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Show THE CITIZEN issue in the Ben Harries contest, to discover just what it does mean to Utah. Communities that live in throes of fear, hate and revenge, never prosper. Spasms of fanacitism are now prevalent all over this fair land, and if such spasmodical tendencies lead, as is becoming increasingly evident, in the straight line direction of a blue law regime, it is high time to checkmate it! STATE FINANCE AND PURCHASE. It is evident to those at all familiar with the inwardness of things per- taining to affairs, on Capitol Hill, that a determined fight will be made, during the coming session of the legislature, to efface, or at least to check the activities of Director John H. Glenn, head of the State Department of Finance and Purchase. It.is. the contention of many of the official heads of oilier executive state departments, that portions of the law under which the director of the Department of Finance and Purchase, is now operating, transcends the state constitution in many respects; and that such portions serve to limit and usurp many of the constituional prerogatival perquisites of their particular : j;- - . -- official positions. It is known that some of the state officials have made exhaustive re- port on this feature of the law, which was enacted at the last session of the of Governor Mabey. legislature, and which is supposed to be a It seems quite certain that the fight to limit the activities of Director Glenn, will loom up early in the next biennial legislative session, which convenes January 8. Such intimations as have come down from high places at the Capitol building, seem to center around the complaint that the Department of Finance and Purchase, is rather too much of a burden on the taxpayer; that it is too large in overhead and too active in many respects in regard to directing purchases of state institutions and state departments. There is some reasonable complaint, it is presumed, because of the official salary of the director of the Department of Finance and Purchase. Because that salary is larger than that of some of the officials regularly elected by the people and who are, thus, forced to stand the not inconsiderable expense of carrying on state campaigns every four years, while the director of the department in question, is appointed by the Governor to a snug little salary of $5,000 a year. For the past biennial the Department of Finance and Purchase has functioned at a total expense to the taxpayers of $43,000. The late legislature appropriated $45,000 for the department, so it will be able, at the close of business, January 1, to turn back into the general fund the sum war-bab- y BIB: of $2,000, which Director Glenn considers keeping well within his appropriation. Director Glenn is also interested in seeing that all other state departments and institutions live within their biennial appropriations; and has, with the assistance of Assistant Purchasing Agent E. L. Cropper and Chief Accountant J. W. McCann, instituted an effective and comprehensive system to check up all state expenditures, which permits the department to refer to its books and discover the status of any state account at a moments notice. For the ensuing biennial Director Glenn will ask for an appropriation of $40,698, which he avers will cover the entire expense of conducting his department. . The expense side of the department, which must be met by the taxpayers, is large enough, all will readily admit. But what has it done in the way of saving money for the taxpayers? Here we must have recourse to a search of the records of the past two years not a detailed account that records every transaction but a comprehensive summary and a recapitulation, which includes some outstanding events whereby much money has been saved to the state, and incidentally, to the taxpayer. For instance during the two year period the Department of Finance and Purchase has functioned first under Lincoln G. Kelly, public accountant, and then under Director Glenn, since it was organized April 1, 1921, the department has completed, or supervised, purchases for state departments and institutions, totaling 16,305. Said purchases cover an expenditure of state funds of approximately $2,000,000. Director Glenn believes that his department has saved the state, and of course the taxpayers, around twenty per cent on these purchases, which indicates very plainly, indeed, that the total savings aggregate around $400,000. If this is the actual case, the cost of $43,000 for maintenance of the department, during the past bien nium, is discovered to be quite negligible, and evidently constitutes a goj, business precedent. flati The investigator found that the department issues two forms of chase orders: The regular and the emergency. Because of the f that the emergency order gives state institutions and departments much lr way in making purchases, and because of a close tab kept on such emi gency purchases for a matter of more than two months, in which Direct11 Glenn discovered he could make a saving of 5 to 50 per cent, it has beg decided to scrap said emergency order blank, and to pass all orders throu the regular forms, except where absolute necessity, or contingency, deer otherwise. Some of the specific instances in which the Department of Finance and Purchase has functioned, largely, in behalf of the taxpayers, were citfi by Director Glenn, in tabulating purchases made, during the previous twa, year period for some forty, state departments and institutions: According 6 to Utah law each department and institution of the state must render31 complete report of the biennial term to the governor, and also for legi lative reference. In 1920 such report books as were required for theiej reports, numbering 16,750, and purchased by the then Secretary of State,'-cos$16,008.71. For reports for the closing biennial term :after submittiA specifications including size, quality of paper, binding, and quantity, as required in 1920, Director Glenn was enabled to purchase these books, on"01 competitive bid basis, for $9,983.47, indicating a saving over the 1920 r0 purchase on this one transaction, alone, of $6,143.24. There is tragedy and pathos mixed up in the affair at the Industrial School, at Ogden. The heating plant had utterly failed. It had not beenca functioning 100 per cent for a long time. It now required immediate,: attention. So the heads of the institution proposed to go ahead on the emergency plan. They went ahead and got bids for the work in sight jra exclusive of all work or repairs that might develop from excavating old1 pipes, or tearing through walls to get at steam connections, and the lowei.' bid for the visible work was $7,845. Director Glenn was not satisfied wiA, this bid. He decided to engage the services of a competent heating engines and to supervise the work through his department. As a result the visible? part of the job was constructed for $3,400 and the total job, including visible and invisible work, for a total of $6,500. The saving is apparent !j There is yet another chapter: It had long taken the steam of two boilers, running at full blast, and each scoring up to 80 to 110 pounds of steam, to keep the school building warm, before the late job was under- - ja taken. A leaky system was dissipating all the live heat that came from a the two boilers. Now the school buildings are being heated with one boiler, d operating under a head of slightly over five pounds of live steam. Anj this change at this one state institution indicates a saving of close to 12,000 tons of slack coal a year, says Director Glenn, at around $2 a ton delivered. Here, again, the saving is apparent. Lincoln G. Kelly is said to have saved ten cents a barrel on 200,000 barrels of cement for road purposes, during his incumbency. The slate road department wanted to enter into a contract with an eastern firm to buy around $100,000 worth of cement piping. Director Glenn scouted around and found Salt Lake county making its own road pipe. So he investigated this plan and now avers he can make Utahs road pipe with hired help at a saving of at least 40 per cent. From the foregoing it would appear that Director Glenn and his assist j ants, are, at least, entitled to be thoroughly investigated to ascertain to what extent they have functioned purely in the interest of the lowly taxpayers! before any summary plans be proposed to curtail their activities or oust them from office. t B I ENFORCEMENT FAILURES. f The cost to the taxpayers of these United States for attempted enforcement of the federal prohibition act was seven million dollars for the past year. This seems a sizable sum to pay for something that is decidedly in', effectual. Perhaps there is enforcement, to degree, we wot not of, but it is far and away and remote from this great land. It is no secret that any--. one who possesses the proper amount of cash can get any amount of choice liquor he may desire, and this is where the real injustice of the law comes in. ; At a recent swell, rich mans function in New York, they dispensed French champaigne in quantities that made it appear like prohibition had never even been thought of, much less become a constitutional law of this |