The Waxahachie daily light. [volume] (Waxahachie, Tex.) 1894-current, 1909-07-26
PRISON BOOKS
IN BAD SHAPE
Method Of Accounting Is Found
BY Committee to Be I'm
satisfactory.
SEVERE ON INSPECTORS
These Officials, Probers Conclude
Are Useless and Expensive APP
pendaaes Of the System-To
Call in Experts.

Huntsville, Texas, July 26,--Fiye
mem bers of the penitentiary iuvesti-
| CATION committee Saturday visited
1.-THE Wynne farm, two miles from
here. where about fifty prisoners at
! flicted with tuberculosis in various
stages are kept. The other four
members remained at Huntsville and
looked at the books and records in
! the office of the financial agent.
When the committee got together
again as a whole Saturday evening
| the last mentioned subcommittee re-
ported that as a result of its inyes-
! tigation it has reached the conclus-
! ion that an expert appraisement OF
, the various peniteutiary properties
was necessary. The subcommittee
had found, it said that the inventor
! les Of the farms and other outside
Iproperty were in most cases based
! upon opinions Of sergeants, in which
! glaring discrepancies occurred oc-
icasionally, and the system of pre-
! pairing these inventories was such
that the executive officers of the
penitentiary could at will, make such
a showing as they chose. In other
words. particular industries or farms
or contract propositions could be
made to show loss or profit, ac'
F.f hn In n
cial agent or superintendent in the
premises.
With regard to the accounts kept
by the financial agent, the subcom-
mittee reported that accurate month
iIy trial balances for eighteen months
back had been obtained, but that
prior to that time the books had
never been balanced.
The subcommittee had been in
formed that the books lacked some
$4,000 of balancing when the pres
ent bookkeeper took charge of them
The subcommittee was we'll salts
fled with the present method of ac'
counting and convinced of the in
tegrity of the present Officials Du'
it was not satisfied with the methoc
of bookkeeping. This was forty
wears behind the times, the commit
tee declared Furthermore, the office
was in need of a modern filing sys
TEN, an adding machine and addi
tional vault room.
Apart from examining the book
and accounts, the subcommittee haC
also looked over an expense accoun
of foreman who occasionally wen
out to buy material, and scrutinize'
the expense accounts and reports o
the two penitentiary inspectors.
The account of the foreman con
tanned several unitimized charge
and a few items denominated 'inci
dentals" Upon being questioned b,
the subcommittee the foreman IN
ldignantly resented being questione'
as 70 whether drinks were include'
in the incidentals but admitted tina
shaves, cigars and laundry bills ha
been added therein by himself.
The subcommittee was particular
| ily severe in its report on the Dill
and reports of the inspectors an
expressed the opinion that these OF
ficials were an apparently useles
appendage of the penitentary sy'
TEN, an opinion which seemed to b
generally concurred in by the Who'll
committee The expense account
Sam Hawkins, the inspector TOR IN
northern district, the sub-committe
found. averaged SO per mont'
while that of Inspector Barbee
the southern district averaged 81
per month.