The Montgomery advertiser., 1908-03-14
Reported Short, Collector
 Cooper Says He Was Robbed

vaults sometime in December early Judge Purifoy. in his second report charges Collector Cooper with collect ing a certain railroad franchise tax in the sum of $4.757s7 and not show ing such a collection on his books when the Examiner made his first re- port in January. Tn subsequent in- vestigation, the Examiner states, outside of the Collectors books, af- ter leaving the county seat" he was satisfied that the franchise taxes had been collected during the month of December. whereupon he was charged with the states share of 1t. amounting to $2.Os1.55.
 The Franchise Taxes.
 Upon my return to make my second examination" says Judge Purifoy, "i called the collectors attention to this item. as shown on his stub and cash book, both of which failed to show it's collection. Whereupon he admitted that he had collected 1t. and claimed that by oversight he had failed to re- port 1t. It had really been paid to the State Treasurer by the tax agent of the railroad and Collector Cooper had failed to report and pay over other collections to the amount of that item."
 The first and second reports Of State Examiner Purifoy on the books of the Baldwin county collector Of taxes are given below verbatim, ex- elusive of the exhibits therein referred to. which specify the amounts with held to the credit of the various tax funds into which the States revenue is divided:
 Ala.
 Dear sir:-In obedience to instruc- tions from you, have examined the books, accounts and vouchers of Tax Collector H. H. Cooper, of Baldwin county. for the tax year 1907, begin ming with October, when he began his collections for 1907. and ending with January Il, 1908. I made an itemized statement of his collections for Octo- Der and November from his stubs, and from these his total collections were obtained. From his poll tax books was also made an itemized statement of the polls collected by him for the same period. from which the total was ob. tained.
 Attached hereto and asked to be taken and considered parts of this re- port. are statements of his several ac- counts with the State for October and November, marked exhibits A, B and D, representing respectively his ac- counts with the general pension, school and poll tax funds. showing total col- A0CbloHS WlLu WHiCn no SnOul0 pc charged and credits to which he is en- titled, and unpaid balances. These statements show total net balance due the State for the months of Octo- Der and Novemb CT of $3.447.57. Be- tween the evening of November 30 and the morning of December 2. 1t is claimed by Collector Cooper that the vault door of his office was brok en open and funds to the amount of this balance. received from November coll lections, belonging to the State, were carried away by unknown persons. This, he says is the reason of his fall ure to pay over the balance shown.
 Month of December.
 Attached hereto and asked to be taken and considered parts of this re- port, are statements marked exhibits E, c and H representing Collector Cooper's accounts for collections for the month of December. The total ball ance of these statements is shown to be &2.194.52. If the collector complies with the requirements of Section4035.