The Wichita daily eagle., 1897-11-23
Wichita. Kan No

Wlcnlldy Kan, NOV. ", 1897.
Honorable Board OF County Commits
sioners, Sedgwick County, Kansas.
Gentlemen:-In complying with the
terms Of my contract ''to report in writ
Ing, etc." it has been my custom not
only to file my balance sheets showing
the receipts and disbursements from all
sources, but, in addition thereto, write
an exhaustive review covering all mat
ters in detail
In your case, however, I am confront
ed with such volurninous amount OF
items and figures that do not believe it
practical to take up ever branch and
item in detail for the reason the report
would be Of such length that it would
be of less value than 10 Zoe more brief
and only covering the more important
matters. For this reason I shall point
out to you only such matters as seem
TO me to be most important, and then
show, IL I can, how certain things should
be done, so that in the future you may
not be called UP to announce that there
Is a shortage in Sedgwick county.
The balance sheet filed show the re-
ceipts and disbursements In total from
every source by years and terms. They
show that the receipts during the two
terms covered by this examination was
of the enormous magnitude OF two mil
lion, three hundred eighty-four thou
sand, seven hundred twenty-five dollars
and 9S-1O0 dollars (s2. .3S4, ,725 9S-100.) That
the disbursements were two million,
three hundred forty-four thousand. nine
hundred thirty-three and 7-10O dollars
oA \ oir,z
unacoounted for the sum OF thirty-nine
Thousand, seven hundred ninety-two and
p1I00 dollars (sS9, 1872 91-10O)
These amounts are derived from
careful, painstaking examination of re-
ceipts records, in fact, every place
where they may appear, considered in
all their bearings and then listed by
items in detail under appropriate head
ings and the total Of these items make
the amount given in the balance sheets.
Check columns are used against every
item 50 that an error is caught in these
computations
Let us illustrate by taking the item
of taxes. BY reference TO the balance
sheets We find that more was collected
during the period covered by the in
vestigation from taxes other than 10y re-
demption or assignment the sum of one
million. seven hundred seventy-five
thousand. eight hundred fifty-four and
45-100 dollars. These taxes are spread
upon Thirty-siX different quire tax rolls
aside from the railroad rolls. Each of
these tEfrty-SiX rolls are re-added, every
item on every page is examined and by
reference to receipts the entries on these
rolls and the delinquent records it is
determined whether or not the items
were collected or unsolicited. Each
page is then aostracted. The abstrac,
shows the amount Of tax on each page.
the amount collected and the amount
uncollected. The total of the amount
collected and the amount unccne.ted
must equal the total on the page. and
when all OF these thirty-six books have
been distracted We have the amount re-
ceiVed from this source and We transfer
the amount 70 the balance sheet So IL
IS WITH all the other items Of receipts.
onthe other hand in disbursements the
same course is pursued. For illustra-
tfon, We find by reference TO the bal
anee sheets that there was paid to
school district treasurers the sum. OF five