The Brinkley argus., 1916-02-25

"Yours very truly,
 "GEo. rHORNBURGH." It will be observed that he em- ployed Messrs. Beebe and Russell to audit my office, and they were the ones that were in the employ of this legislative committee. If they did honest work for the legislative com mittee, who can say that they would not do honest work for the Hon. George Thornburgh? And what right has this committee to question thelr report when working under MT. Thorn bureh. when they, themselves, had the same committee employed?
 Col. Thornbursh's Report. Messrs. Beebe and Russell took up the work in my office immediately and made the report to the Hon. George Thornburgh on the 9th of Oc- tober. The substance of this report was published in the daily papers soon thereafter. Mr. Thornburgh, in commenting on this report, made the following statement:
 q think I am justified in saying that this report is indeed creditable | to Mr. Hodges, as it covers period of about three and one-half years, and an amount of over two hundyed and seventeen thousand dollars, with every cent accounted for, and accord | ing to Mr. Hodges receipts, $2l.65 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 l retary of state, but they cannot say they were ever received by him. MT. | Hodges explains this in statement which is hereto attached.
 1 "In regard to the system of book keeping, which the accountants criti- cised, it is proper to say that they found the same system in vogue in all | 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 i ent state officers and they are not re. 1 sponsible for it.
 Yours truly,
 "GEO. THORNBURGH." Dr. Brough, in his effort to preju. l dice the people against me, does nor hesitate to make any kind of charge, l regardless of the kind of a charge. He states that I had on deposit in the banks of Little Rock, in my own name, $217OOOO0, which should have been in the state treasury. The -eal facts are that I received cheeks in most every mail every day, and these checks could not be turned over to the state treasurer himself l would deposit them in the bank daily and al the end of the month 1 would settle with the state treasurer for all of the money received by me during the month I have his receipts for over s217 100000. When the accountants completed the work in my office, Il was clearly shown that the $217,000.0f received by me during the three and half years time had been turned over to the state treasurer and l hac his receipts for the same.
 Il He leaves the impression that had deposited at one time over $200,0O( in a bank, when he we'll knew tor ht could easily have found out with sligh1 investigation that such a statement was wholly without foundation anl absolutely false.
 Now, he claims to be a lawyer, vel he misconstrued the law of Sectior 1891 of Kirby's Digest when he made the charge that I had violated that section by depositing the funds men toned above in a bank.
 The last Legislature passed a law requiring that settlements be made daily with the state treasurer. l ar complying with that law to the letter and with all Aother laws of the state This could also be ascertained by the profound doctor of philosophy if he were at all inclined to search for and state the truth.
 Conclusion.
 If Dr. Borugh is so pressed fol , issues in this campaign that he vii stoop to lsuch tactics as the above how can the people of Arkansas pu faith in any statement that he makes He seems to have gone wild in hi' efforts to splatter mud at me and tt create false impression in the minds of the people. Gradually the voters of the state are learning the true character of this man Brough-thl: imported, poetical, tax-dodging, high browed college professor; and if
 read the signs of the times correctl, they will resent With their votes tht tactics he has employed in this cam paign by burying him beneath al avalanche of honest votes.