Every evening, Wilmington daily commercial., 1922-02-17

cd was put In \ special account In
the bank to he spent on The roads OF
the respective dstricts. Each member
of the Levy Court carried an order
book. being equivalent to u check
book, and drew orders OF his own ac-
cord on raid funds without being coun-
tcrsigned by anybody; and !. person
ally, know OF one casc about eight
years ago. where one member o( the
Levy Court authorized. verbally. three
others to Sign his name to his road
orders. making four In all signing
the same name. and no effort was
made by anybody in authority TO put
a stop 20 II.
During the session OF the Lesisla-
turc OF 1911. blu WAS PASSED provid-
ing for a comptroller for Sussex coun-
". Prior to this time. tho only che9k
on the expenditures OF the members
OF the Levy Court for road work In
his district was the report he made to
the Levy Court. but you can plainly
see that as all ten members or the
Levy Court were In exactly thessame
boat, that n. had spent all the. road
money IN their representative dis
tricts. therefore. you could hardly ex-
pect them to make n very close In
Spection OF each others accounts.
IL has been said that many pair
of mules has been paid for by mem
tcrs OF the Levy Court out OF the
county's money. but the county never
owned the mules. but ! have no per-
sonal knowledge OF any such case.
After the Legislature OF 1911. tho
county comptroller countersigned all
orders and was supposed to have some
control over these expenditures. along
with al other county expenditures
| I'm, the law was still in force which
required that money raised for road
purposes should be spent strictly In
| the district In which tho money was
raised.
County orders. OF checks. prior &c
January. 1e17. were often bought and
I sold lat a tremendous discount. Only
last week l heard one Nof our promi'
nent citizens say he sold an order for
J SIS. which was drawn for 500. n dis
count OF 25 per cent. This.was mum
her OF years ago, Il is true and wal
caused very largely by the fact tina
n few people AZ the county seat always
had their pockets full of count,
orders; and. as soon rs any OF the col
lcctors would come In with money
they would ascertain how much none.
hey had and would Immediately
through influence or otherwise, ge
their orders cashed as far as tn
money would SO. leaving others VIII
he'd county orders. high and dry.
they dld not possoss this pull or In
nuenoe. go Il was a case OF take wha
you could get
None OF tho hanks during this tim
would accept n county order as a cSsl
Item. but only accepted them as
collection item: and. personally,
have DEPOSITED the. same order IN III
hank AT least three times. II not more
before 81 would be reported paid.
As each Levy Court commissioner
under the old system. had the spend
ing OF all tho road money In his DIS
~'et: he, Of course. personally appoint
the road supervisors for his cis
tr,ct-arotheS strictly political ar
poln;ment; and. in many cases whe
. the political friends OF the road super
, vl.ors had nothing else TO do. the
worked out better taxes on the roa'
regardless OF the fact that this perio
of idlcness was generally In the win
ter. Witch Is certainly the wrong tim
! of the year TO work dirt roads. Ou
! financial affairs got 80 deplorable tha
a law was enacted prohibiting tax co
: iIectors from accepting our own cour
" orders IN payment OF our count
+ taxes
Under the old system. bills and az
, counts We're referred to q committe
!. OF three members OF the Levy Cour
/ and the report OF this conlmittee wa
; generally accepted as a whole instea
of the individual members Of the Lev
> Court carefully scrut.nizing each b
: and account: and. after these OH
( were ordered paid and orders draw
: and signed 10 pay them, these order
9 were held I'm the Office OF the cler
D of pence until the party 10 whom tt
; order was drawn, either came TO III
x office personally for the order.
{ gave instructions 10 others TO call X
9 them. Today. there are hundreds
. orders drawn and signed still remair
: inr IN the order books. which ha'
c revcr been delivered 10 the parties
r whom they belonged; and, during II
T early part OF 1917, the new Levy Cou
r by resolution, declared all orders cal
!. ceIled remaining in the books b.
{ tween April S, 1897 10 December
Z 1916; which. as previously state
{ numbered several hundred
: Under the old Levy Court system.
: member OF the Levy Court felt und
$ obligations 10 any one In the coun
s outside OF his district, which meal
that the county was run as distri
4 proposition, forgetting that the count
r as a whole should be the unit of go
: ernment.
d" The act OF the Legislature Of 10
4 provided that in the election 10 be he
= in November. 1916. a Levy Cou
: should be elected, composed OF thr
members; one TO serve for two year
y one FOR four years; and one for S
y years; and, every two years thereaf's
x enc commissioner should be elected
II serve for Ax years. Each candida
d was voted on throughout the coun
II instead OF by districts
J. The 1915 law provided that the 1
d coming Levy Court should put in
IS new system OF bookkeeping; and.
necessary. 10 ep~ioy an expert a
= countant to ins-All the same. viii
e was done, and for the last five yeai
n the Levy Court has had a week
n statement every Tuesday, giving
=; complete debit and credit balance
10 every account on the comptrollel
q ledger.
l. This law. also. provided that I
n Levy Court should designate certa
roads leading from town to town.
70 from station 10 town. as Glass
Ie Roads" and. TO maintain these "Cla
y 3" roads. the Levy Court was authc
ized, when levying the county tax,
l. make one levy, regardless Of distr