Albuquerque morning journal. [volume] (Albuquerque, N.M.) 1903-1926, 1911-10-31
hereby ratified and approved.
(Signed) F. II. PIERCE, President,
JUAN NAVARRO. Secretary
WILLIAM III, NFWCOMB
MALAQUIAS MARITIME

MALAQUIAS MARTINEZ,
PenitentiarY Commissioners
Here we have q statement over the
signature of Mr.. Pierce himself ana
tho other members of the penitentiary
board. a solutely approving the cash
account Of Mr.. Bursum, which cash
account WIS drawn up AS an official
document and handed 70 Mr. Bursum'f
succ essor as the official account jusi
prior to MIR. Bursum's withdrawal
from the penitcntiary. If no inVcsii-
cation had ever been made of these
books, this cash book with the official
endorsement thereon Of Mr.. Pierce
and his colleagues would have stood
forever as an absolute clearance by
| the territorial authorities of Mr. Bur-
sums financial transactions during
his incumbency as superintendent
Mr.. Piercc's Whitewash.
/ That statement was, in fact, Mr..
! PiCrce's whitewash number one, and
! it was intended as a final and COM
( plete approval of Mr.. Bursum's cash
! transactions. However, the Colorado
| inves igator found that this cash book
was full of errors and contained
many manifest discrepancies OF one
| kind and another; and In a long and
careful report he pointed out the er-
rors contained in this cash account
which Mr.. Pierce and his colleagues
i had approved of. The errors in the
Iaccount were so manifest that when
| Mr.. Saffprd came to make his report,
the report " hich was handed to Judge
/ Parker, and upon which Mr. Bursum,
Judge Fail and all the rest Of them
now rely as Mr., Bursums final what
cation, fe admitted that it was abso-
lutely unreliable AT the opening Of
Mr.. Salford's report he states: The
rewritten cash book was not copied
from any cash book kept by the peni-
tentiary. A cash book was never kept
simply a journal in which an cash
transactions were entered as well as
other items. This so-called rewritten
cash hook made up a few weeks be-
fore the retirement of II. O. Bursum
as superintendent was an attempted
statement as to the cash transactions
Of the peitentiary for tho period of
his service. This statement was made
for the Information of the board Of
commissioners was in no sense a
book of original entries and would
have no value whatever, except for
reference; even if ii had been cor
rectly transcribed, which it was not.
Many entries having been omitted on
both debit and credit sides"
Stafford Contradlcts Pierce.
What an astonishing state OF affairs
his admission by Mr.. Stafford exposes!
Where does it leave Mr.. Pierce, who
as president of the board put his Of
ficial approval on this cash statement,
which both investigators shows abso-
lutely unreliable and incorrect, Where
does it leave Mr.. Pierce as president
of that board, when it states that dur
ing his whole period of office, no cash
book of any kind was ever kept In
the institution? 1t is remarkable that
Il should not have asked him, or any
other Of these puppets that Mr.. Bur
lsum had on the penltentarv commits
sion as TO what their opinion was OF
Mr.. Bursums administration? 1t is
absolutely apparent from both reports,
from the entry on the cash book APPS
proving of Mr.. Bursums accounts and
from the contents Of this statement
published in the Las Vegas optic that
Mr.. Pierce would affix his name to
Iany kind of a statement made up for
that purpose: no matter whether what
he said one time was absolutely in
conSistent with what he said another
thine or not.
Pierce on Books DESTROYED.
have no time TO go into all the
statements of Mr.. pierce's letter. II
is necessary, however, to refer to the
statement of his with reference to the
destruction of the books. He states In
regard to the individual customers
ledger which was destroyed that il
did not form a part Of the regular
series or account books, and It was
discontinued after all live accounts in
, it had been transferred to another
book. The destruction of this book Is
the subject of lengthy explanation by
Mr. Stafford In his report; he claiming
as does Mr.. Pierce that the absence
of this book is not material. as having
) (Continued on Page ., Column 2.J