Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1904-02-04
IRONTON. MO. URSDAY. FEBRUARY 4 1904. NUMBER
The Globe-Demoerat Backs Down.

Tho following letter has been re-
ceived from Col. R. P. Williams,
State Treasurer, and there is no
reason to doubt that his statement
of facts concerning the Farming
ton asylum funds is correct. Ger
tainly we have no disposition or
occasion to question Col. Williams
integrity or general good character,
official or personal, and our corre-
spondent disclaims any such in
tention. The correspondent was
evidently in error (Which is re-
gretted) about the handling of the
Pennington appropriation, as Col.
Williams explanation plainly
shows.-Editor Globe Democrat.
CITY OF JEFFERSON, Mo-, Jan. 26.
To the Ed. of the Globe Democrat:-
In your issue of Sunday last an
anonymous but regular contributor
to your paper, styling himself
"The Old Politician" uses the fol-
lowing language: "They got him
nominated, an after he took the
office he turned out to be just the
kind O. man they thought he was.
I've never been able to find out
what one, or how many of them it
was who had the Pennington
asylum funds out of the treasury
when the money should have been
spent to complete the buildings.
1t was at a time when twas money
in your pocket to buy anything
and sell it on the raise; you
couldn't miss it. Somebody made
big money out O. the investment O.
them Pennington funds, an | don't
believe that Williams ever got a
cent of it. I'll say that much for
him. But he showed the weak
character of the man he is by lettin'
'em have the money out O. the
treasury at all, and the worst of it
all was that month after month,
while a cry was being raised for the
completion of the buildings with
the money appropriated by the
Legislature, Williams failed COM
pletely to publish the monthly re-
port of the condition of the funds
in the treasury which the law
makes it his duty to do"
The statement in every particular
is maliciously false and libelous.
Your correspondent, without a
shadow of cause or justification,
has assailed my honor and integ-
rity as a sworn officer of the State,
and, in justice to myself, my family
and my friends and the great DEM
ocratic party of the State which
has honored me with this high and
responsible position, l demand full
and unequivocal retraction OF these
charges.
There has never been one penny
of the States moneys used during
my incumbency of the office Of
State Treasurer for private pur-
poses. The appropriation for the
Pennington asylum was promptly
paid on presentation OF the war
rant issued by the State Auditor,
the regularly constituted authority
for issuing such warrants. Until
the warrant in such cases is issued
by the State Auditor and presented
to the tresury for payment, the
funds are kept on deposit with the
State repositories, where they
draw interest for the benefit OF the
State.
1t is not, true that the law re-
quires the Treasurer to publish
monthly reports of the condition
of the treasury. The law, how
ever, requires the Treasurer to
make monthly, quarterly and an
nual reports to the Governor, under
oath, and this law has been strictly
complied with. In addition to this
and without any requirement OF
law, I have given out for publlca-
ton each month to the correspond
ents of both metropolitan and local
papers, copies of the reports filed
with the Governor. There is not a
bank or commercial Office in the
State which is conducted on stricter
business principles or more in ac-
cordance with law than the State
treasury.
If the charges you publish are
true, l am guilty of penitentiary
crime. | therefore demand that
you publish this statement from
me and in addition to such publi-
cation, editorially retract your
charges, Yours Respectfully,
r. P. WILLIAMS,