Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1891-06-19
BARDSLEY'S DEFENSE
The Statement He Is Going to Make
Before Being Sentenced
Is AT LAST ALMOST COMPLETED.
He Claims to Be No Thief and Blames the
Keystone Bank.
EXPLAINING WHERE THE MONEY WENT

PHILADELPHIA, June 18.-The state
ment ex-Treasurer Bardslcy intends to
make is now practically completed. The
statement will not go into detail to any
great extent, and will not be of much as
sistanee to the Mayors experts, who are
now trying to trace checks and find what
became of the money, but it will be of
great interest as showing what John Bards-
ley thinks of himself
In the first place Bardsley does not think
he is thief He will stOutly deny any in
territorial dishonesty He will admit, as he
has admitted in court, that he violated the
letter of the law in two particulars-frst, by
loaning the public funds for profit, and sec
ond, by depositing in the Keystone
Bank and elsewhere money be-
yond the limit fixed by the
City Councils. This, he will assert, was the
beginning and the end of his offending. As
to the way the money was lost, Bardsley
will throw the whole responsibility upon
the keystone Bank. Now, this is very i'm
portant.
There are two possible theories about
Bardsley's defalcatiOn. Either he stole the
public funds deliberately and outright, or
they were lost or stolen in the bank after he
had deposited them there. He says he de
posted there in good faith the missing
S945, 900 of due bills and that is all he
knows about them.
The Position of BardsIey.
The total amount of loss to the public
funds through Bardsley's transactions has
been var1Ously figured here at from 81 300
600 to s., 200, 900. Bardslev will take the
position that it is only 81, ,64J, 600, and that
part of this is recoverable. The way other
and erroneous statements are arrived
at he will then proceed to explain thus:
He will say that he became aware
a long time ago of the fact that the public
money which he had deposited in
the Keystone Bank had been lost there.
AS he had technically violated the law
in making the deposit he could not say any
| thing publically about the matter. He
therefore took money from other funds to
meet the payments coming due from the
| funds which had been lost. Each payment
! thus taken has been added to the original
loss until the alleged total of s., 200, 900 is
| reached; but, as matter of fact, the actual
loss is only 1915, ,000 for the original due
bills and 100000 for another matter
This other matter came about from his
! efforts to recover himself when he found
I that the bank had swallowed up the Sg45,-
| 600, and is represented by the 500, 900 worth
| OF West Chicago street ear stock which was
| discovered the other day He bought this
( stock with the public funds with the expec-
| tatiOn that its rise in value would enable
| him to restore some of the missing money
! and meet some Ofthe payments as they came
due. This expectation was realized in part.
Question to BE Raised.
As to the time when he discovered the
! shortage in the bank. that is not very clear,
but the fact that he bought the street car
stock year ago is some indication. 1t will
! raise question whether some of the city
! funds were not involved in the Lucas de-
J falcation in the bank. In that case Bardsley
/ must have known about it very soon after
he came into Office.
| There is just remote possibility that he
! knew of it before, and that explains the evil
dence which District Attorney Graham
found, that Bardsley had planned to loan out
the public money before he became City
Treasurer. This, however, is only speeula-
tion. There will be nothing in Bardsley's
statement that will throw light on that
point He will content himself with saying
| that when his December and January pay
ments came due last year he was obliged,
| on account of the losses in the bank, to
draw money from other funds to meet
| them.
| After Bardsley has read his statement
next Tuesday he will be sentenced and
| taken to the penitentiary to begin his term
of Imprisonment.