FOREST TAXATION IN THE UNITED STATES aL 
to audit the accounts of the tax collector. In another instance a 
county had recently spent $18,000 for an audit, which was stolen a 
few weeks after it was completed. A tax collector who died in office 
after 21 years of service was found to be $155,000 short. <A treasurer 
completed his term with a $21,000 shortage. A clerk of court 
embezzled $68,000 over a period of 16 years before he was detected. 
Lack of systematic accounting and regular auditing overly tempts 
human nature. 
Another frequent source of loss is that which arises from inadequate 
security. Officials have been permitted to give personal bonds, signed 
by prominent members of the party, who, in case of defalcation, 
influenced the board to accept a compromise. Public funds have 
often been lost through bank failures, and several instances might be 
cited where public funds have been used in an attempt, often a futile 
one, to prevent the collapse of a bank. A recent bank failure in a 
southern city resulted in the loss of $3,500,000 of public funds. 
Another bank, which failed recently, was depending almost entirely 
on public funds for its working capital. The county lost $700,000, the 
equivalent of 2 years’ levies. | 
Another bad practice, of which most local governments have been 
guilty at one time or another, is to incur an operating deficit 
rather than to reduce expenditures or increase the tax levy. The 
usual method is to let the deficit accumulate for 2 or 3 years, then issue 
a funding bond. If the practice is illegal, no difficulty is usually 
experienced in getting the legislature to pass a validating act. Some- 
times sinking funds are depleted to accomplish the same purpose. 
Governments, like individuals, find it easier to mortgage the future 
than to live within their incomes. Sometimes provision is not even 
made to meet bond maturities, the issues being refunded and the debt 
passed on to posterity. There seems to be a disposition to indulge in 
extravagances when money is cheap, issuing bonds which will very 
likely mature when money is dear. A single illustration will suffice. 
A certain North Carolina county built a modest but substantial court- 
house in 1904. To pay for it a bond issue was floated which matured 
serially from 1925 to 1944. In 1926 the county was in a temporary 
state of prosperity; the optimism of the board overbalanced its reason; 
and a handsome new courthouse costing a quarter of a million dollars 
was built. Serial bonds were issued which began to mature at once. 
Now, when depression has hit the county, it is paying for two court- 
houses. 
Finally, there has been untold waste in financing capital improve- 
ments. In the last two decades billions of dollars have been spent by 
local governments in road construction and reconstruction. It would 
be impossible to estimate what portion of this expenditure has been 
wasted. Since much had to be learned about road materials and 
types of construction by experimentation, mistakes have been un- 
avoidable. But it was needlessly wasteful for hundreds of local units 
to be making similar experiments at the same time. Even worse has 
been the practice of creating special commissions by legislative act 
and giving each a few thousand dollars to expend. Mention might 
be made of a county in which, in the course of 8 years, 130 road com- 
missions were created to expend an ageregate of $1,300,000. To be 
specific, the personnel of the county road board was changed four 
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