Jasper County Democrat, Volume 11, Number 59, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 26 December 1908 — THE PROPOSED REFORMS. [ARTICLE]

THE PROPOSED REFORMS.

We sincerely trust that the Legislature will consider the great reforms proposed by our Merchants* Association, and indorsed by similar bodies throughout the State, without partisan prejudice. There is nothing political in them. We have had bad government from both parties, and occasionally good government from both. The reform T movement is directed, not against any party, but against a loose system which we have wholly outgrown. The revelations of rottenness in Pittsburg, to say nothing of the exposed graft in Marion county and many other counties of the State, reinforce powerfully the forces that are working reform. We know that under the present system there is no real responsibility anywhere. Things have been proved to be worse than they were supposed to be. We have seen, for example, that there is no proper audit. The method of keeping the books is loose, and entirely without uniformity. The odious and corrupt fee system still survives. Our jury law is sadly in need of amendment. In short, the county business is treated as a sort of neighborhood affair, which, of course, is what it was in the early days when the system tvas adopted. But we have outgrown it. To-day the county government handles millions of dollars, and the business which it •transacts is of the most complex and difficult character. Yet we carry it on in the same old free and easy way, and elect to office—especially to county commissionerships—men who have had no training in business whatever. Reform is, therefore, absolutely necessary. The fee system must go. There must be a uniform system of public accounts with proper inspection and supervision, and a careful auditing of all accounts. Men whom we elect to office ought to be saved from the temptation to which we now subject them. There should be as little discretion as possible. Everything should be regulated and controlled by law. It Is not enough to convict and punish a .few offenders. Exposure of graft will not stop the evil. We must have, not only better men in office, but better laws governing them.

All good citizens, therefore, ought to use hteir influence to get these reform measures through the Legislature. We have seen none of the bills that are to be offered. But the principles on which they are based and whic they will embody are sound. What we are to decide is whether or not business methods shall be used in carrying on the public business. Unless they are we may be very sure that the public business will be badly managed. The people of the State generally ought to get into this reform campaign. For it is their business that is being mismanaged. We believe that if county affairs were managed as they ought to be managed the burden of taxation would be so lightened as to make it almost inappreciable. But more important still is the moral question. We ought to feel humiliated, when we think of the character of most of our county governments. They are so bad as to be disgraceful. People have come to look on the courthouse, ■ot as the seat and source of justice, but as the center of corruption and graft. We have created and army •f hangers-on and parasites whose only means of support is a sort of legalized graft. Offices are handed down from one ringster to another, and always there is waste and inefficiency—and often corruption and downright stealing. It is against all this that the merchants and their allies are fighting. Their appeal is to the Legislature. We trust that it will be heeded, and that as a result we may have sound laws regulating and . controlling the whole administration of county affairs, laws which shall compel the application of business methods to county business*— Indianapolis News.