The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1905-02-24

7 OF T1r.
SECRETARY. that is, journal and a COM
i Dined cash book and ledger. were sub
united as evidence and were. marked
/ 50 ana 81 Continuing. the witness said :
NO corrections were made in the
books, but trial balance sheets showed
o4herences- first saw the books in the
secretary's office Jan. IA but 7 don't
know where they have been since fin
lsheo going through them with Herbert
James, the boOkkeeper. Mr. James was
4 a stranger to me. / won't saw that the
/ handwriting in the books was not that
OF MI. Cannon; it may be that of Mr..
Mr.. Smith next took trp the matter
OF the work done by the witness while
ne was in st. Louis in attendance on
the Utah exhibits. To his leading
! question, Mr.. Whitaker said:
went TO St. Louis almost immedi-
aleiy after my appointment. What
ever did ga that city was done by or
der Of the commission under resolution,
a copy of which was sent TO me. but /
always consulted with members of the
commission whenever any of them were
IN the city. l contracted for nothing,
except few minor things that we're
absolutely necessary, without the con-
sent of the commission. kept no books
OF my accounts. but retained vouchers.
. took receipts for money expended
wherever it was possible. and these YOU
VIII find are attached. except in few
instances, 10 my vouchers The in
stances refer to are for money spent
for street car fares and postage
stamps"
Question of Contracts Considered.
The deposit and check books of the
witness with the cancelled checks and
vouchers attached were submitted as
evidence and marked from 3S 20 Al in
elusive. The matter OF contracts was
then gone into and the witness pro-
4 6uced mass of papers and documents,
each OF which was submitted in evil
dence and marked as exhibits from 40
to 50 inclusive Some Of the papers
. were copies of the original and the
witness said he was unable to produce
the originals. not being able to find
them among the effects of Secretary
Cannon. One contract he referred to
was with W. II. Pool. He said 1t could
not really be called a contract but he
remembered sending Mr.. Pool into
Cedar valley TO make. collections and
agreed to pay him $50 for expenses.
Herbert J.. James, who said he is at
present a resident of Salt Lake, was
the next witness and he testified as
follows:
i worked for General Cannon. sec
rotary of the commission, Dec. 81. and
FOR some days off and on during Janu-
ary / think up to Jan. %. My work
consisted of making records of vouch-
ers of the commission. Exhibits SO
v.
shown to him and identifed) There
were two Iedgers, 1 am positive"
why did you have two ledgers?''
Because some of the entries in the
first ledger were wrong and 1 suggested
THAT a new set OF books be opened
aid this because I did not want to
continue working on books in which
there were mistakes. ] worked on the
old books a year ago this winter, and
most of the handwriting in them is
in M-F.
vouchers and partly from the order
book. l asked for the change to be
made when / resumed work in De-
ccmber last. for the reason that had
received information that many
charges were made to wrong accounts.
] did a good deal Of scratching when
! found errors and ] did not want such
set of books 10 go before the state
auditor. inaSmuch as claimed to be a
boOkkeeper."
The forged orders were submitted to
the witness and he was asked to iden-
tify them, but he replied that he
could not without referring to the old
set of books. He was informed that
there were many missing numbers
among the orders and he was asked
10 explain the cause if he could In
reply Mr. James said:
IN The early days of the commission
IL was easy to keep the numbers con-
secuuVely. but when the work of the
commission was partly transferred to
St Louis it became necessary TO de-
vote a block of numbers to one mar
tlcular class of items, and another set
10 another, and so on. Sometimes there
would be no entry under some of the
numbers and that is the way the
breaks occurred"
Have you been paid for your ser
Vices%' Mr.. Smith inquired.
Not fully" replied the witness Il
presented my bill to John NJ. Cannon
at his office"
Was there any particular reason for
You TO present your bill to John NJ
Cannon Are you in the habit of pre-
senting your bills to persons other
than those who contract for your serV-
ices?"
There vas no particular reason ex-
cept that John NJ. Cannon was attor-
ney for his brother, and I happened
10 have the bill in my possession when
/ was in mis- Office"
You said that you have received
your"
Joseph Cannon paid me"
Cannon's Admission of Guilt.
Joseph S. Wells was called to the
stand and said that ha was present
during the conversation between Gov
ernor Wells and John Q. Cannon at
the Office in the Deseret News building
on the memorable day in January
when john O. Cannon admitted tacitly
that about twenty OF the orders on
which money had been obtained were
forged.
L think it was January %" said the
witness MY brother asked me to be
present to hear what was said. Gov
ernor Wells started the conversation
by stating that certain orders paid
By the Commercial National bank
~