The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-02-28

mittance to the shipper he enclosed certificate made to Dean, written on the stationery of the city of Birmingham in the handwriting of Mir Weaver, in the auditing department, and this cer- tifcate was signed by P P. Morrison, clerk in the stables, whose duty 1t was to receive and weigh this hay The cer- tificate read that Pennsylvania car Mo- 22,369 was poor hay; that it would not grade at all and that it was not worth more than So per ton. This certificate was backed up with a strong letter from Lonergan, in which he stated that the shipper would note he was compelled to settle with the party who bought it on basis of s9 per ton.
 Called on Mayor
 q took this correspondence and in company with young MT. Guerry, called on the Mayor, also the auditor, and found that the city had prepared a voucher and passed the same, paying for this hay on basis of $125O per ton. The voucher also showed that the car was short 9S9 pounds. Thus it will be seen that the city paid for 1901 pounds, but only got 17,SOO pounds. The Mayo stated that he would take the matter up, make a rigid investigation and let us hear him later.
 Tn the meantime, at the next meet ing of the Birmingham Grain exchange the matter was discussed, and we ap- pointed a committee to call on the Mayor and urge that the matter be thoroughly investigated. This committee called on the Mayor and he stated that he had seen MT. Lonergan and MT. Lonergan had laid the whole blame on MT Dean and he preferred not to go any further with the investigation unti, he could see MT. Dean. l wanted to know how it was MT. Dean, an outsider, could go into the auditors office and have manu- factured a false certificate like the one I held in my possession, and could go down to the stable and get another em- ploye to sign it. The Mayor explained that he had interviewed these employees ana the young man in the auditing de- partment had signed it at the request of Dean, thinking that the city would be benefited in getting a reduction on the hay, and the fellow at the stable had signed it with the same motive, stating that this was a very ignorant fellow and hardly knew what he was doing Also that the purchasing agent could be excused on account of the fact that he had too much to do; that he was then giving him additional help, and he would be able to better keep up with his duties. (By the way, with one eX- ception this purchasing agent is the most enormously overpaid man I know)
 This committee had many complaints to make. We showed the Mayor that the principal grain dealers of Birming- ham were not even invited to bid on the city's business, and that these parties who were doing practically all the busi- ness with the city, swinding the shipper in getting possession of the goods with out paying the drafts. and then taking off large deductions, and swindling the con- sumer at this end by padding the weights, were not even paying a license to the city of Birmingham for doing business. Whereupon the purchasing agent answered that he could explain that; that he did not ask MT. Wilkerson and MT. Agee for prices for the reason that their grades were too high for them. In other words. the city could not afford to buy first-class stuff
 get the city's money back out of which
 Went to Auditors Office
 This committee then adjourned to the auditors office, and we found that after we had opened his eyes to the situation that he was thoroughly aroused and in sympathy not only with the Investigation being made by the Birminhgam Grain exchange. but that he was red hot to ~~~~~~~~~~>~~~>~~~~~> ~~~~~>~~~~~~-~~~~~~-~~~-~ ~~~
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