing In order to pave
the way for the successful prosecution Of
another state officer Il II difficult toI
picture the state bank commissioner
guilty Of failing to detect d crime which
was not committed. 10 put ii in am
other way, did not the state in effect
convict the governor of an ofFeuse in the
minds Of this jury. aud IN the minds Of
the public before ii convicted Williams?
To state the situation in still another
way, could Williams have been SUCCESS
fully prosecuted for ualfea aance in office
at This time, il there had been no ques-
tion regarding any shortage by Horace i
Graham
We are making these queries, not to-
question the administration of Justice
but as help to our successful solution
OF the problem how TO deal with state
affairs IN he future * it conceivable
that the state bank commissioner may
not have made reports in accordance with
the law, even though there were no Of
Tense by the auditor or any other state
official? How are we to know unless we
have full and complete publicity? The
Legislature meets only once m Cwo years
We should have something beside reports
to the legislature TO inform us as to the
conditions in our departments and our
commonwealth as a whole.
1t now transpires that not few men
have known for long time that there
was something wrong with Graham's &C.
II oIr-s4r Ens
ted il himself IN q published statement.
We do not undertake TO characterize or
classify that wrong doing Why should
ut remain for the newspapers to dig out
a thing like this
The lesson of this whole deplorable de-
velopment In our state affairs is that the
legislature above everything else should
provide for full and complete publicity in
relation to our public business Our citi-
zens and taxpayers are in reality stock
holders in the commonwealth They have
a right to know what is going on 1t is
their duty as well as their privilege to
know what is being done BY public ser
wants in their name. That is true not
only of the state officials but also of all
public servants from the president Of the
United States down TO town constable
and overseer Of the poor
The reports issued by our Vermont de
partments are IN too many cases a sealed
book TO the taxpayers. They are not
readily ineligible financially to the
average citizen. II has taken months
for experts to determine whether there
was a shortage in the accounts of the
auditor. How could any ordinary man
l. L. n
the auditors department and be able to
say there was nothing wrongl He might
even find mistake or evidence Of one
crime but could not say readily there
were not others. We defy any man to
take any of our financial statements and
say in an hour how much the state owes.
how much money it has on hand, or how
any single department actually stands
The same thing is true of most municipal
financial reports,
All of us humans are liable 70 gain the
impression or uneonsciousiy take the po-
sition that we own any Office we happen
to fill temporarily. especially if we stay
in it too long and that the inquistiye
people have no right to satisfy their Gu
riosity about what are really their own
affairs
1t has been said over and over again
and we'll said, that The first remedy for
Ills of the body polite is publicity; that
the second remedy is publicity, and that
the third remedy is again publicity In
other words if the people insist upon
knowing what is going on, wrong. doing
is not likely to occur or at the very least
not long to continue.
As our present lawmakers search for
solution Of the problem how to prevent
recurrence of the present Vermont scan
dial, they cannot afford to lose sight for
moment of one supreme consideration
The administration of our state affairs
should always be as an open book, so
that be who runs may read, to the end