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Show STATE AFFAIRS NEED ATTENTION. In his biennial report to the governor, gover-nor, Joseph rtirie, state auditor, makes a number of recommendations; which' receive the endorsement of the Standard. Stand-ard. The slate auditor urges tho feasibility feasi-bility of the county attorneys in the I various counties taking over the work J now carried on by the district attorneys. attor-neys. He would have the attorney gen-1 eral of the state more frequently consulted con-sulted in district cases. For years it has been the practice In Utah to elect or name city, county or district attorneys as legal guides and then, whenever any important law matters were involved in public affairs, to call in special counsel and advice. The whole system seems lame and Auditor Ririe offers at least one corrective. cor-rective. Other recommendations made by the auditor include the following: 1 have observed carefully the working of the laws providing for an industrial commission and public pub-lic utilities commission, as enacted enact-ed by the last legislature, and, while they have not been organ-ized organ-ized long, they have done much more' good .than the general public pub-lic Is aware of. Both of these measures are In line with the advanced ad-vanced and constructive leglsla-. leglsla-. Hon adopted by other states. The last Ipgislature made material ma-terial progress in the consolidation consolida-tion of different departments. We still have, however, a number of boards and commissions, tho dur ties of which are of such similar character that I think they could be consolidated with the state ' board of health, with no loss of prestige, and certainly with greater great-er efficiency. The departments to which I refer are the stato chemist, chem-ist, dairy and food department, I dairy and food bureau, board of barber, dental, medical, pharmacy, optometry and nurse examiners. The purposes of these boards and commissions are the safeguarding of the public health and should . properly be placed under that de- ' partmenL A consolidation o these boards would provide for expert Inspectors, In-spectors, reprcsting the health department, de-partment, to make' all necessary inspections without duplication, which would materially lessen the . expense as all departments now pay their own transportation. The total investment of stale lands funds on November 30, 1918, as shown by the records of the state land board, is $5,180,267.12. The interest on these investments has been credited to the schools and state institutions entitled thereto, and has been a material aid to their maintenance. I would recommend that tho present laws, relating to the investment in-vestment of state land funds, be amended to limit tho amount that may be loaned on any one improved im-proved farm to ?G,000, and that It be provided that tho money be expended ex-pended on the farm offered as security. se-curity. Auditor Rlrle says he Is opposed to appointed boards drawing a fair salary sal-ary and devoting only -a day now and then to the work. Certainly the taxpayers tax-payers are with the auditor In his opposition, op-position, and every board that can be done away with should be abolished by the next legislature. The auditor states that thousands of acres of land for years have been cs- caping taxation, also livestock. Would it not be well for the auditor to prepare pre-pare a list of tax evaders for the en-i lightenment of the coming legislature? The auditor also discloses the fact ( I that the slate now holds as security)1 thousands of dollars of Irrigation dis- j trict bonds upon which the interest has not been paid for years. Here again an itemized statement would be elucidating and perhaps fix responsibility for so loosely conducted ' state business. 00 |