The Natchitoches enterprise. (Natchitoches, La.) 1888-1965, 1908-11-26

and his criticisms of the bookkeeping
methods are expressed in courteous
terms.
His statement shows that the Club
owes only S8l.19 and that it has re-
sources to the amount of SlS, l98.43.
The bookkeeping in the club office
was of the simplest character l am
not an accountant; and the young
ladies who served in succession as
cashier and bOokkeeper were not eX-
perts, but they were women OF the
very highest character and 1ntelli-
gence and they kept the books in
simple fashion that answered the pur-
poses Of the Club.
Executing the monthly pay-roIl ana
such small purchases as poultry ana
eggs bought from farmers wagons,
all payments were made by check.
All check-books with stubs showing
the amount of each check, TO whom
and for what 1t was drawn, and all
the checks themselves, recelpted by
signature of the payee on the BACK,
are now in the Normal office.
The payroll of servants and en-
plOyees Of the Club was made out
each month, verified by the Matron
and Steward who kept the time, and
approved by me. The cashier then
paid the money and each employee
who could write signed the payroll,
and the others made their marks and
had their names written for them.
The petty purchases for the kitchen
we're made by the Steward. She drew
for this purpose a sum of money from
the cashier, usually $40 at a time,
which she spent from day to day,
keeping memoranda of the items
and prices, and when the sum was
exhausted she turned in the memo
randa to the cashier and drew another
$40.
An individual ledger account was kept
with each girl. in the Club, and de-
posits and Withdrawals of money and
PAYMENT of board were entered on
Slips and transferred to her account.
All these things would have been
done in a different and better way by
a trained accountant like bank CASH
Ter; and to the Bank Examiner, &C
customed to expert bookkeeping,
these methods are crude and imper-
feet.
But the fact remains that they an
Swered the purposes of the Club. Ev-
cry one of the 200O girls living in the
Club had her money safely cared for,
her account accurately kept through |
put the years of her residence in the |
Club, and the correct balance paid to
1er when she went back home. Eve
~ employee in these twelve years was
0aid the correct amount every month
If the year. And every merchant and
iealer who sold goods or rendered SER
vice to the Club received his money
n due time.
In concluding this statement, l
lender grateful acknowledgment to
he press for suspending judgment
upon the Governors charges until
lad opportunity to speak in my own
behalf.
And | submit this statement through
he press of the State and ask the peO-
Die of Louisiana to judge.
At the end Of the hardest year in
he financial history of the State, and
Lfter the completion and occupation
If building costing S125,000, the
Bank Examiner finds the School with
cash balance of I9,l10.32, and the
Club with surplus of $l8, 1l7.24. Let
he business men of the State judge
whether this be "a most deplorable
,onditition of the finances of the
school,
For two years | have superintend-
ID every detail or the work on great
building, served as president of a
chOol with nearly d thousand SchOl-
RS, conducted a boarding house with
'veE- four huo9red boarders,. given my
choo1 campaigns all over the State,
nd kept up correspondence with
more than thousand graduates and
I'D students Of the Normal School.
Let the school men of the State Judge
Judge whether this is criminal neg
igence"
For twelve, years | have had from
wo to five hundred girls a year en-
rusted to my care In sickness and
lealth ] have watched over them as
they we're my own, controlled their
Onduct, taken care Of their money,
Ooked after their comfort, directed
heir StuuicS and counselled their
moral and religious duty.
In the twelve years there has never
'een an accident, never burglary, a
ire or a panic. never an epidemic,
ever strike or rebellion against au-
hority, never girl expelled, never a
elOpement or scandal.
Let the fathers and mothers Of
hese two thousand girls judge the
Governors statement that ''condi-
ions at the State Normal we're in
ad shape when | removed Mr. Cald-
Jell"
B. C. CALDWELL.
Nov. "a.