Jamestown weekly alert. [volume] (Jamestown, Stutsman County, D.T. [N.D.]) 1882-1925, 1900-08-16
Auditor Niemeyer's Expenses Com
pared With Republican
Officials.
Failure of an Attempt to Show *
travaganCe in County Auditors
Office.
Comparison of Expenses, For Work
Done, Shows Auditor Niemeyer's
Excellent Record.

In accordance with custom IN past
years. and under the direction OF the
county attorney and according to the
1899 codes. section 1907, Auditor ME-
meyer published the annual report or
the county, showing the receipts and
disbursements for the year ending
June 30 1900. Every voter and tax
payer is interested in this matter and
wants to see such statement OF the
countys financial condition made at
least once d year. 1t has a tendency
to check extravaganza.
The Capital says there is no author
ity for this publication in law, and
tries to make out that Auditor Me
never is laweSs officer and eXtrava-
CANT in clerk hire and expenses of the
Office, of at least a fifth more than his
republican predecessor.
The authority for the published
statement is given above, the law
stating that son the first Monday of
July annually it 1.-THE county board)
shall cause full and accurate state
ment of the assessments, receipts and
expenditures of the preceding year to
be made out in detail, under separate
heads, with an account OF all debts
payable to and by the county treas
urer, and it shall have the same pub
lished in at least one newspaper in it's
county,"
AS to the charge of extravaganza,
comparison of the published state
ments of the expenses Of the auditors
office for 1899 and 1900 show that in
1899 they amounted to s2.783.24 and in
1900 to S2,94O.55-a difference of but
sl57.3l. This is accounted for by the
fact that the salary of the county
auditor as provided by a republican
legislature was increased Jan. l, 1899
from sl4O.57 to Sl49.75 per month and
the salary of the deputy was fixed by
the board of county commissioners at
S75 a month, a total increase of 1924 l6
in fixed salaries for the year, which
Auditor Niemeyer had nothing to, do
with. This shows that the extra
clerk hire paid out in the auditors
Office was less this year than last,
while the amount Of work required,
owing to the settlement Of 10 years
taxes of the n. p road was greatly
increased. and the work in the office
increases from year to year as the
population increases. tits fact that
there is more work in the auditors
office and it is done for less money
now, than ever before. This is well
known to the county commissioners
and states attorney if to no one else.
The only trouble with the Capital
seems to be that the auditor is not re-
publican in politics and the Capital
did not publish the report. In that
case. no doubt, it would have been all
right. The unwarranted attack on
Auditor Niemeyer seems to have been
! inspired by political jealousy, or ig-
nOrance, or both.
In it's attempt to create preJudlce
against Auditor Niemeyer, the Capt.
tai sets up another lot-a full column
of type to try to fasten blame on the
auditor for the expenses OF the Office
which the Capital says are in excess
Of that under republican predecessors.
The paper again ignores the fact, as
shown in the Alert, that a republican
legislature and a board Of county COM
( missioners raised the salaries OF the
auditor and the deputy respectively.
This accounts for more than the IN
crease under Auditor Niemeyer, as
shown in the published expense ac-
counts of 1899 and 1900, and for which
Auditor Niemeyer is in no way re-
sponsiblc.
The Capital also says:
"FOr the last fiscal year the audi
tors office issued warrants aggregat-
ING s44, 3Ol .O3. To maintain this ONCE
cost S2,94O.55, or nearly per cent OF
the business done"
Looking over the figures for the eN'
Z penses of the auditors office under
republican administration entirely VIZ:
from July '97 to July 1913, the total
amount of warrants drawn were S37,-
O72.94, at a cost of S2,S4l.13, or nearly
Q per cent. This shows that the con-
tention made by Auditor Niemeyer
that his office is doing more work at a
comparatively less cost than ever be-
fore is true, according to the Capitals
i own figures as above given.