The New Board: 1864-1920 75

protested, and the board was caught in the middle. First the board referred the matter
to the U.S. War Department and then to the state attorney general. Finally it approved
the proposal.⁷⁴

In 1894 the General Assembly decided that railroad cars should no longer be
heated by stoves, deeming them unsafe. It therefore passed a law prohibiting that
practice after 1 July of that year. The legislature also recognized, however, that there
was no way in which the railroads could comply with the law; all of the cars could not
be converted to alternative heating systems by the deadline. So it passed another law,
at the same session, that authorized the Board of Public Works to exempt individual
cars—i.e., to grant an extension of time—if satisfied that it was impractical for a
railroad to equip all its cars by the 1 July date. The board took the matter up in
December 1894—there apparently being no real problem until winter—and quickly
granted, in blanket fashion, every request.⁷⁵

In 1902 the legislature created the position of state auditor and charged him
generally with examining the books and accounts of all state officers and the clerks
of courts, registers of wills, sheriffs, and state's attorneys. The state auditor, as noted
earlier, was to be appointed by the governor, comptroller, and treasurer, acting jointly,
and he could be removed by them as well notwithstanding his two-year term.⁷⁶

The act directed the state auditor to make recommendations "as to changes in the
conduct of such offices and in the method of keeping the books and accounts in the
offices examined by him." More significant, it authorized the Board of Public Works,
if it approved those recommendations, to "pass an order directing all officers accounting
to the Comptroller to adopt and follow such method of conducting their offices, or of
keeping their books and accounts." Though couched in rather broad language, the act
in effect gave the board the power to "prescribe the systems of accounting and book-
keeping" for the offices mentioned.⁷⁷ This power was enlarged in 1916, when^the
General Assembly not only extended the jurisdiction of the state auditor to include
all state offices, departments, boards, commissions, or institutions, "as the Board of
Public Works may direct," but also empowered the board to prescribe a uniform fiscal
year for all state officials and agencies (and all institutions receiving state aid) and
to direct that such officials, agencies, and institutions keep their books in accordance
therewith. The board retained its authority under these acts until 1922, when as part
of the overall executive reorganization enacted that year it was transferred to the
comptroller.⁷⁸ It now rests with the legislative auditor, an appointee of the General
Assembly.

In 1904 the legislature imposed a whole new area of responsibility on the board—
one that, over time, was to mushroom into a major undertaking—the control of pur-
chasing. It started with stationery and routine office supplies,