Jasper County Democrat, Volume 13, Number 80, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 21 January 1911 — STATE BOARD OF ACCOUNTS. [ARTICLE]

STATE BOARD OF ACCOUNTS.

No Politics in Instruction to Examiners or in Examinations. The following communication relative to the public accounting law appeared in the Indianapolis News a few days ago, which, owing to the attacks on this law in certain quarters, will be of interest: An editorial in the Indianapolis Star of January 12, in which an attack was made upon the present public accounting law, said:

“The field men have been sent out from the statehouse office with instructions that they must make a showing even though the character and reputation of honest men were to be sacrificed.”

While I can speak only regarding the instructions given to me, I will say that nothing is further from the truth than the above statement. To my knowledge, no instruction of this character has even been intimated to any field examiner. On the contrary, Mr. Dehority has always insisted that justice be administered in every instance. He has always cautioned us to be absolutely fair in our examinations and take no position which could not be substantiated. No instruction which I have ever received or heard has ever savored of politics in the least, and I know that this matter has been carefully guarded in every examination in which I have participated. It is perhaps true that more Republican ex-officers have been affected by this examination than Democrats, but it is also true that at least two-thirds of the officers of the state for the last twelve years have been Republican. The “constructive charges” withr which the editorial deals is only a mild way of handling illegal allowances which were found to be made by the various officers examined. What was to be done with such allowances? Should the examiner pass over such cases and not report them? It is the duty of the examiner under any circumstances to report conditions as he finds them. These illegal allowances which amount to several hundred thousand dollars in the state, show one of two things: That there is either something wrong with the law or that the officers are bad. It may be both, but in either case it is a condition of which the legislature should take cognizance. If the laws are at fault and can not be obeyed then they should be amended to suit conditions. No law should remain on our statute books which must be broken to obtain justice. The Star seeks to estimate the value of this law by the amount of money recovered from those examinations. This is certainly an erroneous notion of the original purpose of the law, as it was intended to establish a uniform System and to prevent the occurence of shortages, instead of allowing them to occur and involve the state in a legal tangle in suing for a recovery. There is also a human element in this method of prevention which is usually overlooked. It will save a great many good and honest men who assume office fully intending to do the right thing, but are misled by a set of unscrupulous dealers.

The Star seeks to have’ one belive that salaried officers do not go wrong.* The annals of graft will not support this position. It is true that the township trustees as a rule are not sufficiently paid for their services, but for the most part they are representative citizens of their 'townships. The constructing and installing of a uniform system of accounts tor all of the offices of the state, together with a complete examination of the officials, is a task the magnitude of which' the public generally had little or no idea, and it would certainly be absurd to presume that no mistakes would be made in such an undertaking. But if the people vvili stand back of it until the system is well established, the state will reap the benefit of a better and more economical condition, as well as having its official system on a much higher plane. CHARLES E. WEYBRIGHT, ' Field Examiner. Fowler, Ind., Jan. 13, 1911.