330 MISC. PUBLICATION 218, U. S. DEPT. OF AGRICULTURE 
Supervisory power over county officers was given the Indiana State 
auditor in 1852 and to a bank examiner in Minnesota in 1878. But 
not until 1890, when Wyoming, in its first State constitution, created 
the office of State examiner and provided for uniform municipal 
accounts, Was any genuine supervision of local accounts established. 
Sentiment for adequate State supervision was crystallized in a report 
before the National Municipal League Convention in 1898. Three 
phases of supervision were recommended: Prescribing and installing 
uniform accounting for municipalities, collecting and publishing 
comparative statistics, and making inspections of local accounting 
offices. These three aspects of the proposal have continued to be 
the cardinal principles around which legislation has been framed in 
the years since (127, pp. 248-249). In 1902 Ohio established a bureau 
of inspection and supervision in the office of the State auditor, pro- 
vided for a uniform system of accounting and reporting, and author- 
ized an annual examination of the finances of every public office 
(119, p. 249). The creation of similar bureaus followed in rapid 
succession. State examiners of public accounts or bureaus of munic- 
ipal accounts were provided in New York in 1905, in Massachusetts 
and Iowa in 1906, in Minnesota in 1907, and in Indiana in 1909 
(127, pp. 248-249). 
The evolution of State supervision is well illustrated in Massachu- 
setts (143, Rept. 11, p.vi). The 1906 act (ch. 296) required only that 
every city and town in the State report the details of its finances 
annually to the chief of the State bureau of statistics of labor on uni- 
form schedules prescribed by him. The experience of the first few 
years revealed a lack of adequate accounting systems in most of the 
towns. As aresult, a law was passed in 1910 (ch. 598) which provided 
for an audit of city and town accounts and the installation of an ac- 
counting system by the bureau of statistics in accordance with its 
classification and system, on petition of the city council of a city or 
the citizens of a town. Another act of that same year (ch. 624) au- 
thorized the appointment of town acountants and prescribed their 
duties. The cost was to be borne by the municipality or town. The 
appointment of an accountant was voluntary, but if one was appointed 
he was required to keep the municipal accounts in accordance with 
the system recommended by the bureau of statistics. These laws 
were strengthened from time to time, and by December 15, 1918, 
exactly 100 cities and towns had petitioned for an audit or the installa- 
tion of the accounting system. Meanwhile, the form of the accounting 
set-up had been improved, and the percentage of towns making satis- 
factory reports had steadily increased (143, rept. 16, p. 12). In 1922 
a law (ch. 516) was passed which required all cities and towns that 
had not already petitioned for the installation of the uniform account- 
ing system to vote on the question at the next election. As a result, 
90 additional towns and cities petitioned for installation of the system 
the next year. 
One of the most valuable features of the Massachusetts experience 
has been the publication of an annual report of comparative statistics. 
The first, that of 1907, contained financial statistics of only a few units, 
but within a few years nearly all of the cities and towns were making 
comparable reports and could be included in the compilation. 
The example set by Massachusetts stimulated other States, and 
as long ago as 1923 there were 15 States which required municipalities 
