Show EVERYONE DESERVES AN ACCOUNTING During the eighth day of the present legislative session a bill was introduced by four representatives to be known as House Bill No If approved by the legislature and signed by the it would change the present method of publishing school board financial It is understood the Utah Education Association and the State Association of School Boards are sponsors of the and that teachers it is will go to bat to have publication of the annual statement of expenditures and receipts stricken from the statute books of Utah Wording of the bill would especially delete that part which includes salaries earned by various personnel of the school The newspaper publishers of the and other segments of the who feci they have the right to know how their tax funds are being will give the proponents of this kind of legislation a thorough We have always subscribed wholeheartedly to the theory that it is a fundamental principal of American democracy that board or committee handling funds should be required by law to periodically publish a statement of its No business corporation operates without the board of directors being obligated to at least a report of condition of the Usually a printed statement in detail is circulated among the In our John Public is already far too unaware of what is being done with public Certainly he shouldn't be deprived of the right to read in public print just how his money has been There are those who argue that such information is a matter of public record in the offices of the school district or whatever elected group it happens to But we who know human nature realize the average man hasn't the intestinal fortitude to walk into such offices and ask to read the financial Beyond unless it is analyzed for he probably won't understand it There is no room in our form of government for concealment of public We doubt that the educators are desirous of establishing a trend in that But in their desire to keep their financial figures out of they are setting a dangerous We doubt that the public would stand such an act if they were aware of what was happening and had a method of making their feelings But in the maze of bills which will flood through the Legislature this only a very few will receive sufficient publicity that the citizenry will know they exist and a minor fraction of those will be so-presented to the public that they can understand them well enough to express an intelligent opinion This newspaper has no bone to pick with the or the school boards of Our relations with these organizations have been extremely but we would not stand idly by and see similar legislation sought by the counties of Utah or by any other group expending tax-appropriated We firmly believe nobody has the right to spend our money without accounting for the manner in which it was done Whether we read it in a a printed book or a personal letter is so long as the method of publication has sufficient distribution that each and every citizen desirous of so-doing may obtain and scrutinize a Anything short of that is in violation of our fundamental 30 Visitors at the Clarence Liddell home last weekend were Mr and Floyd Dansie and and Irvin Dansie of Also enjoying the weekend at home was Carl Liddell who is a BYU SUFFERS STROKE Alice mother of George suffered a stroke at the home of a daughter and and Driver at Vernal Mrs who had just returned Monday from a trip to Las Vegas and went immediately to to be with her George Taylor and drove to Salt Lake City Monday to meet Mrs and while there visited with George's moth Elon who is recuperating from a broken She expects to be home in two weeks if X-rays are satisfactory Planning to leave Friday on a business trip to southern California is Theron manager of Leavitt Equipment |