The evening herald. [volume] (Albuquerque, New Mexico) 1914-1922, 1921-12-18
There Is Enough Law Now to Correct Bad Methods and Punish Wrongdoing

lures, rigid regulation Of repositories and an auditing plan that win
be concentrated and continuous instead Of departmental and spas.
medic. Adults that follow on the discovery Of careessness, irregu.
hzities or scandals are not wholly useless, because they Usually lead
TO reforms. But precaution and protection are better than discov-
A public moneys bill designed to accomplish at least some of
the reforms needed was before the last Legislature. The governor
favored 1t. 1t was defeated by vigorous opposition from a lobby in
which one or two state officials and a number Of s~ubordinates were
said to have been active. The kind Of investigation called for by
the present situation should disclose just what influences were be-
hind that opposition and prevent their activity in the future.
1t now appears that when the present state administration took
office and when the legislature met in regular session last January,
the Santa re bank was already holding a larger sum of state funds
shan It had when the bank was closed; that the state finance board
did not order the removal Of the deposit because, as the governor
has indicated, 1t appeared to them to involve less chance Of loss to
the state and individual depositors to let the bank work Its way out
Of its difficulties II It could. The state had considerably less money
in the bank when it was closed last Monday than on January first.
How the individual depositors win fare as a result Of this particular
policy Of "watchful waiting" remains To be determined by the fu.
turc of the bank.
In the meantime we have the unusual spectacle of the treasurer
Of the state holding s2s00o0 Of notes and mortgages Of private cit
liens, assigned out of the assets Of a bank to further secure a de-
post Of public money, and thus undertaking, It would seem, to
make the state a sort Of preferred creditor, to the disadvantage Of
all the other depostors. If the law permits a bank to make such an
assignment of its assets in behalf of one depostor es against the
others, it will probably be universally agreed that a special session
of the legislature is needed. This will no doub. be determined speed
lily by a competent court.
We believe that there is ample law and ample authority in the.
state government to correct every defective method and require an
accounting from any official of the state who has disobeyed the law
or violated his oath Of Office, Il such there be. Vigorous executive
action will determine whether this is 30. If after such action has
run its course, published its findings and delivered its results, it is
found that emergency legislation is required, it will be time enough
to summon the legislature. Until then 1t should not be summoned
in special session. Without such a showing Of absolute necessity,
summoning the legislature would probably prove another method Of
passing the buck There has been sufficient buck passing already
A demand for a special session of the legislature, based upon
a sudden solicitude for the future fortunes of the republican party,
is not convincing. The future fortunes of the republican party in
New Mexico rest mainly in the charge of Governor Mechem and the
republican state department heads who were elected with him.
Those fortunes viii be best served If those officials will forget that
there is a partisan interest to be safeguarded, while engaged in do
ing whatever needE TO be done to clear up and clean up the irregu-
larities that have come to light in connection with the closing Of
this bank. II, after the governor, the attorney general and others
have exhausted their abilities and powers, more law is found neces-
sary, they will have no difficulty in getting it.