The record-union., 1895-07-29

sensational story that reflects seriously
on the official integrity of Secretary G. Nj.
Coglan of the State Board OF Equaliza-
ton.
The article was in reference to the OK
tension of time granted the supervisors
of Alameda County for hearing and de-
terminlng applications for reductions OF
assessments. 1t was full of inuendoes
and insinuations of jugglary on the part
of members of the State Board of Equal
iZation and Secretary Coglan, and con-
cluded with the direct statement that
when the records of the board were eX-
amined on Saturday last a certain entry
had been entirely removed from the
| book"
yesterday a RECORD-U UNION reporter
called on Mr.. Coglan and asked him
what ground, if any, there was for the
statements published in tho Examiner.
MIR. Coglan laughed and said it was a
most wretched attempt to make sensa-
tlOn out of nothing.
"All there is about the whole thing"
| said Mr.. Cogian, lis simply this-has the
State Board OF Equalization the power to
| delegate to the Secretary the authority 10
grant a county board an extension of
time?
THE law provides that the State Board
may grant these extensions, but the
members cannot be in session here all
the time, their duties call them to
other counties al certain times, ana they
are all away now attending to these
! duties, some in one county and some i'll
| another.
| Just before the mem bers left here a
| week ago nine counties asked for extern
siOns of time, and Mr.. Colgan suggested
that ether counties might apply in
their absence, the Secretary should be
| authorized to grant such requests. Ihls
! was put in the shape Of motion and
carried, and appears on the record as the
action Of the board. There may be
question as to the boards power to do
this, and the best way TO determine it
would be for the Secretary to refuse some
county's request and have the county test
| the matter.
The Eran1ineI'S detective was either
very stupid one. or else he was not hon
est enough to state that the board had
made such an order, for 1t was plainly
! written in the minute book OF the board.
No mention is made of this entry, but
the Examiner man tries to convey the
impression that l was in some way in
COLLISION with others TO force upon the
Alameda Supervisors au extension they
had not asked for aud did not want.
MIR. Morehouse telegraphed me- while
on his way to Santa Cruz that Alameda
Supervisors had asked an extension, and
l notified them that they could have five
days, thinking that II they wanted more
they might ask for it. According to the
E.ranli1aer, Mr.. MOrehouse states that two
of the Supervisors met him on the street
and told him the board desired the extern
sion. aud this explains his telegram to
me-
THE matter was brought up in the
& lo,., aIu hon III paaF nd
Of the State board being present-and
then the Alameda board telegraphed me
Tor further extension Of ten days. l
mailed the order granting it at once as
we do not keep people waiting when it
can be avoided. Now see what the En-
| 0HliNer says:
1.-The next morning, by the first deliv-
cry, came the extension from Secretary
Coglan. This rapid work, with two of
the members of the State Board in Oak
land, provoked some criticism and some
examination. The letter showed that in
addition to Messrs. Beamer and Cheese
boro being in Oak LAND at the time, that
George Arnold, the third member of the
board was registered at the Lick House
in San Francisco, and that he remained
there until the 18th. This showed a ma
jority of the State Board away from Sac
ramento, from which place the extension
was dated and in which place the law
"Y ou see," resumed Mr.. Coglan, 'the
paper utterly ignores the fact that the
State Board had made the provision to
which L have referred, so that in their alb
sence counties might be able TO extend
their time for hearing applications, and
tries to make it appear that some myster-
ious jugglery has been going on. 49,
alt also says the law declares that the
State board must hold all its meetings
here IN sacramento. Now, what an alb
surdity that is! The law provides Tor
just two meetings here annually, and the
rest of the year the members Of the board
have TO hold meetings In many counties,
but it Is not often they are all In one
county at time
1.-The paragraph stating that the records
have been mutilated is the most serious
of ALL" said MR. Coglan. The other mis-
statements can be accounted for by ignor-
ance, but this one is baretaced lie. The
minute book has not been in use in our
office for several days, and has been
locked up. No man could have seen it
without my knowledge. unless he crack cd
the safe. When L read that paragraph to-
day it startled me, for / was afraid that
perhaps someone had broken into the Of
flee and done that very thing, and |
went there in haste, but only to find that
the records had not been assaulted"
Being asked relative to the other state
ments regarding what the minutes
showed, Mr.. COglan said:
Several days ago q stranger called at
the office and asked to soc the records. |
inquired who he represented, and he re-
piled that he represented no one in par
ticular, but just wanted to look at the
record for his own curiosity | thought
that 1. man who was ashamed to give his
name would bear watching, SO | sat down
near him to see that he did not muIilate
the book. l could slaye refused him the
request until he had proved that he was
a citizen of the State, but thought that
would waive that lormsllty and let him
look at the book.
"Of course | kept my eye on him, as |
would on anyone acting in suspicious
manner, and he soon said he had
read all he wanted to and de-
parted. l suppose this was the
Examiners great detective, the man who
refused to state in his report-at least the
paper did not publish it-that the book
showed the State board had instructed
me to grant extensions when they might
be applied for.''
Mr.. Coglen. while disposed to laugh at
the many ludicrous blunders in tho E,c-
dAt3Rey's STORY" is justly angry at the
charge that an entry that was made in
his minute book several days ago was
found on Saturday last 10 have been re-
moved.
SOUTH YUBA POWER