Middlebury register. (Middlebury, Vt.) 1886-1937, 1911-01-27
A Com m U nication,
Editor Middlebury Register.

Editor Mlddlebury Register.
Dear Sir:-1n your account of the
village meeting held Wednesday, Janu-
airy 18th, notice good deal of criticism
of my accounts las presented by the
auditors) by one or two prominent gen.
tlemen, who proposed laying them on
the table (but accepting the auditors re-
port, and having some one look the &C
counts over and see if they were correct.
Not much of a slur upon the judgment
of Messrs. Marshall and Miner, two as
good accountants as there are in town.
| will say here that my accounts are
ready for any man, or set of men to ex-
anime at their will, and if any one can
find an error would like to know it.
Let me further say, that with a part of
my report left out entirely, they would
certainly be blind for any one to under
stand.
In justice to myself, wish to explain
my position in the matter. After l
gave my accounts to the auditors, and
until after the report was printed, / was
away from home and did not see the
report to look it over carefully until af-
ter the meeting. / was not able to be
at the meeting and knew nothing of the
trouble that had been brewing. When
| came to examine the report carefully
found that my estimates of the diff
ferent divisions of work had been left
out and no mention made of it. At
once 'phoned Mr.. Marshall, asking
him how it happened. His reply was:
Mr.. Hammond, you saw me put that
sheet in my files ready for the printer,
and so handed it in" l then called UP
Seymour Bros, asking them if they
knew anything about it, and they said
they did not, as they had received
no such copy. This, of course,
was one of the main things good many
wanted to see, but it was gone, and |
was, and am being censured for its non
appearance.
Later on will give the approximate
cost of streets, sewers, sidewalks, etc.
One other matter seemed to arouse a
great deal of interest in the minds of
these gentlemen, to wit, the time of
Clinton Langworthy. In the report it
reads 62 1-2 hours, $105. ID. The time
should have read 621 1-2 hours, sos. Ia.
1t was merely typographical error
Now as to my method of keeping the
time. You will see it was kept in
hours and so carried out. We COM
menced paying Is cents per hour, but
occasionally, as the work went on,
some one man, or number of men,
were paid 1712 cents per hour for doing
some nasty, muddy work. Later on
some were paid 171a cents and one or
two 20 cents, and still later nearly all
got 171a cents, and two or three 20
cents. You will notice that there
were two or three scales of wages
paid to the same men. To have kept
these all separate and carried out, so
every one could see just how many
hours man worked through the season
for 10 cents, ia cents and 20 cents,
would have been quite a little book
keeping, and | thought that all the
voters would care for would be the time
the men worked and how much was paid
for it.
Of course, by the change of rate in
mans time, it would be impossible for
any one to take the number of hours
given, and figure out the amount and
make it correspond with mine. And
the only way it could be done, would be
to take my checks, which gave the
time on the back, so each man could
tell whether l had his time correct or
not. They are all on file It'll the clerk,
and know of no reason, why they can
not be seen by any one wishing to look
Summary of monies paid out:
Streets 1891 AZ
Sewers 1449 &c
Sidewalks and crossings 1889 Sc
Repairs on sprinkler, carts,
tools, etc 1Ol A
Tools purchased 65 95
Cannon on Logan House Park rs 90
Paid for private work and ma
terials 1876 SO
Whole amount paid out S5268 Sc
The dry bridge work costing little
over 5000.
Since writing the above l have been
informed by the clerk that the trustees
have appointed three of their number
to look over my accounts and report
through the paper their finding. | am
willing and ready to lend them any aid
can in arriving at just conclusion of
the affair.
Not in the least do | blame any of
the trustees, and for that matter, no
one, for know that it was purely an
unintentional mistake, whoever made it.
think, however, if the auditors had
read the proof, this whole disturbance
might have been avoided.
| remain respectfully yours,
GEO. HAMMOND.
Middleburv Ian o1th 1911