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

STARTLING DISCLOSURES
Made by the. Dallas County
Grand Jury.
A CHARGE OF CORRUPTION
And Crooked Practices by Selma's Executive in
Matters Pertaining to Prsoners-Ihe
Funds Loosely Kept.

Selma Times.
To Hon. John W. Mabry. Judge of the
City Court of Selma:
Sir-Tn pursuance of your honor's lucid
charge and in obedience to the oaths we
took under and according to the law as
given US by your honor and the solieltof
and acting upon the evidence OF Wuness-
es before us, we have endeavored 10 as
charge our duties as to all ofienders
and all offenses against the law commit
ted. or triable in Dallas county, which
have come to our knowledge, and we
now ask leave to make our hnal report
and be discharged from our labofs. we
have Investigated III cases, examined
316 witnesses and returned Sc true bills,
at cost TO the county Of S292.63. y
THE COUNTY JAIL.
In a body we inspected the county jail.
We find it we'll adapted to the safe keep
ing of prisoners, all of whom report
themselves sufficiently fed. We found
the Jail in a clearly condition. except for
the want of proper water works but asf
the repeated recommendations of grand
juries have heretofore been ignored and
disregarded by the court of revenue,
matter entirely in their discretion, we
forbear to make any more useless though
necessary suggestions in this regard
COUNTY OFFICERS BONDS.
We examined the bonds of all the
county officials, and find them in good
and sufficient sureties except that of
Mr. Alfred G. Johnson, justice of the
peace in Old Town precinct No. Il. We
suggest that he be required to give new
bond.
COUNTY OFFICERS BOOKS.
We inspected the books of the county
officers as follows. to-wit:
We find the books of the tax collector
and assessor, of the circuit clerk and
probate judge neatly kept, but the sys-
tenn in any of these offices does not show
the exact financial condition of the coun-
ty at any stated time. We believe the
county needs and its interests would best
be served by the creation of the office
of county treasurer, elected by the peo-
pie, through whose hands all the coun-
tvs revenues and expenditures must pass
We examined and checked item by
item every entry made on the county's
account as kept by Mr. w. n. Compton
with the Commercial bank. This account
is competently, accurately, well and
faithfully kept from Feb. l, 1896, when
Mr.. H. Compton assumed charge of them
up to the time of the failure of the Cons
mercial bank The books kept by him
show a balance of SIT, 1912 to the credit
of the county at the Commercial bank
at the time Of its failure. We exam
ined the banks account with the county,
which shows a balance of $17,153.12 due
Dallas county at the time of the banks
failure.
PAY OF BOOKKEEPER WITHOUT
AUTHORITY.
Since the Office of county treasurer was
abolished Feb. s, 1877, acts 1877, pages
172-74, to Feb. l, 1897, the court of revenue
has been paying Mr.. George w. Lewis
$500 per year to keep these books. Since
then they have been paying Mr.. w, N.
Compton $500 per year to keep them We
can find no warrant in law for the pay
ment of dollar of this salary. For 20
years the county has deposited all it's
mn In, fIaa IL
paid one of its employees $500 and 5000
per year, respectively, as previously
stated, to keep the cash book of the
county at the bank
We can see no reason why the county
with large sums in the bank, and prob
ably drawing interest for the bank and
none for the county, should have had to
pay the bank or any of it's employees for
keeping this book.
MONEY BORROWED BY THE a.
COUNTY.
We find in this connection that on jan
uary T. 1896, the court of revenue APP
pointed Gen. r. M. Nelson as commits
sioner to pay and settle with the Con-
verse Bridge company for building the
Cahaba river bridge, This was settled by
giving on January Z, 1896, four interest
bearing orders or warrants for $1,000
each, respectively maturing April 20, May
20 June 20, July 20, 1896 and carrying in
ferest amounting TO $1S634, when the cash
book of the county at the bank showed
a balance due the county on that day of
$l6 3440S.
COUNTY SUPERINTENDENT OF ED
UCATION.
The code, section 4345, makes 1t our
special duty to examine the books and
accounts of the county superintendent
of education. We have tried faithfully
&c do this, but find it impossible to do
so except by an oral examination of every
township, trustee and teacher in the
THQ4 Nine women In
~ w AzzX<tHXx& ten are afflicted