The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1905-05-17
TIE TREASURY INvEsTIGATIoN

I cent since the UESL or January.
THE TREASURY INVESTIGATION.
At last after months of waiting a
firm Of accountants has been employed
to Investigate the state treasury. It Is
/ to be hoped that the investigation will
now be pushed with all the speed that
/ thoroughness will permit.
There are a good masly people in Kan
sas, thousands Of them in fact, who did
not think it a good plan to endorse a.
man with the record Of T. T. Kelly by
re-electing him state treasurer. It did
not seem to them to be good public
policy to place a. man who had been
proven faithless to a trust in his home
county in a position to cover up pecula-
tons which are known to have taken
place in the state treasury while he has
been connected with it. For five months
Attorney General Coleman has had in
his possession data showing an abso-
lutte shortage of over fourteen thou
sand dollars in the state treasury on
interest coupons stamped as property
OF the state and receipted for by repre-
sentatives of the state treasury.
The majority of the people of the state
expressed their confidence in Governor
Hoch by accepting his promise to go to
the bottom of the treasury steals, and
they reelected Kelly with the idea that
Governor Hoch would appoint a Repub-
lican as his successor if he should prove
to be the guilty person.
The people have been patiently wait
ing for five months for this investiga-
ton to begin. Governor Hoch of course
had his hands full during the legislature.
The investigation was a matter that re-
quired careful consideration and no
hasty blunders. For this reason there
has been some excuse for the delay in
undertaking it, although many people
feel that it has been delayed unneees-
sarily.
Now, however, the accountants have
been selected to make the investigation.
The two essentials necessary in them
are integrity and competence-integri
to Withstand any temptations that
might be placed before them, and COM
petence to go thoroughly to the bottom
Of things and ferret out any tampering
with books that may have been at
tempted.
The thing that the people of Kansas
want in this investigation is fairness
and justice. If Mr.. Kelly is not guilty
of the shortages in the treasury he
should be given a yindication, and who
ever the guilty person may be, he
should be brought to justice. If MI
Kelly is guilty he should be punished.
1t is positive that there have been
Shortages In one instance an item was
made good by a mysterious draft COM
ing through the mails when no one ex-
cept persons in the treasury and the
state accountants knew there was such
a shortage. State Accountant Rowett
is said to have found other shortages
aggregating over fourteen thousand dol
lars just as glazing as these, in addi-
ton to many thousand dollars more IN
which there was not such positive proof
that the money had been actually paid
into the state treasury or fiscal agency
but not accounted for.
The data concerning these shortages
were placed in the hands of Attorney
General Coleman by Governor Bailey,
shortly before the latter went out of
office, but Notwithstanding William
Allen Whites guarantee that Coleman
would do something after election
that official has carefully refrained
from in any manner doing anything
that might injure the feelings of his
friend Kelly.