Mineral Point tribune. (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1869-1938, 1910-08-04

(Mr. Cody) | notice in your deposition,
Mr. SpensIey, that the trustees have dele
gated Mr. Billings as building committee.
Is that ttIe1 A. That IS true, yes sir.
That was for inc time being
@ That meant during the progress of
The last improvements A. II was to save
The expe se to the county Of calling out the
entire board Of trustees. they delegated
their power to MIR. Billings to act for them
with th- understanding that if anything
came up or he had any difficulty or trouble
he could call the rest of the trustees. Mir
Billings lived near by and il was convenient
for him to he in attendance any time. He
was delegated to act tor them.
9. He was delegated hat power only tenn
porarily? A. That was all, Just during the
time of the improvements.
O. Any time he saw fit he was to call the
| others2 A. Yes, that was the understand
! ing | will say further that Mr. Billings
was clerk and he invariably delegated to
Mr.. Perkins, or got him to act for him as
clerk.
Q also notice that you appointed Mr..
Perkins as your clerk. DO you think you
had legal right to do that2 A. Well, you
s=e we are ordinary men. We are not law.
yers We considered that Mr.. Billings had
perfect right to get deputy if he wanted
1 to.
/ Q DO you feel il was safe thing for you
to do2 A. Ne always thought So Re
member, gentlemen, that we considered that
we were dealing with Mr.. Perkins as per
/ fectly honest man, and never had any suspi.
cions of any thing wrong
1 Q Have you had any reason since that
time to believe anything different? A. No
sir | have not and believe today that Mr..
1 Perkins is just as steady as gan. Mr. Per,
/ kins of course has his faults. lie used to
get yanked up once in while. | call 10
mind now circumstance when the other
! Mrs. Perkins was living and | was very
harsh, and she thought | was too severe,
The old gentleman Dmmock took me to task
for it and said was far too cross
! (Mr. RoetheJ You didn't do that yer,
Often did your A. u ell, did whenever
/ | felt like it
! (Mr CodyJ Mat extra time, If any, have
you ever estimated would be the additiona
time required to be devoted by you as trus
tee, if you did not delegate the power tt
Mr.. Perkins to do the clerical work, all the
work that he did for the trustees2 A. The
trustees from twenty three years back to the
present time have always thought that they
had a pretty good man there, and the trus
tees have always thought that he was OF
honest man; and any purchase that was to be
mace, for instance a team, the trustees
would delegate Mr.. Perkins to purchase thai
team. If ere was a sale made of any kline
he was delegated to make the sale the very
best he could. The trustees didn't plan tC
be out there every week and it wasn't neces
sary. OF course, if man makes up his
mind to be a thief it is pretty hard to watct
him, but we never had any idea Of that kind
We always thought, and from the time
have been on the board up to today, have
never thought there was an occasion to find
any fault or suspect Mr. Perkins of doing
anything wrong in financial way
mir Crawford:) You thought it for the
best interests Of the County, did you not &c
delegate this power to Mr. Perkins to obvate
THE necessity of meeting of the trustees
A. surely, and am free to say that think
so yet That was the best policy Bless
you, if one Of the trustees had TO be there
every time auythin was purchased or sold
you would have to have a member there al
the time.
tMr Cody:) asked, Mr.. Spensley, if Ut
could give me some idea as to the actual re
qurements of time? You said all the time
want to find out how much extra time A
Well, it is impossible to estimate it because
matters come up. For instance, ihere are
some hogs there to be sold 1t will depend
some on the market For instance, couple
of years ago Mr. Perkins had a lot Of stock
uoGs there and there was a demaAd for then
and you wouldn't expect the Board of Trus
tees to go out there and count the hogs be
fore they could be sold.
(Mr Roethe) We don't expect that, Mr.
Spensey, but the committee maintains tina
the trustees should receive all money anC
sec that It gets into the County Treasury
also check up invoices and see that there ar,
no invoices raised. A. think the trustees
did
O. The records don't show it. If Mr.. Per
kns made the sale of ten head of cattle o
ten head of sheep, his verbal statement wa.
all the trustees ked for A. believe MIR
Perkins always accounted TO the Board o
Trustees and to the County Treasurer for tn,
money that he got belonging to the County
think il Just as much as am sitting here
Mr.. Perkins has his faults. He has beer
there a long time, and Of course gets it into
his head that | am the great | am.
wv II. Thomas:) Is 1t good policy to in
trust so much to one man2 A.. If that mar
reports every four weeks don't think Their,
there is anything bad about i, if he is al
honest man. That is suggestion for tn,
trustees and Mr. Perkins thems elves. Al
these years that have been trustee hav,
felt that he was a square and honest man.
have never seen anything to change my
views
Nv. II Thomas:l Does the history of tn,
past bear out the wisdom Of this policy? A
don't know, | a am not much Of a phloSo
pher A man is never thief until he il
proven to be thief.
mir Penhallegonl How do you harmonic,
the testimony of the superintendent with tn,
statement you have made regarding his
honestly A. never heard it.
Q He admitted to this committee tina
many of the items that were pointed out L
him were purchases for his personal use and
that they had not been deducted from tn,
invoice a. When bills came before tha
board Of trustees and there were charges FOR
items that did not belong to the Asylum OF
to the Home, Mr.. Perkins was to pay that
amount into the County funds and the bill
passed through on its face.
Q. But you testified that YOU were not
d a.. IL. a