St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1885-04-24
7-------=--
LIFTING THE VEIL.

After little cOqueItlSn spell MI. MI
CARDY authorizes the statement that he
will accent the Republican nomination for
city COMPTROLLER. He will perhaps realize
the truth of TALlGAGE's accompaniment to
Irritation. or at all events Mr.. MCCARDY
will live to repent the day that he ever con-
scented to be candidate. And more
particularly that he ever became can
didate on the platform the Pioneer
Press constructed for him. AS he is
now before the public as a candidate
for the most important office in the city
upon a business reform platform twill be-
co.pe proper to investigate Mr.. McCARDY's
business methods in order to discover
whether they are in the line that reform
marks out For the purpose of enlighten-
ing the public in this respect the GLOBE
proposes to give in serial form full and
complete statement of Mr.. MCCARDY's past
experience as a public official. 1t is a
tolerably long story. but very interesting
one and for the want of a better title we
shall call it The Ring Refomer Unmasked,
or What MCCARpY Knows about Business"
This article is the Introductory chapter
and Will only give an outline of the plot of
the story.
To begin at the beginning, about the
year 1877, Mr.. MeCARDY, who is now pos
ing as the financial Mugwump of st. Paul.
was secretary of the board of education
and continued to exercise the functions of
said office until the first day of July, 1879,
when he was legisated out of office. Sin
glllar enough, during Mr.. McCARDY's adj
ministration as secretary of the board of ed
ucation, Mr. WILLIAM r. MERRIAM, who
is now associated with Mr.. MCCARDY on
the so-called Business Reform ticket as a
candidate for mayor of the city, was the
treasurer of the board of education. The
reader would do well to keep this fact well
in mind. for there is Il sequel toit. During this
Joint administration of MeSSrs. MERRIAM
and MCCARpY the financial department of
the school board became so horribly de-
ranged and so thoroughly bungled that Mr..
GuFIILAN. a Republican member of the
legislature representing Ramsey county.
I'm which st. Paul is located,
felt constrained to ask the legisla-
ture to transfer the control and manage
ment of the school fund TO the office of city
comptroller, which was done. That ended
Mr. MCCARpY'S career as school officer,
but he was in the Office long enough to give
some idea of his system of doing business.
and it is that we propose to talk about, and
into which we shall enter more in detail as
we get further along with our story. FoT
the present it is sufficient to say that 1Ir.
McCARpY'S system of bookkeeping or
rather his system of not keeping books, wa,
unique During his term rs secretary OF
the SchoGl board there were three issues OF
school bonds To the amount of $50. 600 each
time. Yet, among the archives of the see
retaTys o:ii'e nowhere can be found an
entry. memorandum or scratch of a pei
anywhere 10 show a record OF the bonds
when they were issued who bought them.
when redeemed. or anything about them.
So far as his books go to show. there might
have been million such bonds issued Ol
there might have been none. That is one
method of business reform that Mr. Nc
CARpY represents. Then again, during
his term of Office he made but one report
which is of itself curiosity in the way of
n business document. In his report of dis
burSements of the school fund he says sc
many dollars were paid out on such date
''aS per voucher" and 81 it runs all the
way through. The report doesn't show th'
character of the voucher. nor is there
single voucher Of any description on file il
the office 10 show for what the money was
paid That is another reform idea in mu
nicipal business that Mr.. MCCARDY is sup
posed 20 represent. But TO 20 on it'll,
further. ii seems never to have occurred [,
Mr.. McCARpY that. as public officer dis
bursting public funds, there ought TO hayl
been some system of auditing claims and pay
ing them only upon proper warrant. Instea,
of that he preferred the simpler methot
sometimes adopted by individuals i'm thei
private business transactions. He Simpl,
drew his check ON Mr.. NERRr AaG. the treas
urer. for whatever amount was supposed q
be paid cut, and that ended it, The man
a-ement OF the eity'S school fund seemed {.
have resolved itself into a little bankin.
institution controlled exclusively by MIR
RIAa and McCARDy. That i another on'
of the business reforms for which "a,
Pioneer Pres signs. and in con
sequence rejoiceS over the nomination
~ Mr.. McCAEpN. There Is still anothe
feature In the McCARD1 reform system a
conducting public business. 70 which tn
attention IL the reader wiz be directed il