Jasper County Democrat, Volume 13, Number 80, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 21 January 1911 — THE PUBLIC ACCOUNTING LAW. [ARTICLE]

THE PUBLIC ACCOUNTING LAW.

The predicted attack on the public accounting law has materialized, but fortunately it does not seem to be formidable. It ought to be as we believe it is, doomed' to failure. For no better law than this has been passed by the legislature for many years. The demand for it was bred of the wasteful, careless and corrupt methods which had for so long prevailed. In two short years the law has done much to end them. Men are figuring the cost of administering the law against the amounts recovered under it, as though there were really some force in this contention. We are told of the costliness of the new books with which it was necessary to equip the county and township offices. Is there a business house in the world that would hesitate to adopt a new system simply because of the cost of installing it seemed to be large? Surely not. When this item is met it is met once and for all, while the law goes on saving money to the people. It is believed that enough has been saved already from the more careful buying iof supplies and the lower prices obtained to cover the entire cost of the new books. For the first time, probably, in the history of the state the people are getting a dollar’s worth of supplies for a dollar. Not only so, but the cost will be

Jess as time passes. For, with the close supervision there will be fewer cases of mismanagement, and a constantly decreasing need for the state to interfere. If not one cent is ever recovered it will be because under the influenc of the law the public business is honestly and economically conducted, which is , the result that the law is designed to bring about. The law makes it easier for men to be honest by throwing about them checks and restraint to which every right thinking public officer ought to be glad ■ to be subjected. The power of the old temptations is broken, the force of the old pull is-destroyed. When county and township officers now buy supplies they know that the, price will be made a matter of? public record at the capital. ItVis' further provided that there shall be 1 a uniform price throughout the state. If discrepancies appear in the reports of prices paid, suspicion is at once aroused, and investigation is likely to follow. But a good deal is said about the centralization that results from the law, and men are suggesting or demanding that the inspections and examinations be made by local officers —in other words, that the man inspected be allowed to say when, how and by whom they shall be inspected. The strongest and most ’ salutary feature of the law is that it puts the work of examination in the hands of men who will be utterly unaffected by local influences, unrelated to county and township rings. We regret to see that the Governor has said that he is willing that the attorney-general shall be disassociated from any prosecutions that it may be necessary to bring, and that the work be left to local prosecutors. This is a mistaken theory, and if adopted would greatly weaken the law. The Governor, by the way, asked for more power for himself, or for the state, in removing faithless officers and in enforcing the law in localities in which it was not enforced. He has some such power now under the public accounting law, and it is a power that ought not to be surrendered. These two positions assumed by the -Governor do not seem to consist with each other.

Of course, the real motive back of any serious attack that is now being made on the law is a desire to restore the old, go-as-you-please conditions under which local rings were supreme, and' to re-establish the old influences under which It was exceedingly difficult for officers to be honest. That is the plain! truth about the business. If the politicians in the legislature do not understand this, they may be very sure that the...people, at home do. There is no argument that has been advanced against the law that has the least merit. Indeed, most of them are ao flimsy that we can not believe they have any weight even , with the men using them. The

public officer who Is not willing to have his office examined in the most rigid way, and by men who have no relation whatever to him or his friends, is not fit to hold office. This law has raised the whol£ official tone in the state.

We have adopted the theory that public business ought to be conducted with the same honesty and efficiency that mark the transaction of private business, and that of itself is a great gain. Compared with it, the cost of ( the new equipment, of which so much has befen made, is as nothing. The destruction of the influences which made our local governments a disgrace, and which tempted many honest men to their own ruin, is worth a good deal more than the law has cost. Do the people wish to go back to the old order? We refuse to believe it. But there are men in Indiana who long for the good old days of loot and plunder, and rings and pulls, an it is these • who are back of whatever serious effort is being mae to destroy this admirable law. It ought not to be touched unless, indeed, there is some way in which jt can be strengthened and be made even more effective than it is. Of course the politicians and supply men do not like it. But the people do. In this case we think that the will of the people is likely to prevail. At the same time, there are powerful influences fighting the Jaw, and the people should be watchful and on their guard.— Indianapolis News.