The Little River news., 1916-03-01
'Messrs. Pike Crofton & Co.

"Messrs. Pike Crofton & Go. Memphis, Tenn.
 "Gentlemen: This will authorize you to audit the books and accounts of the office of Hon. Earle w. Hodges, Secretary of State, with the under. standing that the work is to be don. by Messrs. I. H. Beebe and c. A. Russell, the accountants who have re- gently been auditing the books at the State Capitol, under the direction of the legislative committee.
 "We shall expect a thorough inves. tigation made, without partiaiity or prejudice, and report made to the un. dersigned.
 "The matter of terms has been agreed upon with Messrs. Beebe and Russell, and l shall expect you to go to work at once and complete same a the earliest possible moment.
 Yours very truly,
 GEO. iHORNBURGH.
  ployed Messrs. Beebe and Russell to audit my of.ce and they were the ones that were in the employ of thi; legislative committee. If they di! honest work for .ae legislative con- mittee, who can say that they Wouli not do honest work fer the Hon. George Thornburgh? And what right has this committee to question their report when working under Mir. Thorn burgh, when they, themselves, had the same committee employed2 Col. Thorn rnbur9h's Report. Messrs Beebe and Russell took up the work in my office Immediately and made the report to the Hon. George 1horaturgh on the 9th O. Oc- | toher The substance of this report was published in the daily papers soon thereafter Mir. Thornburgh, in commenting on this report, made the l following statement:
 q think I am justified in saving hat this report is indeed creditab;e 10 Mir Hodges, as it covers period ' ua amount of over two hundred and | seventeen thousand dollars, with every cent accounted for and accord ] ing to MT Hodges receipts, S21. over. which was paid in two or three years ago. The accountants in the discharge of their duties call attention to the fact that certain amounts should have been received by the sec retary of state, but they cannot say they were ever received Ky him. MT. Hodges explains this in statement which is hereto attached.
 Tn regard to the system of book. keeping, which the accountants crtti. cised, it is proper to say that they found the same system in vogue in aQ the state offices, and in order to change it in one office, it will be pro- per to change it in all. The system was not adopted by any of the pres. ent state officers and they are not re. sponsible for it.
 Yours truly,
 GEO. THORNBURGH." Dr. Brough, in his effort to preiu' dice the people against me, does not hesitate to make any kind of a charge, regardless of the kind of a charge. He states that I had on deposit in the banks of Little Rock, in my own name, S217.000.00. which should have been in the state treasury. The 'erl facts are that I received checks in most every mail every day, and these checks could not be turned over to the state treasurer himself. l would I deDosit them in the bank daily and at | the end of the month l would settle | with the state treasurer for all of the money received by me during the 1 month. I have his receipts for over , s217.OOO0O When the accountants completed the work in my office, ii was clearly shown that the $217, .0G received by me during the three and half years time had been turned 1 over to the state treasurer and l had his receipts for the same.
 He les Yca the impression that l had deposited at one time over $20o,000 in a bank. when he we'll knew Cor he could easily have found out with slight fnyestigaton} that such statement ' was wholly without foundation and absolutely false.
 Now. he claims to be a lawyer, yet [ he misconstrued the law of Section | 1891 of IIirby's Digest when he made i the charge that had violated that section by depositing the funds men. toned above in bank.
 The last Legislature passed 8 law requiring that settlements be made ! daily with the state treasurer. l am ] complying with that law to the letter, and with all other laws of the state