Evening Republican, Volume 14, Number 10, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 12 January 1910 — OPPOSITION STARTED TO ACCOUNTING LAW OPERATION. [ARTICLE]

OPPOSITION STARTED TO ACCOUNTING LAW OPERATION.

Cass County Attorney Will Ask Injunction on Aeeount of Expense Thus Imposed on County. Expert accountants who will examine the books of the various counties in Indiana have begun their work and two are on the ground to earn their $lO per day from Jasper county. This expense upon the counties of the state without regard to the wishes or requirements of the county is meeting considerable objection at various places and in Cass county the county attorney has decided to file application for an injunction to prevent the accountants from beginning work or„ presenting any bill for their services, and the county attorney will also attack* the validity of the law. The action is not directed against the in-; spectors themselves but to the fact that under the law the county is compelledsto pay each $lO a day, which is mighty good wages for a lot of inspectors out of jobs. The public needs every safeguard that will guarantee them loss by graft, but a law that imposes an additional expense of from $2,000- to $6,000 per year on each county in the state is too expensive in its operation and the people havp a right to kick. That a uniform system of bdokkeeping should be adopted cannot be gainsaid out if the system is so intricate that the services of two $lO per day experts are required to instruct trustees in their use, they are too hard to be of practical use. It is probable that they are not so difficult and that had they been sent to the county auditor the trustees could have been instructed at no cost to the county. The men who are here are J. Q. Davis, ex-county clerk of Newton county, and M. W. Salmon, an ex-trus-tee and school teacher of Frankfort. They were sent here by Mr. Dehority to look over the current reports of the trustees and show them how the new system is to be used. They will probably be here but a few. days and will go from one county to another for the same work. They get $lO per day and all traveling expenses and don’t care how often they are moved. After they are gone another accountant or two is apt to drop in and look over the bsoks of the auditor and treasurer, stay awhile and be followed by a couple of others. The county will be paying the bill all the time at the rate of $lO each and traveling expenses, and this in the face of the fact that experts only a few weeks ago completed the work of investigating the county records and returned a complete report.

While cot a thing is aimed at the accountants personally, they are probably a nice lot of fellows and the money, but we do believe it to be an outrage to saddle this expense on a county when thp taxpayers of the county havq not themselves petitioned for it. From the criticism that eminated so boistrously from democratic headquarters during the campaign one would have supposed that a democratic legislature would not have passed a bill providing for so many high salaried men, but it did and Jasper county is helping pay for the folly of it. In this matter it might not be amissto state the position taken on the bill by State Senator A. Hal leek. When the bill first reached the senate after it had passed the house, the senate amended it in several particulars. One limited the number pf accountants to ten and their pay tto $6 per day and expenses, cutting out two or three of the high priced overseers of the system who would live fat in Indianapolis at the expense of the tax payers and having the work supervised from the offices of the state auditor and state treasurer. In thiß shape it passed the senate and Senator Halleck voted for it. But the house refused to concur in the amendments and the conference committee finally recommended passage in the present form of the law and the senate in its closing days passed the bill, providing for an unlimited number of accountants at the fat pay of $lO per day and expenses. Senator Halleck voted against the bill in this form and he believes that he will be upheld by

nine-tenths of the people of his district. The original understanding was that the accounting board was to go back one year, but the governor has practically thrown down the bars and accountants may come into Jasper county and spend a year or "two if they wish delving into the past records of this county, and all the county can do is to pay the freight. Already 100 accountants have been Sworn in and more will probably he put to work a little later. The uniform accounting system could have been put into vogue without the employment of any experts and this sort of reform that employs 100 to 126 men at a daily cost of a thousand to fifteen hundred dollars is sufficient to make the taxpayer sit up and ask the democrats wherefore are we to expect this much proclaimed economy.