The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1896-10-29

in the Tribune of Tuesday purporting
to be a defense of their record for
economy. The Tribune correspondent
could not have compTehended the
figures given him or else is guilty OF
deliberate misrepresentation. The
ver-iest novice in county financial mat
ters can discover errors enough in the
Tribune article in one careful reading
to discredit the whole thing and yet
the Tribune In its yesterday mornings
issue had the consurnate effrontery to
claim that 1T had made out it's case
and to endeavor to substantiate its
claim by a lot of figures pertaining to
the records of the county for 1898 and
1884.
The Tribune sneeringly advised The
Herald to go to the records and pre-
tended TO be taking its figures from
the records. The Tribune not only gave
immaterial figures but gave figures abb
solutely false.
SOME FALSIFIED RECORDS.
The Tribune said the total assess
ment for the county was $14,000,000
This is untrue. The exact figures are
S12.9S5,540 The Tribune said the avail
liable tax levy as 6 mills, when it is
only mills These two mistatements
alone make a difference of over $4,000
in the Tribune's figures.
Answer Tribune, were you mistaken
or were you endeayoring to misrepre-
Sent?
The Tribune deliberately left of it's
tble of Indebtedness $4,000 of regis
tered warrants outstanding. Tribune,
were you disappearing or were you
mistaken?
You pretended to account for the ex-
penditures of this year entire, but yoll
left out even your figures and esti-
mates the expenditures for three
months and "a days The months of
September and October have not yet
been posted, but they are estimated
at a figure which even you will ac-
knowledge is too small.
These expenditures were:
July .-...---.........S 5000 "a
August 1881 70
September and "a days in Oc-
tober :...................... ll,405 4S
Total S33, 0GO 90
There are numerous other errors in
the Tribune article, but it is waste
of time to detail them. These three
gross errors recapitulated are as fol-
lows:
Error in assessment and levy
figures OBSERVATION-DISCLOSURES. $4,000
Commission Of expense for 13
months and "a days. ............ $4,000
Commission of registered war
rants ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS. 10000
$4,000
In other words, the Tribune, pretend
ing to quote figures copied from the
records, misquoted on three items alone
an aggregate sum of 1000 and even
then only makes showing of bal
ance of about $4,000.
Read the Tribune's points again and
see how SILLY they are.
Furthermore. to get such a result
the inexpert accountant even classes
as available for the general funds the
county school fund, the reserve school
fund, the county interest fund and part
of the county sinking fund.
Taxpayers of Weber county you have
not dollar, and your revenue for the
year 1885 is all spent and more too in
advance, and the sooner you realize the
fact the easier it will be to remedy
that fact
The Tribune makes very light, and
treats it as in the interest of che peo-
pie that the commissioners have ig-
nored the law in regard to the party
who should be the custodian of public
money and as to the propriety Of their
buying of and selling to themselves.
They offer no explanation as to why
they omitted the $4,000 registered
warrants, or jumped from June 80 to
Oct. "a. inclusive, without showing any
expenditures for that period of time,
which by their own estimate would be
at least $4,000, which, with the regis
tered warrants, makes SOL 900, and
without allowing for deliquent taxes
entirely wipes out the boosted SAT, 900
the incoming administration would re-
ceive as legacy from the retiring
board
Perhaps if the grand jury should
take a notion TO look these matters up.
they might not take the same flippant
view of it our contemporary does.
The Tribune attempts, as usual, to
avoid the real issue, working in a lot
of irrelevant stuff. To the charge that
William G. Wilson furnished hundreds
of dollars worth of lumber to the
county, clearly violating the law there
by it replies that in 1894 John Sea-
man, as president of the Oregon Lum-
Der company, sold the county court
lumber. This has nothing whatever
TO do with the case as John Seaman
was not a county commissioner then,
as Billy Wilson is now, and he had
right to sell lumber wherever he could
The Tribune declares that the count
is prosperous and that there will
be on Jan. l handsome surplus in
the treasury. Every man or woman
who has worked for the county knows
this to be false. The law limits the
issue of warrants by the commission
ers to the sum of the estimated reye-
nues available for the general fund,
That limit has long since been reached
and there are accounts by the score
for labor performed by laborers who
cannot get even their warrants, for the
law prohibits the court from issuing
any more. Even if the workman get.j;
a warrant and takes it to the treasurer
that official is obliged to tell him he
has not a dollar to pay it with, and
that the first $4,000 that comes in
must go to pay warrants that have al
ready been registered.
. But no reply is attempted by sna
defenders of Messrs. Wilson and Child
to the most serious charge, namely.
that. the Utah National bank has
double security for every dollar they
supply, as the warrants and the notes
are security for the same indebtedness
The, notes draw interest at S per cent
and the registered warrants draw at 5
per cent: 13 per cent in loans doubly
secured does not show bad financier-
ing on the part of the bankers; but
the. commissioners. say that the bank
officials agree not to charge the per
cent interest. They would not saw
there was no written agreement, but
it was learned from another source
that only verbal agreements exist
Even if there were a written agree
ment, what chance would the county
officials have of knowing whether that
agreement was lived up to. or not?
What would prevent the holders of the
notes and warrants from turning the
warrants over to some other party for