Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1916-08-26
COPELIN DEFENDS SELF;
SHARPLY RAPS CRITICS
[Continued From First Pagel

EIfSL rage
from the banks on the Water Depart
ment monthly balances. but that the
interest money was credited for busi-
ness reasons to the city general fund
instead of to the water fund. AS to
the variance in the average rate of
interest paid on the monthly balances
from less than l to nearly per cent,
Copelin gives reasons which Commis
sioner Gorgas to-day corroborated.
The letter from eX-Treasurer Copelin
is as follows:
have just within the last ten min
utes received a clipping from the Har-
risburg Star-Independent relative to
the report of the company which
audited my accounts and the action
taken by the City Commissioners
thereon. The tone of this article is
distinctly unfriendly and insinuates
that there has been something crooked
in my office. 1t is unnecessary for
ME to say to you that this is untrue.
There are two things mentioned by
the newspaper which you probably are
conNersant with and can clear up with
out any help from me, but 1 will re-
fresh your mind about them, anyway.
The paper states that prior to 1913
the city received no interest on the
cash in the water fund. In all the
years that l was City Treasurer, up
until the last one or two years, or,
maybe three years, the interest on the
water department funds was credited,
along with the interest on other city
money, to the city general fund, and
this fact is well known to most, if not
all. city officials.
1T is known to City Clerk Miller,
City Solicitor Seitz and former City
Controller Cough, l am sure; and in
poor George Kennedy's time when he
was water commissioner it was a con-
stant joke between him and the other
city officials that instead of giving his
department credit with interest on its
own money we turned the money over
to the city, which needed money more
than the Water Department. 1 do not
know whether or not you changed the
method of crediting this interest within
the last couple of years. but at any
rate the city's money during my ad-
ministration, whether belonging to the
Water Department, was all bulked so
far as bank deposits were concerned
and kept separate only on our books,
ana all interest credited direct to the
city general fund.
The other matter to which I take
serious exception is the question as to
the amount of interest collected and
its variation from less than l per cent.
to nearly 2 per cent. The interest
which l collected from the banks was
invariably paid by checks and the dis
position of the checks can be verified
by the banks themselves and by the
interest accounts.
The biggest fool objection which 7
note was made was that some can
celed bonds were destroyed and some
were not. 1t was our custom to destroy
all bonds after they were cancelled and
so recorded in my office and in the
office of the City Controller and Com
missioner of Finance and Accounts.
and if some were not destroyed I
wC11l1 Of
correcting this omission would be to
destroy them.
II understand from the auditors re-
port that there are some cancelled
bonds missing, only year or two old,
that is, Cancelled only a year or two
ago. Inasmuch as these bonds are
marked Cancelled both on my books
and on yours, and, no doubt, were
Cancelled both in my office and in yours,
the matter is of no consequence, but
since a city official took over all the
documents belonging to my office, he
should be in better position than I
to explain what became of them.
Il just want to say in conclusion
that I am making no excuses for the
conduct of my office, but that I am
getting tired of having insinuations
made that | have been stealing from
the city, and when I get back there
Will be some explanations in order
/ you may make this. letter as public
as you. want read it in Council if you
like, or give it to the newspapers if
you like; 1 am only concerned that the
facts may be fresh in your memory.
Il forgot to finish about the vari-
alton of the interest collected from
the banks. This was caused by the
action of the Sinking Fund Commits
sioners; and, later, during your time,
the Mayor, the Commissioner of Ac-
counts and Finance and the Treas
urer. During recent years it was i'm
possible to sell the Harrisburg city 4
per cent. bonds at par and accrued in
terest as required by Council without
some special concessions to the banks.
Other cities, such as philadelphia,
New York, Boston and others, were
forced to pay " per cent. and per
cent. for their money. We, in Harris
burg, were able to sell our per cent.
bonds by allowing the Harrisburg
banks, who bought the bonds, to keep
the money on deposit without paying
interest for certain specified periods,
agreed upon by the Sinking Fund
Commissioners and the banks I will
trust you to look after these matters
during my absence and look after my
interests as far as possible"