The Red Cloud chief., 1899-10-20
SAVINGS VS. GETTINGS.

SAVINGS VS. GETTINGS.
If our present county clerks record
Is as good rs advertised what is the
use of using half II newspaper to ex.
plain IL A clean record will speak
for itself. We have heard no one vii.
htying the present clerks record, and
are willing too accept his,statement
that he is Saving the county money"
and turning back to the treasurer
more surplus fees" than any previous
clerk, until we have investigate and
found that such is not the case. To
tell the truth we do not see WHY he
should not turn back nor fees. ms he
has had 800 for attending the com.
missioners each quarter, regardless of
whether the other fees of the office
were sufficient to pay the expenses or
not. The former clerks have only put
In claims for this fee when other accru.
ing fees would not pay the accruinp
expenses, viz: salary of clerk and dep.
uty and extra help. And aside from
this the business of the office has in.
creased To such an extent as to require
the services of two deputies, or at least
two of them are retained there perma.
nently. The fees for each quarter this
year nave been, including the COM.
missioner fee Of 800 for each quarter,
as follows;
Fees collected LIST quarter ............ go. "A 67a IS
Fees collected I'd rter----.--.--... 81 30
Fees collected Ri ter........... sC8 10
total fees collected ......--.. . s22g5 80
The expenses during the same period
have been as follows:
CLERKS SALARY for three quarters .. sii95 10
Dcputy's salary for three quarters......- b25 no
Extra clerk hire, lit quarter .............. IS 10
Extra clerk hire, "a quarter ........-.... Is9 90
Extra clerk hire. Sd quarter.......... 100 90
Total expenses-..-.-...........si0 74 90
These are the figures, taken from
the quarterly reports of the clerk and
published in this paper. Now deduct
the total expenses for these nine
months from the total fees collected
for the same period and we have a bal.
ance of 1921. s5 as excess fees in his
hands on September 3lst. Now deduct
from this last sum the $500 in fees that
were drawn as clerk of the board for
these three quarters, or nine months,
and which under the circumstances
when the other fees were sufficient to
pay the current expenses Of the Office
should not have been drawn, and you
will find that the excess fees amount to
just $2l IS for nine months. The last
statement of the county clerk showed a
balance in fees in his hands tf S655 80,
a portion of which was carried over
from the year 1893. The annual state.
ment made to the county board for
1893 shows that the total Of fees col.
lected for the year, including the S4OO
fee for acting as clerk of the county
board, TO be $28l3. so. The expendi.
lures for the same year were salary of
clerk, 81 10000; deputy clerk, $4,000,
and extra clerk hire, $4,000; making a
to;al OF 81 ,4S0. This latter amount de-
Quoted from the fees collected leave. a
balance of 1888 so which was carried
over and together with the 1921. S5 ex-
cess fees for the past three quarters
the sum total of the excess fees
in his hands on October LIST, 1899, to be
$685. 35, as his last statement shows.
Now had the present county clerk
did as his predecessors and accepted
this fec only when necessary, where !
would this enormous sum have been
at present? Has the county made any
saving through the operation, or is it
merely a transfer of funds for appear ,
ance sake, to swell the receipts and ,
make the average person think won
ders had been .nplishedY One
thing is certain, and that is that &C
cording to his own reports he has I
drawn the fee regularly whether he
needed IL to meet expenses or not. II !
he had done AS others did the prob.
abilities are that 5000 of this sum I
would have remained in the county :
treasurer's hands without any transfer !
to the clerks fee book and then back to {
the treasurer AS excess fees. From the Z
annual report of 1898 il is self evident :
that at least once the fee was necessary Z
to meet the accrued expenses. There is
one thing, however that the quarterly :
do show, and that is that dur.o I
ing the twenty one months last past I
W ebster county has paid for extra :
clerk hire over and above the regular I
salaries of clerk and deputy clerk TO the I
Of 1904 90, or an average of about Z
5000 per month. Verify, this is re-
form with a vengeance.