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closely approximates the actual results. In county and municipal affairs our statistics are equally definite.

Our state and county affairs are conducted upon a business as well as cash basis. This in contrast with the reported condition of our neighboring state (Colorado). Colorado's valuation is largely in excess of Wyoming's, but her finances and those of the city of Denver are reported by the newspapers as being in a deplorable condition.

I might say that a recent governor of that state who was a businessman said to me after having investigated the results of our law, that should he have the opportunity, he would strongly recommend and urge the creation of the office of examiner in that state. Unfortunately he was not governor during the next session of the legislature.

Our bonds are recognized as gilt-edged securities, and population considered, are sold at a lower rate of interest than any other western bond on the market.

The question arises whether or not the benefits that have been realized in state and county affairs would be obtained in municipal affairs, were the same supervision exercised. To this I answer, yes. I have examined the accounts of almost all our municipalities from time to time and know positively that all have been benefited in a degree. With the same close supervision exercised as in state and county accounts, the benefits would be equal.

It is generally conceded that state supervision is preferable for the reason that such an officer not only is unbiased and unprejudiced, but he brings with him an experience that has given him broader ideas concerning the administration of public in

terests.

Aside from the benefits that are to be derived from uniform accounting, there is another matter worthy of notice, to wit: that it aids in securing the nomination and election of more competent men to office-men who have other than selfish interests at heart. We need men in this day and age who are courageous, fearless, energetic, enthusiastic, honest and intellectual, to man our public offices, to occupy positions of trust, quite as much as we need brave, fearless and enthusiastic men in our armies. Men who can pass through the fiery ordeals of temptation of public

office with unstained character, with no smell upon their clothing of the parasites-demagogy, uncleanliness and profligacy-that everywhere surround them.

Such men, Mr. President, will be successful in the discharge of any trust reposed in them whether it be public or private, and they are heroes as valiant as those who fought and won our battles at Gettysburg, Vicksburg, San Juan, El Caney, Manila and Peking.

Why do we need uniformity in accounting? First, because we wish to be informed. Second, that we may study intelligently the cost of maintenance of any department of government. What are the sources of revenue of this and other cities and for what purposes are disbursements made? This information will appear where uniformity in accounting is established. Where there is no uniformity and no particular forms of reports required, the general reports would read about as follows:

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What information does a report of this character convey? Practically none. It shows, however, that the balance on hand March 1, 1900, is greater than on March 1, 1899. The statement is pointed to with pride. The administration has been economical, their report evidences that fact, the receipts have not all been expended and it is possible that a campaign has been waged and won with no other issue.

Such a report fails to show whether the receipts have been from taxes or other sources. It does not disclose whether the credits have been passed to the proper funds, or whether the ledger balances correspond with the cash on hand.

It does not show that it cost $57,500 to lay a sewer main that might have been constructed for $43,500, or that the cost of

maintaining the fire department was excessive, or that the purchasing officer of the city had been paying exorbitant prices for supplies, or that the sum of $1,000 appropriated to entertain the National Municipal League, provided it should hold its meeting in that city, had been used in payment of campaign speakers whose efforts were necessary to secure a majority vote in favor of municipal ownership of street railways, thereby placing another burden upon the people. Let us inquire further-go between the covers of the books and learn the conditions that exist. Take up the tax record; here and there are names of persons whose taxes have been delinquent for years. These are the names of persons who have an influence with the powers that be, or perhaps they control a large number of votes, therefore it would be impolitic to compel the payment of such taxes by process of law. Turn to the receipt books; here and there a stub with neither name nor amount, it may bear the notation "Receipt Spoiled." If it were spoiled, why was it removed from the stub? These are conditions, Mr. President, that will be found to exist where there is neither uniformity in accounting nor public supervision.

If the accounts of officers, who know themselves to be subject to a most thorough examination or supervision, reveal errors and discrepancies, what must be the condition where no examination or supervision is authorized! I leave you to draw your own conclusion.

Without uniformity there is no method whereby the expenses of neighboring cities having approximately the same population, whose cost of maintenance should be about equal, can be compared. By comparison we become economists. Every officer has some pride and should it appear that some other government or department thereof is being conducted more satisfactorily to the taxpayer than his own, a friendly rivalry is created and the officers of each town, city or other government will endeavor to secure the greatest benefits to the public from the funds at their command.

Officers who would not so strive would be blacklisted and defeated in the next campaign.

Uniformity in accounting will throw a flood of light on municipal ownership that in my judgment will be of great advantage to

the taxpayer. It will eliminate the uncertainties of the benefits to be derived from ownership of public utilities. It will establish beyond a question whether or not public utilities can be operated under municipal control as economically as under private or corporate ownership.

It will reach the educational interests and enable us to make comparisons between states and cities that will be of great benefit. It will deal with the maintenance of our poor and pauper population and the work of public charity; in fact it would be difficult to determine where its usefulness would terminate.

Why do I recommend public examination? I can answer this in a few words. For the reason that my experience has taught me that it is necessary. If it has been found necessary in my state, it is surely as essential in yours.

It is with a sense of pride that I refer to the financial condition of my own state and affirm that we are able, even with a comparatively small valuation, to conduct a government having all the subdivisions and functions of the older and richer states. I believe our statistics concerning taxation and maintenance are more reliable and definite than those of any other state; but we are not perfect, and no doubt, when a general plan of accounting is devised, we shall discover matters in which we are deficient.

I have argued for the creation of a department to enforce a system of uniform accounting, but if the creation of this office would jeopardize the passage of a bill providing for uniformity, then I should say to eliminate from the bill all else than its uniformity provisions.

Having secured the enactment of a bill of this kind, it will not be extremely difficult to secure the creation of the latter depart

ment.

I have talked at some length upon the initiatory steps to be adopted. They are all-important, for if the ground work be weak, the entire structure is weak. Let us begin right—lay a firm foundation upon which a superstructure can be reared that criticism and prejudice cannot affect.

BANQUET SPEECHES.

The members of the Municipal Association of Milwaukee and their wives tendered to the officers and delegates of the National Municipal League a banquet on Friday evening, September 21, 1900, at the Hotel Pfister.

Mr. John A. Butler, President of the Municipal Association of Milwaukee, presided as toastmaster.

MR. BUTLER. Ladies and Gentlemen: True patriotism will always contest legislative invasions of popular rights in times of peace as sturdily as it would meet the outset of a thousand battalions in times of war! The present condition of municipal machinery, and the special legislation associated with it, the local irresponsibility of municipal officials and of the municipal voter also, the caucus and convention system through which the former are nominated by the ring, the tendency to subordinate public interests to private gain—all that means subserviency to everything that is hostile to the general good, and is far more insidious and fatal to the nation's welfare than the influence of any war. It is an invasion of the rights of the good citizen, and certainly a more than usual welcome should be extended 'to those who for years have been the apostles of the kind of patriotism I have described; who, believing that popular apathy is the result and not the cause of our municipal evils, have disinterestedly given their abilities and their time to such a solution of the city problem as will naturally call forth and give uniform and beneficent expression to the patriotism which lies dormant in the breast of every citizen. It is the object of the National Municipal League and of all its component parts, of which our local association is one, to equitably conserve the just rights of all, and to liberate and bring to bear upon the local affairs of every city those forces of generous feeling which are universal, but which in the stifling atmosphere of machine rule are choked and baffled, and finally perverted to the point of actual danger.

That the League's able committee has contrived a method, not indeed of making good citizens, but of rendering good citizens effective in properly directing their own affairs, no one who has carefully studied the city problem and closely examined the new Municipal Program can possibly deny. They have potentially emancipated the people from the control of the machine, and I am confident that those who see in society nothing but a mass of hopelessly warring interests, those who are prejudiced against the rich, and those who are timorous of the multitude, in whose good-will and confidence they should find their best security, will all eventually put their shoulders to the wheel in behalf of legislation based on the principles of

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