Bismarck weekly tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, Dakota [N.D.]) 1884-1943, 1894-10-19
Floor Sweepers and Spittoon-Cleaner at
Capitol Preferred for Payment Over
Guards at the Penitentiary.
Voters, Read and Reflect on the Conduct
Of Two Men You are Asked to
Vote For.
PORTER SMOKED OUT

YIN LIN Nj
In giving a statement Of the balances
in the state treasury, as shown by the
books of the state treasurer last Thurs
day, I gave S2,480.66 as the of amount due
July L, 1894, and as the amount over
draft August LIST, $9,575.56. I yesterday
called upon the state treasurer, who in
formed me that he had made a mistake
in giving me the overdraft on the treas.
ury on August LIST, and gave me the
true balance in the state treasury August
LIST as $14,598.69, and the balance in the
treasury September LIST as s6,205.30. On
October LIST there was, as appears from
the treasurer's books, balances in the
state treasury as follows:
| Capital building fund.-. $2S,12O 16
Gross earnings, railroad taxi. 49y606 81
General fund.............. LAO 96
State tuition fund ........ 4s372 40
Interest and income fund. 5yO58 66
Bond interest fund. ......... 25,559 46
Making a total of ............ .$173,19 9 IL
1.-THE total of the several balances above
is $113, 1851 81. The treasurer called off how
ever the total in treasury as total above
given.l
The money IN the capital building
fund is djsbursed for the purpose of
making payments, as the building of the
new wing of the capital progresses. The
gross earnings railroad tax, amounting
to S49,606.8 81, is a tax that is apportioned
and paid out to the different treasurers
of the different counties through which
the railroad from which such tax was col
lected. is operated and run, and the state
general fund, one-half to each. In
relation to that tax the treasurer was
asked the following questions:
@. Whose duty is it to distribute and
issue warrants for the disbursement of
that money?
A. The auditor. The law says the
auditor and treasurer shall act con-
jointly in apportioning the amount due
to the various counties. This apportion-
ment has been made, but I don't know
whether or not the auditor has sent out
the warrants.
G.. When wa this apportionment
made?
A. On Saturday, October 18th.
Q When vas this gross earnings
tax, the last of it, paid into the treasury?
A. About August 18th.
@. Then s49,606.81 gross earnings tax
has lain in the treasury since August
18th and until October 18th without dis
tribution, has it?
A. Yes. The reason we did not dis
tribute this tax is that the county treas
urers hold the state money all the way
from twenty to ninety days, and when
October 1st comes, I notify these county
t%reasurers that as soon as they pay
this state money they can have the gross
earnings tax. I have to hold this as a
switch over them to make them pay.
To the questions above asked, the
treasurer admits that for the purpose of
keeping what he calls a ''switch" over
the county treasurers in the state, he
has Withheld $4,000. 81 from August 18th
up to the present time-one-half of
which, under the law, belonged to the
general fund Of the state, and the other
half of which should have, as soon as it
was collected, been paid out to the treas
urers Of the counties, who were, under
the law, entitled to it. This amount the
treasurer has kept on hand, being of
benefit to no person, except it be to the
treasurer himself, or the banks he has
chosen as his repositories, the counties
that were entitled to 1t were paying
their Indebtedness to the farmers and
others who had performed services for
the county, in warrants d~epreciatied
from 5 to 20 per cent, because there were
no funds in the county treasury with
which to pay, and all this merely to
compel the various t%reasurers OF the
state to comply with plain provision of
law in making the payment Of taxes due
the state. This 10 indeed a novel pro.
ceeding for an executive officer to inaug-
urate.
The attorney general Of the state is
supposed to be the legal adviser of the
state treasurer, but surely Mr.. Standish,
even when imbued by his strongest
populistic ideas, conld not have given
the treasurer such advice as to show
chat this was right, or that he had a
> lawful right do SO. The sum Of S24,-