St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1895-01-12
Specialto the Globe.

PIERRE, S. D., Jan II THE chief of
police has received a telegram from
Memphis, stating that he has under
arrest man answering the description
of w. w. Taylor, the defauIting state
treasurer, and asks for instructions
Attorney General Crawford wired to
hold him for Identification.
The Taylor trouble increases with
every daY. 1t now bids fair to involve
some of the other state officials, and
there are well-defned TumorS of some
revelations to be made which will show
condition only less shocking than the
treasurer's defalcatiGn. 1t is under
stood that another official, having the
custody of very large sums of state
money, was concerned with Taylor in
the beginning of the trouble and that
be has misused the funds in an equally
Illegal manner. The officials are now
Investigating the matter, and they eX-
pect within a day or two to make some
Important Disclosures.
The legislature has appointed a COM
mIttee TO make a thorough inyestiga-
ton, and il is likely that a condition of
rOttenness will be discovered which
will shake the state as even the story of
Taylor's downfall has not done. 1t is
now known that during the panic the
state funds we're used to bolster UP the
private affairs of various state officials
and that thereby not only were the state
and school boards deprived of the use of
the money which the statute gave them.
but the state lost a large sum in in
terest. and as result of this illegal
ronduct has now lost S350, ,000 Another
sensation VIII be sprung in 4 day or
TWO. It is Iumored that the public eX-
Rminer viii be arrested and his bonds
men sued for the Taylor loss. The statute
provides that the examiner shall exam
inc the various county and state treas
urers' affairs at stated intervals. and if
he finds them at all out o. the way, he
shall at once proceed to take possession
of the Office and bring about an account
ing. and shall hold the offending official
until the irregularity is Investigated
and made good. When it was first
known that Taylor had defaulted. Mr..
Myers. the public examiner, was very
talkatiye, and discussed the matter in
detail with many people, one of whom
was your correspondent He declared
that about a month ago he examined the
treasurer's Office, and. having
Balanced tIae Books.
called on Taylor by letter for his GER
tiIicates of deposit, the funds being in
the sole custody of the treasurer and
there being no books i'll the office to
show where the money was deposited.
Taylor wrote an eYasIye reply and
treated the repeated efforts Of the eX-
Rminer in the same way, Myers states
that he at the time became strongly sus-
pici0us of a shortage, but supposed it
was comparatively small. and that the
treasurer would be able to raise enough
money to make it good before the eX-
piration Of his term, which would come
in three weeks. He therefore did moth
Ing, but was not surprised when the
default became public. Had he,
1t the time he conceived this
suspicion, promptly brought Taylor
10 book. the state would have
saved fully $3.50, 900. At that time
all the money since stolen was in the
treasury, and Taylor was given a month
10 draw 1t into his own hands and get
away with it, Myers having thus neg
lected his plain duty and the state hay-
Ing by MS action lost $3.50, coo, good law
yers believe that he is criminally liable.
and that his bondsmen can be held for
;he amount Of their bonds. 1t is ru-
mored that he will be arrested in a few
5avs. The theory of Taylor's course
has changed somewhat since yesterday.
1t was expected by all the officials that
when the ex-governor, Mellette, arrived
last evening he would bring
A Proposition
from the bondsmen to settle. The day
The default was discovered Mellette,
who was on the bond for fifty thousand.
wired from Lafayette, Ind, the home