Greene County herald. (Leakesville, Miss.) 1898-current, 1914-01-16

paid them, being subtracted from this
amount would leave the State indebt-
ed to them in the sum of $9,228.82.
neglected to state that included In
| this bill is the one item of Operative
No. 40, which is Mr. H. A. Pagan, and
in the contract as ABOVE set forth, it
was agreed that Mr.. Pagan should be
paid $1,000 per day, and it may ap-
pear strange that his expenses amount
to $2,543.89. but when we consider the
fact that he was in the service for
29S days, and that he took one trip to
/ Europe, wherein one-half of this ex-
pense was incurred and the enormous
amount of expense necessary to this
mans travel in New England, in fact,
all over the United States, as well as
abroad, you will find that this expense
| is entirely reasonable. Through his
work and other operatives of the
Burns Agency, we succeeded in trac-
ing every bale of this cotton from the
penitentiary farms to its final desti-
nation and obtained the name of the
purchaser and the Master Porters
weights in gross in England, which
| information is here for your perusal
| also obtained the services of Mr.. j.
w. Cutrer, who went to England with
out expense to the State and rendered
much assistance in this regard. Mr.
Pagan called upon the purchasers
who bought this cotton from Boyce &
Co. and undertook TO obtain from
them the original iRvoices furnished
by Boyce & Co. at Manchester, which
would disclose the weights, grade and
staple of the cotton and also the price
at which it was disposed of by them.
But he was met by appeals from
Boyce & Co. to the people who had
purchased the cotton not to give out
the information, and while Boyce &
Co. insisted to me that their sole rea-
son for declining to give out this In
formation was the fact that they did
not want to disclose the names of
their customers, when they found that
we had the names or the customers
and actually appeared at their offices
trying to obtain the information, they
did all within their power to prevent
us from getting the information de-
sired and some of the customers re-
fused to give the information.
then took the matter up in person
with the State Department in Wash
ington and obtained the assistance of
the Secretary Of State and he took the
matter up with the State Department
in England and is endeavoring now to
obtain this information for the benefit
of the State of Mississippi. In fact, ]
want to thank the State Department
at Washington for the, very valuable
assistance they have given us in OBJ
tanning information in the past as well
as for the very splendid effort they
are now making to obtain all the in
formation desired through the British
Consulate
You will find that this investigation
has covered two continents, and | file
herewith an itemized, detailed report
as to the disposition of all the cotton
and cotton seed for the years 1908 to
1912, inclusive, and you Will see by an
examination of these figures that the
loss of weight alone to the State in
the sale Of this cotton has been enor-
nous. You will seeethat the profits
made. by the purchaser where we have
been able to obtain the profits made by
the purchaser are out of all proper
ton and reason and this accounts for
many thousands of dollars of loss to
the State.
For instance, in the year of 1912,
after the board of trustees saw that
the profits for the years business was
going to run over 100000 net against
loss for year of 1911 and that this
was going to be such disparaging diff
ference it would attract the attention
of everybody, and Notwithstanding the
State had 10000 bushels of corn for
sale that should have been sold in the
early part of 1913 out of the crop OF
1912, this corn was not sold. The rats
and weevils worked on 1t until In July
and August, 1913, about $4,000 bushels
of it was destroyed by fire with no
insurance, and great quantities OF 1t
wasted by the rats and weevils, and
the State got but very little out of it.
There were 5000 gallons of molasses
at Rankin farm of the crop of 1912
that was not sold on the first of Sep
TENDER, 1913, and in this way the net
profits arising from the business OF
1912 was kept down as far as possible
and made to show something like $780,
10000 less than it really was, since SGT
bales of cotton was also held over
until after September, 1913, which
should have been sold in the early part
of the year / spent some monPv IN
the employment of men outside OF that
furnished by the Burns Agency in this
investigation, but it was only small
amount.
! | had determined to make this In
vestigation of the affairs OF the Missis-
sippi State penitentiary before the ex-
traordinary session of 1918, and as
there were no funds. to make the In
vestigation upon, had borrowed from
the Planters Bank of Clarksdale, Mis-
sissippi, upon my own responsibility,
the sum of 100000 and had placed
| this amount to the credit OF Mr.. |. H.
Sample in the bank, for convenience
and to avoid any confusion OF funds,
and under my direction S3,500.0O OF
this amount had been drawn out and
spent prior to the Legislatures setting
apart by resolution 100000 which
was authorized to borrow TO make
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