The Worcester spy. [volume] (Worcester, Mass.) 1898-1904, 1899-03-18
REBATES,
Suspense Accounts,
Bad Rills,
OR ANY OLD THING.
Investigation Abandoned
By Telephone Office.

1t is understood that the local tele-
phone exchange has received orders
from the Boston office to discontinue
the investigation started a short time
ago, relative to certain suspense and
other accounts, trace of which had been
lost, and that the total amount involved
is to be charged off as rebates"
If this is true. it means that the local
Office will make no further effort to
clear up the tangle that has existed for
several years, over the several accounts
that have been hanging in the air None
of the employees Of the local exchange
are charged with any criminal action,
as was stated by The Spy when it pub
lished exclusively the news that has
been worrying the telephone people and
another morning newspaper.
Statements have been made by those
interested in the matter, to disprove
The Spy's story, but nothing that The
Spy printed Thursday morning has been
denied or contradlcted.
The fact still remains that there are
accounts, aggregating $4,000, that the
telephone people are guessing about.
The accounts number about AGO, as was
stated in The Spy. Whether they have
DS6ll paul OF whether lley dTe REBATES
or bad bills, the officials Of the company
are not in position to state. ,Hlere are
evidently many of all kinds, and rather
than TO prosecute further investigation
and keep the matter before the public
the officials at the Boston office have
decided to call "all bets OFF, and put the
amount in mystery down to suspense
accounts" rebates" bad bills" and
any old thing
EnryoaY 70 a.ar To1,~, rT,,,4 oe A.
local telephone exchange, was in Wor-
cester yesterday. He left the following
statement relative to the matter which
The Spy willingly prints:
To the Editor of The Spy:
l am confident that you will be will
ing to correct, so far as possible an
Injustice done by certain articles in The
Spy of Thursday and this morning, due
to Misrepresentation Of facts. There is
no ground for any such statement The
amount referred to (about $4,000 is COM
posed Of what is known as bad billS''
or rebates" covering a perio of FIVE
years. Under ordinary circumstances,
these accounts would have been made
up and sent in for rebate once or twice
each year, but in this case, with the
other work of the Office 1t could not
be done. OF all of these accounts dur
ing the period covered by several
clerks, there have been found six or
seven small accounts, amounting to
about $50, paid which do not appear to
have been credited, yet it may later
appear that they were entered to the
credit Of some Of the other open ac-
counts.
There is no anxiety in the Boston Of
flee when the matter is un 3erstood, and
no experts have been sent to examine
the accounts. AS soon as they are
worked up, they will be taken from
the Worcester books and charged to
rebates or suspense accounts. 1t is
due to the present manager to say that
he did not possess the information ne
cessary to show whether all of these
accounts were rebates or not, and it
was owing to his attempts to obtain
this information from subscribers, that
the rumor of shortage started The
necessary information viii be given so
that he can close out these accounts.
John B. Hunt.