Clearfield Republican. [volume] (Clearfield, Pa.) 1851-1937, 1881-06-22

private individual, and thereby abet-
ting and assisting him to speculate
upon the money OF the taxpayers. No
doubt the Grand Jury was informed
that the facts were as they stated in
their report but who informed them 7
Did that information como from the
proper person or place? Before max.
ing report under oath that is calcu.
lated to smirch the character and in.
tegrity OF public officials, was 1t not
their plain duty to 90 to the records of
the County Commissioner and Treas
urer's offices, and there for themselves
ascertain what the facts in the case
were?
Suppose some worthless blather.
skite, who don't pay over one dollar a
year in taxes, and who is a nuisance
to the community, pirate upon so.
ciety, a disgrace and reproach on hu-
manity, would inform the Grand Jury
that certain public officials were dis.
honest, unfaithful, and were squander-
ing the peoples money, would that be
a sufficient warrant for the Grand Jury,
under oath, to publicly report it oil
over the county and State, without
first putting the witness on oath or
making the other proper inquiries and
investigations to satisfy themselves of
the truth or falsity of the charger In
these days of Courts and Juries men
must not be convicted of high crimes
on street reports from practical jokers
The facts relating to the sale of the
Woodward township duplicate for 1880
are as follows; We appointed as col.
lector Samuel P. Shoff for that year.
He refused to act and returned the du.
phcate, giving as his reason that he
did not consider himself scholar enough
to properly perform the duties. We
debated the propriety of collecting a
fine from him for refusal but conclud.
ed it was rather hard to compel a
good citizen to pay the fine when he
gave the reason above stated, At
that time we did not anticipate any
trouble in securing a collector. We
then sent the duplicate to several 9TH
ers who also refused, saying that no
man could collect it for less than ten
per cent, after making a number of
unsuccessful efforts to secure collect.
or our counsel told us to exercise our
Judgment and discretion so as to get
the most money out of the duplicate.
We then gave the duplicate to W. II.
Patterson, Esq, of HOutzdale, with the
understanding that he would collect
all he could and then return the du.
plicate with balance uncollected Mr..
Patterson collected all he could and
then returned the duplicate rs per
agreement.
we then asked our counsel again
what was best to be done, he SAID as
before we should use our judgment and
discretion, and get the most out Of tho
duplicate we could. We then tried
several parties in that township and
vicinity, and none would take it at all,
nor would they give us as much as
it was sold for We then sold it for
the highest bid given and in
order that the people may have the
opportunity Of making a comparison,
we will give full statement of tho
years 1879 and 1880, In the former
year Thomas Henderson was collector,
and Mr.. Henderson is considered one
OF the most responsible men of that
township, and one of its best col.
lectors.
Whole amt Of duplicate for ls7g.......Si, 500 70
Cash and per eentage by Henderson..... ,275 A
Henderson's exonerat ion, ,.............S 4TO rs
This, it will be seen, was 27i per
cent. Of the duplicate, consequently
Mr.. Henderson, in 1879, paid into the
treasury 72i per cent. of the duplicate.
Whole amt Of duplicate for 1880 ......sl, ,9Os o7
Cash and per centage by Pa,terson..... I l,02O 81
Bal uncOllected aud sold by Com mis-
Aonets'"''.... ....,...e $50 20
Amount received for rsame.""........,..... 1876 90
IL would leave ."""....".,S SOL 46
Take from this the same per centage
of oxonerations allowed Mr.. Hender.
son, viz: 273 per cent, (s529.27) it
would leave s32.19. So it will be seen
that this duplicate for 1880 paid into
the treasury 81, l,345.51, about 70l per
cent. This will show the taxpayer,
after all this fuss, this duplicate Of
1880 paid into the treasury within one
and one-iourth per cent as much as
Henderson paid in 1879; aud after
deduoting the sum ratio OF per centage
for 1880 that was allowed in 1879 il
leaves.the enormous sum OF S32.l9 Tor
individual speculation, and TO excite
the ire and prompt some shyster to
make an untruthful statement TO the
Grand Jury. Every collector in the
county knows that in districts where
there is large floating population,
the most generations are claimed on
the September lists. In 1879 there
was on the September Registry in
Woodward township 1880, and on
the September Registry in Woodward
township for 1880, sl2l.50, so there
would be much greater loss on the
Registry list in 1880 than in 1879.
II has been our only desire TO ad.
minister the county finances as judi
clously and economically as possible.
When inducted into the office there
was sl4l6 in the county treasury.
The Jail bonds, of which there were
S75, 900 bearing interest at per cent,
we have taken up and paid $4,000 of
the bonds and funded the balance at
5 per cent, paying the interest on the
coupons for 1879 and 1880, (s7, ,063.50.) }
We have purchased three bridges and
made them free and repaired bridges al
total cost of 81, ,745.ss; also purchased
an index for the Prothonotary's and
Register and Recorders offices at a
cost of $500 built a stable for the use
Of the Sheriff at a cost of s790.35 re.
paired the Jury Rooms and all county
offices and the Jail as well as deiray.
ing the expenses Of several capital
cases which drew heavily upon the
county funds.
The taxpayer must recollect that in
our term there was only one unseated
land sale which amounted TO s2s, ,05s70.
We ask any iair-minded man TO COM
pare our management of the county f.
nances with that Of any other three
years administration having only one
unseated land sale, and see ifthere was
anything in our conduct which would
justify or warrant Grant Jury act.
ing under oath TO request the District
Attorney TO investigate our conduct
in disposing to the best possible ad-
vantage Of an uncollected balance OF q
township duplicate without having
any sworn testimony before them Of
the facts by themselves.