The Montgomery advertiser., 1908-04-30
Fair Association Officers
 Exonerated by Committee

he had received only one request and not several, as MT. vandiver stated. Mr. Forbes said that. 1t was not ip the power of the president or any of7 cial of the Fair Association to turn over such paper to Mir, vandiver or anyone .lese. All of the papers were ip the hands of the special committes and only that body could grant such privilege.
 MT. Forbes said that a mistake had been made by the people who thoughs that some reflections had been hade upon them. MT. Forbes said that they were honorable gentlemen and yet they had tried to defend themselves ir public statements when no specific He closed his remarks expressing the hope that the whole thing would hs buried forever In forgetfuiness.
 Mr. Davidson and R. J. Chanhers Interrupted with the statement that they had done their best In tryins to keep the report of the late Mir. Cole from being read to the stockholders until it had been fully investigated Mr. Zirkle here entered the discus sion by relating some of the alleged errors included in Mir. Coles report. In one instance he stated that an $500 item had been transferred to anotheS sheet of paper as ss,000. Again, he said, there was a mistake of about $7.- 900 in one of Mir. Coles additions. Mir Zirixle cited numerous other errors eni- bodied in the late Mir. Coles report
 Alleged Errors in Coles Report.
 Mir. Zirkle was followed by MT. M. c. Scott, who stated that he had gone to Atianta with the report of Mir Haral- son. who had been employed by the spe- cial committee to investigate the report of MT. Co;e. Tn Atlanta he had gone to the Southern Auditing Company, of which Mir. Cole was a member, and had requested that company to come to Montgomery and prove MT. Haralson's report to be wrong. MT. Scott stated that the Southern Auditing Company had sat up all day and night in Atlanta ard finally said that they could not find single flaw in Mr. Haralson's report of Mfr. Coles report. They declined to come to Montgomery with ell expenses paid and a su.tabl consideration and disprove Mfr. Haralson's report of the 1906 fair Mir. Miller here poured oil on the troubled waters by introducing the fol- lowing resolution. which was unani- fnously adopted: Resolved, That the Alabama Agri- cultural Association is satisfied from the report of the special committee. that the management of the 1908 and 1907 Fairs was free from anything in- dicating intentional mismanagement and that they regret that any errors in the report of Auditor Cole should have led the public to entertain such an idea"
 The report read by Mr. zirkls was ai follows:
 . Montgomery, Ala, April 24 1908. To the Stockholders of the Alabama
 Agricultural Association, Montgom.
 cry, Ala.
 Your committee, appointed at the January meeting, beg leave' to submit the following report:
 Accountant.
 MT W W. Haralson, of Troy. Ala. was employed to make complete in vsstigation of the affairs of the Asso- citation from its organization to thC close of the Fair of 1908 His report Is hereto attached.
 Owing to the wide differences be. tween his report and that of Mir. Cole | every opportunity which 1t might de sire was given to the Audit Company with which Mir. Cole was connected al the time of the making of his report tS show any error in Mir. Haralson'E fig. ures or statements.
 s. Ticket Sales.
 We find that the ticket sales for thu Fair of 1906 were accounted for. MT Haralson's report shows that afteR de. ductlng the tickets on hand and cred. iting those reported sold there is stlT tickets missing of the value of about k2. 400. Your committee is satisfied that none of these tickets were used fol admission to the Faff Gfounds for tho 1906 Fair. hut were either lost, or sold l to outside parties after the Fair clos: | ed. We call special attention to thu fact that the total admissions to ths grounds for the Fair of 1908 aKKre. | gated $1s,912.50 while the impres. sion has prevailed that the amount was only about $15,o00.
 Discrepancies. From the report of Mir. Harafsor theer are discrepancies of $s1136 un. accounted for. Owing to the manner in which the books were kept. and tho lack of system in taking proper vouchers and charging each depart. Say that this is proper chargA Management.
 Your committee find that there was | a lack of system in handling the af. fairs of the Association from its organ. ization to the close of the Fair oi 1906.
 Auditors Expenses. We attach bill amounting to $37C for services rendered by Mir. Haralsor in this investigation. and recommend that it be referred to the Board of Di. same.
 Respectfully submitted. (Signed)
 l c. c. Zirkle
 S. Roman. J. H. Cook