The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1898-05-10
CITY LABORERS MAY STARVE
COMPTROLLER M'CARDY WILL
NOT HONOR TIME CHECKS

Watch Dog of the City Treasury
Utters n Menacing GrOwl Because
Sewer LabOrers Have Been Per-
United to Cash In Their Labor
as Soon as They Had Done 1t,
Without Waiting for Mac.
Comptroller McCardy held a confer
ence committee meeting yesterday
afternoon. It was the occasion Of the
regular meeting of the conference COM
mittee for the control Of the affairs of
the city, and there were Seven men,
bers present.
Mr.. McCardy held it, however. He
would have had it all to himself, but
for the fact that Mr.. Bement thought
he was interested, and he brought off
little contention with the comp
troller.
The comptroller started to do bust
ness as soon as the meeting was called
to order. He had been reading up on
the charter, and he wanted the presi-
dent Of the board Of public works, the
city engineer and the president of the
board Of control fired at once. He
pointed out that the charter required
that, If member Of the conference
committee should neglect to put in an
appearance at two consecutive meet
ings Of the committee, then he should
forfeit his membership and also lose
all civil rights for year.
Mr.. Bement thought, and said what
he thought, that, If a member was
represented by his report, then he was
in fact present.
1t was apparent that at the last
meeting some Of the members had only
INffNr ,KDI l. r. 4
In some cases the reports had been a
few minutes late-the last meeting only
having lasted some three minutes.
Mr.. McCardy said that he didn't care
how short the meeting was; he wanted
it understood that the members were
expected to do certain things, and he
would see that they were done.
An attempt was made to mollify
Mr.. McCardy, and at the same time
to remove the imputation Of negligence
on the part of the three heads Of de-
partments present, and on the part Of
Mr.. Wheelock, by proposing that the
reports that were too late in the last
meeting be made part of the minutes
of that meeting.
Mr.. McCardy objected in behalf of
the law. 1t was a fact that could not
be met that the law was there, and
the conference committee had no right
to excuse anybody. Incidentally, he
explained that he took the position he
had assumed merely to bring the dere-
lct members to a sense of their duty.
The best that the committee could do
was to pass a resolution permitting
the clerk Of the committee to make
a minute of the time of adjournment
Of the meetings, and to permit the
heads Of departments to make note
Of the time they filed their reports
Mr.. McCardy wanted something done
to relieve the prevailing conditions with
regard to assessments that were not
paid. 1t was agreed by the other men,
bers that something should be done,
and it was provided that, in the flu
ture, a committee Of some sort should
the laws. Mr.. McCardy said that as
things were there was, UP to date this
year, a shortage Of some $1,000 on the
amount OF taxes collected, as compared
with last year.
Mr.. McCardy also wanted some pro-
vision made against heads of city de-
partments ordering things that were
necessary for the business Of the city,
unless they were provided with a re-
QUESTION from the council. He thought
that if the heads Of departments and
business houses were notified that any
thing furnished the city except on re-
QUESTION was merely a personal affair
with the officer ordering the goods, bills
would not keep coming in. He admit
ted that there were times when things
were necessary, but it would be better
to go without supplies than to accept
the prevailing condition, The conten-
ton of the comptroller was agreed
with, but nothing official was done.
1t was, however, agreed that the con-
ference committee would not hereafter
permit such bills to be paid.
Mr.. McCardy had another thing that
he wanted to bring to the attention
of the board. It had become patent
to him that certain men who had been
had been given time checks by the
foremen, and it had been the practice
to sell these time checks. He wanted
it stopped.
City Engineer Rundlett pointed to the
fact that many of the men so employed
were only given a weeks work and
they needed the money; they could not
wait until the pay rolls were audited
and passed and they did the best they
could with the checks.
Mr.. McCardy insisted that the checks
went into the hands of money sharks,
and that the men were done out Of a
portion of their earnings. 1t was pos
Sihle that the men could not afford
to carry the assurance that the city
would pay them; that they mostly de-
sired to have something to eat the
comptroller conceded, but the fact was
that no one had any right to issue
time checks which might be he'd as
evidence of indebtedness against the
city. He had found the time checks
in punches in the hands of individuals.
City Engineer Rundlett pointed out
that if there had been a continuance
of the revolving fund that had been
held for the payment Of these laborers
there would be no such difficulty.
Mr.. McCardy insisted that the time
checks would not be recognized and
they will not be in the future.
The routine business of the meet
ing had been neglected while these
matters had been passed upon. and
President Zimmerman reminded the
members that he had been asked to
prepare a detailed report of the ex-
penditures Of the board of education
for the past month. He had prepared
such a report, and wanted to sub
NIT it. There was about forty type
written pages of it, and there was no