OCR Text |
Show A PRIVATE SNAP. An Inexplicable and reckless neglect of public duty by officer?, sworn to fulfill ful-fill the requirements of the law, hns been made appar:u by the showing recorded re-corded In yesterday morning's Tribune concerning the State Auditor's demand upon the County Commissioners of Weber We-ber for a restoration of State money illegally il-legally disbursed In the assessment nnd collection of taxes. While the ordinal y citizen and property prop-erty holder, heavily weighted by tho demands for public revenue, has been compelled to find means to pay taxes no matter at what cost to himself, while tho ofilclals, charged with the duty of the levy ana the collection, hnve acted as they were compelled to act by the law with complete disregard of the distress of Individuals In tho assessment as-sessment ond collection of the legal levy; a known sum of nearly two thousand thou-sand dollars wns subverted from lhi moneys of the State deliberately, defiantly de-fiantly In direct violation of the lnw; ond when the State Auditor made formal for-mal demand for a restoration of the money the County Commissioners constituted con-stituted themselves a court of review of the law, pronounced it unjust, nnd "respectfully" "re-spectfully" refused to comply. In anpwer to this absurd and contumacious contu-macious reply, which really was an Insult, In-sult, to the officials of tho State and an outrage upon all the people, It would seem to the lay mind that there was but ono course for the 3olf-re.pectlng executive authority of Utah and that was to bring both civil suit and Impeachment Im-peachment proceedings; but right nt this point darkness enshrouds the whole afTalr. For the State Auditor it Is claimed that he filed all tho papers with the Attorney-General of the State. For the latter official It Is claimed that he did not receive tho documents nor got official notice until after one year's time had elapsed and the statute of limitations lim-itations had run against the claim. For the District Attorney the same defense Is raised. Not a glimmer of light penetrates pene-trates this fog of darkness; all that tho taxpayers may know Is that tho public moneys were illegally disbursed; that ono official mado demands upon other officials for the restoration of the misappropriated mis-appropriated funds; that at some tlmo or other the Attorney-General was advised ad-vised of the offense and then nothing. A more flagrant defiance of law In the misappropriation and In tho refusal to restore by tho County Commissioners of Weber county, and a more brutal neglect neg-lect or disregard of duty by ono or more State olllclnls, are rarely seen. In the meantime the taxpayer pours his money Into tho treasury and certain public officials continue to act as If the money of State, county and city was merely a contribution to their personal purse. |