The Saint Paul globe., 1899-03-17
His FUNDS VERY Low
BANK EXAMINER POPE, MAY HAVE
TO LAY OFF SOME OFFICE
HELP
UNLESS SOME RELIEF COMES
Next Years Appropriation Is Not
Due Until July I and Gen. Pope
VIII Not Anticipate it-Several
State Boards in the Habit of Over
drawing Their Accounts, Which
Custom Is Deprecated.

Before Moses Dibble Kenyon retired as
bank examiner he made a pretty good
job of it, cleaning up the contingent fund
of the office. There are but few dol
lars now to the credit Of that fund, and,
unless the legislature makes some appro-
priation to meet the deficiency, the only
course open to the present bank exam
iner will be to discharge all of his Of
flee force and one examiner whose sal
ary is paid out Of this fund.
'I shall have to close up shop" said
Gen. Pope yesterday, "unless the legis-
lature makes an appropriation to meet
the deficiency, which was very apparent
when l took charge Of the office. At that
time there was few hundred dollars on
hand, and at present we have just $500
to last US until July l, when the appro-
priation for the next fiscal year becomes
available.
"Of course, my salary goes on just the
same, and that of the examiners, with
the exception of Col. Compton, but, If
some relief is not given us, we will be
| unable to cover any more territory than
| the Twin Cities Just at present there
| Is a case Of misappropriation of county
| funds being investigated in Northern
| Minnesota and this office has been asked
to send a man up to represent the state
in going over the accounts Of the treas
urer. This we are unable to do. Out Of
the contingent fund are paid not only the
salaries of three clerks, one deputy ex-
aminer, but all travelling expenses of
the other examiners. This state Of af
fairs will seriously handicap the useful
ness of the department. 1 have just
adopted system in the office which
enables me to lay my hand on every doc
| ument which comes into the department,
and otherwise have planned the work
for the examiners so as to meet the full
requirements of the law in the matter
| of state inspections of banks.
IT am hoping that the legislature will
come to our relief and enable US to pro-
tect the people of the state fully in their
investments, and, if it does not, I shall
be very much surprised. The salary of
one inspector is $3.50 per month, one clerk
receives $100, another $50 and another
$40 1t can be seen that after this month
we will have nothing to pay these sala-
ries with, and I shall have to let them
CO.
I'm the past it has been the custom to
overdraw the accounts In a number of
| instances, anticipating the appropriation
for the coming year, but I will not do
that. 1 have on my desk reports from
a number of boards whose accounts with
| luS StdlS duuitOI nave USeu OV0TQTdWU,
and 1 have called their attention to the
| matter 1 think the custom arises from
| the fact that no record is kept by the
| boards of amounts drawn on their ap-
| preparations, and, as a result they have
| a deficiency before they know it. My
| predecessor never knew how much was
| to the credit of the department without
| going into the auditors office and hav-
| ing the matter looked up.
Il keep a record Of every order drawn
| on the state auditor and know to a cent
| how much money is available. We hope
| in time to have better system Of ac-
| counts kept by the boards, with the au-
| ditor's Office, although that department
has been very careful in the matter of
| auditing accounts
| Gen. Pope yesterday sent rubber stamps
| to all Of the Offices correspondents in
| cluding county officials and banks The
| stamps bear the number given by the
| department to be used in stamping all
correspondence with the banking depart
ment. Every banking institution and
county In the state has a separate file
with number and all correspondence
is placed in the file designated by num-
| Der. In this way records of the affairs
| of all institutions are kept by them
| selves.