The Sentinel=record., 1912-06-27
MADE DETAILED INVESTIGATION oFi BOOKS AND NOW WANTS
 THE BILL SETTLED.
EXPERTS PAY IN BALANCE
No Authority For This Action Except Where There is Reason to Ex- pect Wrong, so the Fee Bill
 is Trimmed Down.

another city who had been secretly commissioned by the grand jury to in- spect the books and accounts of dhe various county officials is to be paid for that service is brought in question with the final adjournment of the grand jury, taken yesterday morning.
 When the jury came into cour: and submitted it's annual report it sub mitted an account which asked Circuit
 Judge Gotham to allow six jurors pay ' for 24 days work while the regular grand jury adjournment was on. The bill was S2SS.
 The money was for the purpose, it was disclosed. of paying an expert accountant the jury had hired to go over the books of the county officials. There is no authority for such an ex- | penditare and Judge Gotham cut the allowance down from $2SS to $120, and ! let it go at that, if the county cour. will approve the allowance
 The grand jury, it seems. had de- cided long ago on a general secret l inspection of the books. Instead of setting up publicly what was intiei- tate, request was made, 1t IS stased that several members of the gran 1 jury, as a subcommittee, be authorized to inspect the books, and do regular grand jury work through a subcom- mittee form. Judge Gotham acquiesc- ed in this
 The fact that ,he allowance as ask ed for $2SS, and reduced to $f20, might De the conclusion in the matter, but for the report that the grand jury members paid out the money for the accountant, and therefore will be the losers if the court allowance is not approved
 However, even if Judge Gotham had approved the allowance, it would still be up to County Judge Farmer to allow the account.
 The objection to the action lies only in the fact that the action is not authorized, except should the grand jury have reason to believe there was some particular reason for such an in spection; since the court every term appoints Commissioners of Accounts" who under oath audit and go over all the county accounts, and whose last report was about as exhaustive as any expert could have returned.
 The grand jury report was exhaus- tive and showed that 263 witnesses gated Forty eight true bills were found, 30 of which were through the courts, and IS from voluntary infor- nation
 Along financial lines it was found that the county debt had been de- creased $37, ,550.95, which is a splendid testimonial to the able management of County Judge Thurston P Farmer. The report shows cash in the hands of the treasurer, $t2,53222, and cash in the hands of the collector $111. .152.00 There is due from former officials and
 T tssii; of ici;sis ,i;iitc |. sss;ii, tssiiisss g lla9Gs, which the grand jury urges shall be paid into the county treasurer or action be taken against the parties 10 collect it. The county debt at this time, less the reduction of the past year is S150,033.74.
 Ion account of the loss of valuable evidence" says the report, i've were compelled to dismiss two cases in which we believed the accused were guilty, and on account of the slack method of some of the justices of the peace and clerk we would respect fully recommend that all justices be required to file all papers and evil dence in each case separately, schedule of all papers in the enyel- npe to he shown on the face thereof in writing, the envelope to be secure ly closed before delivery, and that the clerk be required to keep all such pa pers in a locked receptacle until de livery to the grand jury
 Tn two cases the defendants were bound over and the cases sent tip from justice of the peace court and checks. which were the only evi- dence that could convict had disap- peared Tn taking evidence later from witnesses we found that the holders of the checks have been repaid their moneys. the checks having been re- turned to the complainants. thus compromising felony and destroying all evidence against the accused. This system of using our county and jus tice6' courts as g means af collecting bal debts, thus putting a great ex- pense upon the taxpayers and con suming valuable time of the grand jury
 |. The greatest praise is given those in charge of the county farm, and the grand jury strongly recommends that MT and Mrs. Bingham be retain ed there. The following is the pros pective crop report made to the grand jury by Mr Bingham:
 Fifty acres in corn, forty in oats. twenty six in wheat. four in sweet notatoes anu one acre in Irish pota- toes.
 The grand jury discusses the eoun- ty jail as follows.