Birmingham state herald. (Birmingham, Ala.) 1895-1897, 1897-02-12

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county, together with the county superin-
tendent.
No vouchers are kept. except occasion
ally a teacher signs the pay roll, most of
the signature being one and the same
handwriting, without any apparent au-
thority for the signer to do so. We find
great many irregularities In this office,
of various and peculiar sort; in fact, we
find very little. If any, regularity in keep
ing record of transactions of the business
of the office.
coRRUPTIoN CHARGED.
We find further, in this connection,
that some of the township trustees force
the teachers of the public schools to d.
vide their salary with them in order to
get the school. This is. official corrup-
ton Of the West sort. The man who sells
the public office is no better morally than
the man who buys it, and neither Is
worthy to be put in an office of trust and
be charged with the keeping and training
of educational and moral interests.
= This has gone on in our opinion long
enough, in defiance of law and decency,
and ii is time to stop it. From the evil
ldsncea before us we are of the opinion
that the county superintendent can md
trustees In every township who from
moral and conscientious considerations
will be restrained from extorting the
school money and corrupting and de-
bauching the public morals. He can
in hisoffiee, also If he will, whether he is
responsible for it or not, stop this whole
business of selling and buying for cash
the public trust of the county.
We recommend that he be hereafter
required to keep vouchers and make
proper showing for every dollar of the
public school money that passes through
his office.
We think the court of revenue should
provide him with an office in the court
house, wherein TO transact his business
and keep his books and papers, where
they properly belong and should be kept.
COUNTY AUDITOR SHOULD BE
CREATED.
/ After doing our utmost and exhausting
every means within our power, we have
failed to get from the county superintend-
ent of education, all the books and papers
necessary to properly investigate his
books and accounts. While the law and
your honor's charge imposed upon us the
duty of examining the county officers
books, and while we have done this to the
best we could in very limited Time we
wish to say that these books could not be
examined properly by any but expert
bookkeepers,- and 1t would require
grand jury composed entirely of expert
bookkeepers, to do the work accurate and
correct and two or three weeks, in which
for them to perform the duty properly.
Still for the protection of the public in
lieve this. should be done at least every
six months, and for this purpose there
ought to be created the office of county
auditor, who shall be thorough account
ant.
PRISONERS JAILED WITHOUT SUF-
FICIENT CAUSE.
We have recommended the release from
Jail of twenty-three prisoners, seven in
one case, against whom we failed to find
after diligent enquiry, any evidence, and
seven against whom the evidence was
insufficient, and eight viz: Daisy Jones,
Henry Davis, John Robinson, Duke
Grant, Willie Smith Wilson Bennett and
Jim Childs, bound over from the mayors
court, who were in Jail without any au-
thority of law in our opinion.
Henry Davis, charged with larceny,
was committed to the Jail by the mayor
January %, 1897; the only evidence we
succeeded in getting against him tended
to show that he stole four chickens near
Lake Lanier and brought them into the
city limits.
Monroe Taylor was committed to the
Jail by the mayor December II, 1896, on a
charge of disorderly conduct and tres
pass after warning.
George Hardy was committed by the
mayor September 26, 1885, on the charge
of vagrancy.
John Robinson was committed to Jail
October 10. 1885, by the mayor on charge
and the evidence in the case showed that
no deadly weapon was used, or weapon
of any sort used with deadly purpose.
Duke Rankin, alias Duke Grant, and
Willie Smith, bound over by the mayor
to await the action of the last grand
jury, which investigated the charges and
found.n bill against them. were put in
Jail, the former on October 10, 1896, and
the latter on January Z, 1897 after work.
ing out their time on the city streets, and
r.
vestige of a charge against either of
them.
Jim Chlds was committed to Jail Oc-
tober 80, 1895, by the mayor, the sheriff
informs us, and we can find no charge,
no papers of any sort and no witnesses
against him.
We find that John Riggs was commit
ted to Jail by the mayor October 6, 1896,
on the charge of using insulting, abusive
or obscene language, and death released
him from jail November l, 1896.
Among other cases bound over by the
mayor to await the action of this grand
jury, we wish to call attention to the fol-
lowing: Wilson Bennett, charged with
larceny. We had but one witness before
us, and could not ascertain whether it
was grand or petit larceny.
George Solomon, charged with larceny,
the evidence showed that he stole one
bride and one line of the value of So, con-
stituting petit larceny.
Jim Wiley, charged with larceny after
trust of $3.50, and -Pearce Phillips, COM
mitted to jail on the charge of having
brought stolen property in the city linn
it's. We are advised that the above par
ties SO imprisoned were deprived of their
liberty without any warrant whatever
of law, and of process totally void. that
the mayor had full and final jurisdiction
of these offenses to try and dispose of the
same, but not to bind them over. Investi-
cation Of these cases has cost the county
much in the loss of time and the paying
of witnesses. If their feed bill is paid
by the state it would cost the state treas
ury hundreds of dollars and in few
months run up into the thousands. We
are advised that the process on which
these persons were put in Jail was totally
void and that the sheriff was not legally
authorized to incarcerate them or entitled
to collect their board from the state or
county. e. ...s.
We wish to call the attention of the
state auditor to these matters and re-
quest him to look into them carefully
and not pay such claims as are not fully
and clearly authorized by law that there
by repetitions of such proceedings may
be prevented in the future. To this end