OCR Text |
Show THE BOUNTY SCANDAL. A considerable scandal has grown out of the bounty paid for the frayed remnants of certain wild animals which Infest certain portions of the state. Several counties are involved, but in each of the counties certain sub-officials in the county offices, to whom- was entrusted the task of issuing certificates to producers of wild animals' hides, are those over whom rests a charge of criminal conspiracy to defraud the state. While there is no excuse for the culpable methods meth-ods of these men, the utter laxity of the bounty law is chiefly responsible for the present unsavory unsav-ory exposures. Under its provisions, the clerk merely issues a certificate, which in due time is presented to the state auditor, and the clerk is not Instructed to make any report to that official regarding re-garding the number or the nature of the certificates certifi-cates issued. It is in consequence of this that the olerks themselves have been above suspicion, and that frauds have been committed without their knowledge by subordinates. Had the law required a quarterly report from the clerk's office, of-fice, detailing the number of certificates issued for hides produced, the clerk himself would have been in close touch with the status or affairs in that department de-partment of his office, and could have easily detected de-tected any violations of the bounty law on the part of his clerical assistants. As it stood, the matter was viewed as one of the minor details of the office, the work was entrusted to an employe and certificates involving the payment of large bounties were signed and delivered by a deputy clerk. The fault really lies in a combrous and. foolish law. The clerk could scarcely be expected to become be-come a wild animal hide expert, when the law imposed upon him no other responsibility than the disfigurement of the hide and the issuance of a certificate. In no other states is there a bounty law so lax or one which furnishes so easy a vehicle vehi-cle for fraud and deception. In the absence of a report, the auditor has no check upon the clerk, and the clerk, on account of the purely perfunctory perfunc-tory and unbuslnesllke nature of the work required, re-quired, has naturally very little Incentive to olose-ly olose-ly scrutinize the work of his deputy. m At the same time it seems strange to the or- I dinary mundane mentality that frauds so glaring I as those which have been recently exploited should not have been sooner discovered. The plot I was one of such considerable latitude, extending I into a number of counties, that it is a marvel that at least one of its ramifications should not have I been uncovered long before now. The full expose I of the malodorous affair cannot fail to be of a sen- I sational nature. I As wild animals in this county have neither B been of the very ferocious type or numerically B strong, county clerks for a number of years have fl naturally never given the clumsy law very close B attention. Deputies designated for this work have B consequently never been chosen, because of Intel B lectual attainments or on account of any great fa- B millafity with the peculiarities of hides of differ- B ent animals. Deputy Davies, who was arrested B for alleged complicity in the swindles, was for B Instance entirely Ignorant of wild western animals. ani-mals. He was born on the bleak shores of Wales, and would probably have made a much finer showing show-ing In distinguishing the difference between a handful of anthracite and a hot rock, than In designating des-ignating the fiine points of difference between the pelt of a coyote and the hirsutal coverlet with which nature has endowed a wolf. In this way he may have been imposed upon in the Issuance of certificates for the hides of these animals which are of a divergent value. His friends are firm in the belief that he was imposed upon in this respect re-spect as in others, and that very little evidence of an incriminating nature will be forthcoming against him. The present exposures, at all events, Indicate that the county clerks of Salt Lake and Webor, at least, should be relieved of the entire onorous and malororous hide business. This provision should be a part of the law now in course of formulation for-mulation by the legislature. |