The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1897-09-24
ncLAUGhLlNR REPLIES
.DITOR MANKATO FREE PRESS:

EDITOR MANKATO FREE PRESS:
As your article in Saturdays FREE
PRESS headed" Inc Secretary Mao, .
gives d false impression, and having
Deen quoted and mlsQuoted, wish u
make this statement: did not say
! the auditors acGiOn was IA plan u
ulsparage The sale of the bonds because
they were issued 10 small denOmlna-
JlUnS with d view Of giving Lne people
d chance To secure sale Investment. y
| l did say that Mr.. Gunders treated
us unfairly In publishing III noLn the
FREE PRESS and ReCleto That he could
not approve and that our acJlOu was
| illegal, before notifying Tue district
| OF his decision, and that such puDllca-
Jion under conspicuous headings Was
unnecessary, as The bonds could not
| be sold Without the auditors certltl'
| cate of approval, aud that l believe
here was an influence aG WORK 10 pre-
tent the peOpe from manag ny tueir
vpancIal affairs for their own benefit.
| | believe The pruvisu requiring the
auditors certificate OF approval Of the
proceedings in The issue or DOudS TO be
good and necessary. aud That Mr..
Gunders has acted conscientiously In
faith in the one he referred / + to, il it
was referred to anyone: neither mad L
any intention or desire TO injure MI.
Gunders politically or otherwise. the
suppositiOn of the FREE PRESS to the
contrary notwithstanding.
The law, proviso second. section 70,
page At, school laws Of 1891, provides
that at any annual meeting the legal
voters present may act upon any mat
ter properly before them except the
raising of money for building or pur-
chasing school house or fixing the
site thereof, although it has not been
particularly set forth in The notice for
such meeting" There has been no
later law changing above proviso
cited to US. The only question seems
to be, is refunding bonds or extending
time of payment Of existing bonds
covered by above provisO? At the
meeting when refunding bonds were
authorized, one thousand dollars was
voted to be raised to build an addi-
tion to the school house. This was
pecially.mentioned in the notice as
the law required. Did the refunding
of an existing debt that had already
been legally authorized also have to
be especially mentioned in the notice?
Sept. goth, 1897.
JAS. MCLAUGHLIN.
Mr.. Mclaughlin is secretary of the
Mapleton school board. AS to the
justice of his contention with Auditor
Gunders regarding the law points in
volved, the FREE PRESS does not as
sumo to judge. That is matter
which he and Mr.. Gunders and pos
sibly higher authority will have to
decide. The Mapleton, Enterprise
had quoted Mr.. Mclaughlin as saying
that the auditors action in question
ing the validity of the Mapleton
school bonds was "a plan to disparage
the sale of the bonds because they
had been issued in small denomina-
tions with view of giving the people
a chance to secure safe Investment. {"
Assuming that Mr.. Mclaughlin had
been correctly quoted by the Enter
prise, the FREE PRESS made a few
structures upon the spirit which
seemed to be manifested in the inter-
view. AS Mr.. McLa ughlin states
that he did not make the statement
attributed to him by the .Mapleton
Enterprise, the criticism made by the
FREE PRESS proves to be unjust. We
are glad to know that Mr.. McLaugh-
lin did not make the statement at
tributed to him by the Enterprise. If
there is possible way in which the
bonds can be legally issued without
the trouble and expense of calling an
other election, we hope that it will be
found. The idea of placing the bonds
at home is good one and should be
followed in any event.