Bismarck weekly tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, Dakota [N.D.]) 1884-1943, 1894-10-19

SO3.4O belonging to the general fund of
the state has lain in the hands of the
state treasurer or his banker friends
since the 18th day of August, and up to
the present time, which under the plain
provisions of law should have been
paid over to that fund and from that
paid out on the indebtedness of the
state which is drawn from the general
fund.
The state penitentiary renders each
month an account of it's necessary main
tenance expenses, which includes pro-
visions for convicts and all persons who
are employed to watch wei them-for
the guards and turkeys who are en-
gagged in watching the prisoners and
preventing escapes. For the necessary
hands employed in doing the work
necessary to be done in conducting the
state penitentiary. The accounts rem
dered for the month of April and subse-
quent months still lie on the desk of the
state auditor without having been paid
or a warrant issued for money for their
payment, because, as the state auditor
says, there wa not money in the general
with which to pay them. Other
public institutions have been treated in
the same manner, including the insane
asylum at Jamestown. This
lying in the treasury from August 18th
to the present time, amounting to s24.-
SO34O, could have at any time been
transferred to the general fund and paid
out to discharge the indebtedness of
these institutions, had the auditor and
the treasurer, whose duty it was to ap-
portion the money under the law accord
ing to it's provisions on the 18th day of
Augustine day it went into the treas.
ury, and the day it became due under
the law of the state apportioned it and
applied it to the payment of state in.
debtedness.
Is not this an attempt on the part of
the auditor and the treasurer ia atarva
out the %penitentiary and insane asylum.
also other institutions, by their failure
to pay over the moneys in the treasury.
and properly belonging to the general
fund? And for what? Merely to allow
this money to lie in the hands Of the
treasurer's banker friends, and enable
the treasurer, as he a "to keep a
switch" over the county -treasurers Of the
state. What business man, what person
conducting his own private affairs, or
the affairs of a person or company he
was employed to conduct, would adopt
such measures? Had there been a law
providing that the interest on deposits
OF the state fund should be paid into the
treasury of the state, the excuse might
have been made that the state would
receive a benefit at least by interest on
those deposits while they lay in the
treasury. There was such a law, but
the state treasurer saw fit to take adj
vantage of a technical defect in it's pas
sage to have it declared unconstitution-
al, and therefore any benefits that might
have accrued from the Withholding
from the state and counties Of this gross
earnings railroad tax from August to
October must have accrued to the treas
or his friends, the bankers, who
held the money.
The legislature at each session appro.
PIRATES money for the different institu.
tions, which appropriations are set apart
from the general fund. They also make
appropriations for the care and mainta.
nance of the capitol building, which is
paid from the same general fund. AS q
separate account Is kept with each IN
.stitution. the treasurer is thus en-.
abled to tell how much is due on each
appropriation. The capital maintenance
funds include pay for the engineer, jan
ltor, fuel, light, ETC., and the bills are
paid from the treasury on warrants
drawn by the auditor for their mainte-
nance. The books in the auditors office
show that all persons working il =
menial capacity, and which are to be
paid out OF the maintenance appropria-
ton for the capital have been paid in full.
up to and including October LIST, while
the bills which are contracted for the
maintenance Of the state penitentiary
have lain unpaid since March.
The state auditor was asked:
G. Have you issued warrants to nav
the state penitentiary maintenance for