Fergus County argus. [volume] (Lewistown, Mont.) 1886-1946, 1901-04-03

drawn for the respective amounts or
the special fund, to-wit: r. G. Jack,
son, superintendent high school build
ing, s346; W. E. Cort, superintendent
high school building, $50" AT that
meeting there were present only Trus'
tees Culver, Cort, Slater and jackson.
the fifth member OF the board being
absent. These two bills were identical
as respects their illegality. They were
both by trustees and for alleged ser
vices prohibited by statute. In that
view of the case both Trustee jackson
and Trustee Cort were interested par
ties. each in the others bill. as well al
his own, SO that there were only two
disinterested votes cast for the allow
ance of the bills.
Saturday last two citizens of the towr
visited the clerks Office for the purpos,
of investigating the affairs of the dis
trict TO some extent. They found that
the minutes of not a single meeting
since September 10th, 1899, had ever
been written up. During that period
of more than eighteen months the board
was holding at least two, and some
times three or four meetings per month.
They were informed by the clerk that
he had all OF the minutes written up
''in pencil" and that he would show
them any special thing they wished to
see, but no minutes beyond September
18th. lsga. were shown them, The
codes of Montana provide that the clerk
shall keep his records in a book To be
furnished by the board of trustees. 81 4
At each annual school meeting the dis
trict clerk shall present his record bool;
for public inspection, and shall make a
statement of the financial condition Of
the district, Of all the actions of the
trustees. and said records must ALWAYS
be open to public inspection
These gentlemen also asked for the
books of accoun of the district, and
they found that not an item has been
entered in that book since August 3lst,
1900, the end Of the fiscal year. They
further found that there were many
erasures some interlineations and many
items in pencil in that book. lin contin'
uing the examination of the affairs of
the district on Tuesday of this week, il
was found that, since the examination
on Saturday. the clerk had brought the
minutes in his record down TO Septem-
Der -. 1900. covering a period Of about
year and filing exactly 80 pages OF
the record book. and that during the
same interval Il large number Of items
of expenditure had been entered
upon the account book kept CO by the
clerk but 40 items Of receipts. Further
than that, up to this time of the cxami-
nation on Tuesday of this week no min
utes had teen approved by the chair
nan of the board since the meeting Of
April 10th, 1899, for the period of about
two years. Notwithstanding that the
Clerk has taken a year and a half to
consider the form of the minutes to be
written up, the examination d~iscloses
the fact that there are blanks therein
left to be filled in later evide ntly, and
also a number of interlincations. 1t
goes without saying that no man can,
after the lapse of 50 long a time. put his
notes of a meeting into proper shape in
his minute book.
If the books supposed to be kept by
the clerk, were SO grossly neglected for
a purpose, the people of the district
should take steps to ascertain what that
purpose was. If that condition of af-
fairs vas due solely to the c~arelessness
and neglect of the clerk, the chairman,
who should have approved the minutes,
and the other members of the board
whose duty it is to see that the minutes
correctly put out their proceeding then
it is time for them to be called upon to
resign, one and all.
We understand that Trustee Jackson
has publicly stated this week that the
eason that Messrs. Eldridge and Wait,
are candidates for election to the office
of school trustee, Is that they desire to
quash all proceedings against them on
the bond, which they, with Others.
signed with Mr.. Sheridan for the cree.
ton of the new school building. Mcssrs.
Eldridgc and Waite might. with much
more reason, make the counter charge