The Birmingham age-herald., 1904-07-20
.O'BR|EN ELECTED
 EXALTED RULER Several Officials Are Charged With Extravagance CHARGES AGAINST NEEDS Woman Who spied Upon EIks' Secret Work Is Found to Know
 Less Than She
 Pretended.
CHARGES AGAINST NEEDS

Cincinnati, July l9.-W nlie the Si6h- teenth annual reunion of Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks has been in progress all this week. the fortieth meet ing of the grand lodge did not begin until today, when morning, afternoon and night sessions were held. There has been much said during the week about the admin istration favoring certain ones as their successors in the offices of the grand lodge. J. w. OBrien, Jr., of Baltimore, was called the administration candidate for grand exalted ruler, the lines are said to have been drawn rather distinctly on the ballot, which resulted as follows:
 W. J. oBrien, Jr., of Baltimore, TO; Samuel H. Needs of Cleveland. O., S7s. Majority of o'Brien. sSl.
 So much time was occupied in second ing speeches for O'Brien that a limitation was put on them. Nominating speeches were made then for seven candidates for grand secretary, two for grand treasur- CT; three for grand trustees, two for esteemed leading night, one each for grand tyler, for esteemed loyal knight, and for esteemed featuring knight, when a recess was taken from o'clock until o'clock for the purpose of having all of the nom nations printed on an australian ballot and avoid the tedious counting of eleven hundred votes for each office as was don for grand exalted ruler.
 .sWhen the delegates were engag ged in these continuous sessions, there was much agitation among the visiting Elks over the exposures in the annual reports about the alleged extravaganza in the expenses of certain general officers, and the dis crepancies between the different reports The secretary reported the expenses of the grand exalted ruler as s5704, and the treasurer report of the same was $S5SS. The grand secretary reported his own ex- penses for the year as ;6053 and the treas- urer's report of the same was sSsl4.
 Discrepancies In Accounts.
 Grand Treasurer Needs reported his own expenses as $14. while the secretary rec crds the expenses of Needs as $97. It is explained that these discrepancies are due to the demoraiized and incomplete condi- ton of the records in the office of Grand Secretary Reynolds.
 No such explanation is given of the charges of Grand Treasurer Needs of ex- travagance. Needs reports .nat the eighty-six district deputies drew s3509 for lIlt fodillulDTt TtuTlOIl I1SL year. While the standing committees and grand lodge drew s1.052. He comments the deputies for not handing in exorbtant expense ac- counts and asks that the grand treas urer be given more executive power. sug- gesting system of checking expendi- lures by combination check and voucher to be signed by the grand exalted ruler, grand secretary and grand treasurer.
 Needs also recommends that the grand secretary be bonded for po,Ooo, and the grand treasurer for s10,000. The present bonds arc just the reverse. He reported cash on hand to date 3107 2S5.
 Much Comment About Woman.
 There has been much comment regard ing woman in Ballard, Washington, se- curing the secrets of the Eiks' initiatory services by spying through the windows. MT. Tanning said that she seemed to have an extravagant desire for notoriety. This woman was familiar with some of the Elks' ceremonies, but the newspapers had greatly exaggerated the case and the investigation showed that her knowledge was not sufficient for concern. and the Ballord lodge was exonerated.
 Judge OBrien. the new exalted ruler, in an interview tonight, stated that there was nothing in the rumors about extrava- gance on the part of the past grand of ficers or members of the committed He said that every dollar had been accounted for by the auditing committee; that the discrepancies were due to the incomplete ness of the records of the grand secretary, and 10 lack of details in the annual re- ports. which was explained by the item ized accounts that were fully and care fully examined by the auditing commit tee.
 At tonights session the selection of a place for the grand lodge and reunion next year was made a special order for p. m. tomorrow. at which hour the grand lodge adjourned on account of the parade in the forenoon tomorrow.
 The contest between Buffalo, Saratoga, Dallas and other cities Is quite animated. Up to Ii o'clock tonight the following of- ficers had been elected by acclamation:
 Grand esteemed royal knight, k. C. Tom iinson Winston. N. C.
 Grand esteemed featuring knight, Charles W. Kaufman, Hoboken. N. ].
 Grand tyler. W. W. Mcclellan of Pitts burg.
 The long counting of the Australian bal lot was required for the other four grand offices.
 J. K. Tener of Charleroi. Pa, was cleo ted grand treasurer over Charles A. Kelly of Boston, 357 to 3z7.
 R. J. Woods of Sioux Falls. s. D., was elected grand esteemed leading knight.