The Mena weekly star., 1916-10-26
6HY JUDGE WEAR l HAD AUDIT MADE
,,;na,ion Before Circuit Court ;nas Out Conditions That Led ' "A IAetion-Delayed Until Was Sure of His Authority.


 There has been great deal oi
 sscnssion regarding the audit of
 ho comfy records made on the or
 r of County Judge A. E. Wear. ~hile the action has generally met #;sb annroVal, there has been some
 ;s;cism based on lack of knowledge
 facts. and some that was purely %olicious. misleading and false, this %fter circulated by enemies of the #ldge n e-.a ,.a
 ,,d inc general public, may get a
 eore definite idea, the following is $r;nted from the transcript as SUD-
 i;ed hv the court stenographer, the
 nestions to Judge Wear being for xbe most part propoumued Dy Juuge
 Alley. attorney for k. u Doyle End the others opposing the payment n( the warrants lssueu TOT tne audlt.
 Examination by Judge Alley.
 Question. Of course. Judge, you made this contract and agreement have the books audited. Now, ] skNish you would tell the Court why you did thatE
 Answer I did it because thought was necessary to be done.
 0. What 1 want to know is why you thought 1t was necessary?
 A. It would perhaps take good deal of detail to tell you just why l Thought so.
 0. That is what l am wanting to find out nowY
 A. Well, in particular knew there was general dissatisfaction, particularly over the treasurer's account.
 0. Just while you are there, & what treasurer's account do you q have reference to
 A. I have reference to Marvin * Shields, ex-treasurer. 0. How long had he been out of office?
 A. About year and half. F c. Now what part of his account was it that there was particular trouble with?
 A. Well, there was particular trouble in his settlement with Mir. Anderson at the time his term of office expired.
 0. Now, what was that? A. Well, sir, l know very little about it, more than I know that the county clerk and county treasurer and several others that were called to their assistance. worked at that account for very long time; at va rious times. Not all the time, but they would work while and then they would work again. l never knew anything of the difficulty any more than l know there was a diffi- caty n getting that account straight. and l knew after it was passed on they finally come to some sort of an agreement among them selves. l knew it was unsatisfac- tory, and some of the parties that had helped in the work were not fully satisfied with the settlement made.
 c. There was nobody seemed to know whether the settlement was exactly correct or not?
 A. That seemed Co be the ditil- oulty.
 c. After you went into office. did you have any investigation made of it, or make any yourself, outside of that audit9
 A, I attempted to make an inves- tigation myself
 Q. What was that, Judge2
 4. l just went into the books to try to determine what l could learn about it and found--I started to say that the bookkeeping was such 1t was perhaps my lack of know lege of bookkeeping that 1 could make nothing out of 1t.
 c. After you went into office as county judge the county commls- si6nefs made an audit of the treas urer's books, covering the books of the county treasurer you have just mentioned, MT. Shields. didn't they2 A. They had done that i'll 1915.
 Q. Well. that settlement seemed to be satisfactory. didn't it2
 A. No sir, it didn't seem to be.
 0. What was the real trouble about it-just somebody said they didn't believe it was correct?
 A. Yes sir.
 Q. Now, who did you hear say they didn't think 1t was correct?
 A. Well, l couldn't say definitely further than that MT. Shields and the man that had acted as his as- sistant or bookkeeper for him a good long while didn't seem to be- lleve that 1t was.
 c. There was no further con- troversy about it2 That settlement wasn't questioned further than you have mentioned there, was if?
 A. Not definitely, no.
 c. What other reason did you have for bringing on this audit?
 A. Well. sir, there were various reasons that I had. and to tell you the particular reasons, would be that my observation was that there was great deal of the business of the county that was being handled ID very loose way, and 1t seemed that the count of revenue was not properly made.
 O. Judge Wear. if 1t was the treasurers settlement you were wanting to look into why did yol enter into this written contract and agreement to go back eight years and take up the time of the varl- ous officers?
 A. Because, sir. l believed the books of our county were III sucii condition that an audit needed to be made and that they needed to be gone over and corrected and put III the condition they should be in. ., Didn't you know as matter of Tact and as a matter of law, sn Tar as that goes that there was no req son. no good and valid reason, be- cause you couldn't recover If you