Courier Democrat. (Langdon, N.D.) 1891-1920, 1914-10-15
MATTER
WITH TREASURY
9 eTATE TREASURER'S FAILURE
TO FILE REPORTS PROTECT.
ING GOV. HANNAH
How Much Is Overdrawn?

Failure of the state treasurer to file
his quarterly reports with the COVER
nor'a Office, as required by law, for
March and June, 1914, has aroused con-
Iiderable agitation throughout the state
and has led to an Investigation at Bis.
marck which discloses that it is doubt
full if the treasurer has filed a quarter.
ly report with the governor since Gov
ernor Hanna took Office.
No report Of the state treasurer is
on file in the governors Office since
former Governor Burke retired. The
treasurer does not pretend to have
filed either the March or June quarter.
ly reports for this year.. He claims to
have mailed the March report to the
Bismarck Tribune for printing, and
that paper claims never to have receiv.
ed it. 1t is said to have been lost in
The mails. The treasurer admits he did
not file the June quarterly report, due
to the rush of business at that time.
The deputy state treasurer's campaign
for the Republican nomination for
treasurer may have accounted for this.
However, this June report was finally
filed on Oct 8. over three months after
it was due.
Failure to file either of these reports
led to an Investigation in the COVER
nor's Office which shows that no quar-
terly reports of the treasurer are on
file to cover any Of the Hanna "BUSI.
NESS ADMINISTRATION" The date
of the last quarterly report of the
treasurer is dated before Governor
Burke retired The state treasurer, II
is said. claims to have filed some pre-.
vious quarterly reports. If he did, one
Of Governor Hanna's secretaries knows
nothing of them He says they might
have been filed with Jimmy Foley, for.
mer secretary to Governor Hanna, who
has gone to California. So far as ex-
animation could find, there was not a
sign of a paper in the governors Of
flee to support the claim that any quar-.
terly report had ever been filed by the
treasurer since Governor Hanna took
office.
The general impression at Bismarck
is that the state treasury has not been
in as bad shape for many years as it is
right 10Y On September %, the bal.
ance in the general fund was $106, 900.
If the treasurer pays the states bills
on October Is, and pays back the mon
ey borrowed from other funds, 1t is pre-
dicted by people at the state capitol
that the general fund would be over
drawn s15O,000.
Now why have zone of these reports
been filed? Why did the treasurer
fail to make public the condition Of
state funds on March 81 and June 80?
Is it because the various state funds
under the BUSINESS ADMINISTRA-
TON of the SO called BUSINESS GOV
ERNOR, l.. B. Hanna, have been over.
drawn since the beginning of 1914?
Failure to file these quarterly re-
ports within ten days after due is
cause for removal Of the state treasurer
from office. Is t~reasurer's failure be-
cause His office has lapsed into care
less, criminal, slipshod, unbusiness-
like methods and conditions? Is it be-
cause he has been incompetent or done
anything illegal? Or is it because Gov
ernor Hanna's BUSINESS ADMINS
TRATION has been UNBUSINESS-
LIKE and has resulted in depicting the
state funds to such an extent that Mr..
Hanna has induced his state treasurer
to become a party to hiding the truth
regarding these funds?
What lies behind all this? Was the
copy Of the tr%easurer's March quarter
ly report mailed to the Bismarck Trib-
une the only copy made of this import
ant document? Does it take three
months for the state auditor to get the
balance when the law gives him only
ten days? Are these figures and facts
being suppressed because their publ
cation would embarrass Governor Han
ma who is making a campaign for re-
election on a platform OF a BUSINESS
ADMINISTRATION?
If the treasurer has filed no report
to Governor Hanna since Hanna took
office, why has the governor been SO
WORCESTERSHIRE as to allow such
slipshod methods when he lays such
stress on being a business governor?
Four years ago the stalwart machine
bounded State Treasurer Bickford to a
criminal sentence for certain irregular.
tiles in connection with his Office. To.
day is the stalwart machine preventing
the people of the state from knowing
whether or not these same irregulari.
ties are being continued under the
present sta!Wart treasurer? Bickford
a a Progressive Republican, the pres.
en-: treasurer a stalWart. Is Governor
Hanna throwing a protection of silence
around the state treasurer, or is the
treasurer protecting Hanna? Has this
been going on ever since Hanna be
came governor? ii SO, isn't it abou,
time to restore things to the condition
Homes. John" Burke and his fellow
workers, like Frank Hellstrom, LEFT
them TWO years ago?
Eon't you think SO, MIR. Voter?
uI,.- erp,,n, ,1, --o Le