St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1892-08-11
How the City Treasurer Kind
ly Helps Out His Cleri-
cal Force.
For crush" Business in De-
scripti0ns a Modest Fee
Is Charged.
The Story Of a Local Coun-
: terfeit Gang Is a Bottom
less Fake.
Tom Prendergast's Roll Call
Leads to q Peculiar Law
Suit.

- The London & Northwest American
Mortgage company IS, as the name
would suggest, engaged in loaning
money on city property. In order to
protect itself the company has to see
that none of the property on which it
holds mortgages is sold for delinquent
assessments. In accordance with this.
it is the custom to secure statement
from the county and city .treasurers as
to condition of the lands in question.
Several days ago j. II. Foote, attorney
for the company, presented a partial
list of property Oh which they hold
mortgages to the county and city treas
urers' Office for a statement as to delin-
Quent taxes and assessments.
AT the county treaSurer's office the
list was taken, and the following day
the same returned with the information
desired. At the city treasurer's Office
the clerk took the list, duplicate of
that given the county treasurer. and as
Mr.. FOote was in hurry for the infor-
nation marked il rush" and said it
would be ready the following day.
A boy sent to the city treasurer's
Office a day or so afterward was told Mr..
Miller desired to see the manager of the
company. A visit to MIR. Miller's offie
was made. andAthat official informed the
representatives of the company that the
work would have to be paid for at three
cents per description in sorder to insure
prompt attention. OF course, he said
the work could be done without any
payment, but it would have to take its
regular course, and as the company
wanted the matter rushed it would be
cheaper to pay three cents for each de-
ScriptiOn examined.
The representatives of the company
did not take kindly to the plan pro-
posed by Mr.. Miller, and asked to have
the question referred to the city attor-
ney for an opinion as to whether they
would have to pay for this class of work.
TC such reference Mr.. Miller objected.
saying that Mr.. LaWler did not agree
with him in politics. The request was
then made that the law under which
MIR. Miller maze his ruling be shown,
but this also was refused. In order that
there might be no delay, the charges On
the work, amounting to S1.15, were paid
by check drawN in favor of Conrad w.
Miller, city treasurer. and the desired
information was soon obtained.
A representative of the company said
yesterday that it was not so much the
amount it cost to get the information he
thing. On the list which he submitted
were from fifty to sixty descriptions.
and out of that number it was found
over $1,000 was due Oh delinquent
assessments. The idea, he said, of
paying for something which would
increase the receipts of the city treasury
/ was odd, to say the least. In the con-
yersation with Mr.. Miller that gentle
man suggested the payment of three
cents for each description would be
much cheaper than for the company to
hire a man to stand in front of a window
in the Office and hand in for examina-
ton a separate description of each piece
OF property on which Information was
desired. This the manager admitted,
and was one of the reasons why the
money was paid for the work.
Mr.. Miller explained that Cochran &
Walsh had paid for the same work with
out any objection.
When seen yesterday afternoon about
the matter. Mr.. Miller explained by say
ing it was system which had been ia
force under Mr.. Refs management of
the Office. The money, he said, was
paid to clerks in the Office who worked
after hours on the lists. He had been
Informed that clerks under Mr.. Refs
had done the same thing, and he sup
posed received the money the same as at
clerks all they could get out of it was
theirs. The law. he said gave the own
ers of property the right to make in
Quiries about assessments on property,
but as he looked at the matter the loan
company were not the owners, and were
not entitled to have the work done SO
a to delay other work of the office.