Bedford inquirer. [volume] (Bedford, Pa.) 1857-1884, 1865-03-24
ghf geafurd saqllirer,
DFORD, Pa, FRIDAY, MARCH d, 1866.
THE room HoUsE REPORT.


In our last and present week s issue we print
statement purporting to be report ofthe receipts
and expenditures of the Poor House Of Bedford
county, for the year ending January lst, 1865 1t
is very queer report In matters of this kind,
reports are made out and published in order that
the citizen of the County may see and understand
the financial condition Of the Poor House property
and know how the money of the County is expend-
ed. This information the report utterly fails to
give, but seems rather designed to conceal. True,
there is a statement of money received and paid
out during the year, and one might suppose from
the report there aoere no cid debts, and that the
establishment was incurring no aaea0 ones. Is such
the case? If so, what mean those four items, of
interest, amounting to $375 81? do they not rep
resent $6254 SO of unpaid debts (? If they do,
why are not the debts reported Are there not
also other outstanding debts which are not repor-
ted The report sets forth the money due the
Poor House, why not give the amount it owes !?
That is queer balance sheet which sets forth the
credits and not the debts We would like very
much to know how much more than $6254 so the
Poor House owes, also what debts incurred during
the past year are still unpaid. We think they
would form very proper items for report of this
kind. The clerks salary is another interesting
item. We find no less than four payments of sal-
airy and interest, the last of which, including audi
tors pay is $50 90, (why are the two together p
allowing two days at 81 SO for the auditors make
SO 90 leaving this payment to the clerk $2l co.
which added to the ether three makes 81 IL
We don't know what the clerk salary is, nor how
he nrofS hut
ton we come to the conclusion that the salary is
about s25 90 and that the clerk gets about three
salaries per year. We rech this result in the fol-
lowing manner In last year report we find one
quarters salary put down at Sc 25 making the
whole years, $25 90; we also find in the same re-
port eight payments of salary amounting in all to
$78 81. If as the former report shows the sal
airy IS S25 90, then the two reports show clearly
that the clerk gets about three salaries per year
If our conclusion is wrong, it is the fault of the
reportsand not ours. To be sure we have got some
new ideas of the word salary, we formerly thought
it meant fixed yearly sum, paid to persons for
services, but here we find it paid at least three
times in year. Another peculiar feature of
this report is that In the account of expenses it
completely ignores dates, quantities and prices.
For example-'A. B. Cramer & Co., y bacon
$241 so; now how much bacon was bought and
at what prices? Was it 4S3 Ibs. at fifty cents, or
was it 1880 lbs at five cents Was it in April or
November? We might ask the same questions Of
almost every item in the report These are mat
ters of Importance to the taxpayers of the County
and should be clearly stated. Again why does
sl6So 90 of the County's money lie idle in the
ereasury which we are paying interest on 5000 or
$1,000 Of debts? 1t behooves those who complain
of corruption and extravaganza in public Offices,
to give little more account of their own steward
ship.