New Britain herald., 1917-11-30
FARM COMMITTEE
 IN NEW MUDDLE
Philadelphia Lawyer Needed to
 Determine Latest Line-Up

Criticism, scathing and unlimited,
 was heaped on the Municipal Farm
 committee at the special meeting of
 the common council on Wednesday
 night because oX certain peculiarities
 in the method of keeping accounts
 and even Councilman George M. Lan-
 ders, himself member of the com [ nlittee, took occasion to criticise the
 communities and throw the narpooh
 into it's auditor, w. B. Rossberg.
 Councilman Landers said that tne i method of keeping its accounts was ! "damnably bungling" and as a mem ! Der of the committee he was "heart-
 i1y ashamed and will take my share 1 of the blame" Then it was that 1 Alderman Orson F. Curtis, he Who
 started the fireworks of criticism, dld the unexpected He at once rallied
 to the defense of Auditor Rossberg,
 whom he has been criticising, ana
 declared that he should not be made
 the scapegoat of the committee, that l the members as a whole were at l fault for accepting his report in the 1 first place.
 Defends Rossberg Raps Qugley. l Subsequently, Alderman Curtis l got his fertile brain to worN- inp and svesterdav issued the follow ] inc statement in which he defends MT. l Rossberg to g. certain degree. and at- l tempts to unravel the apparent mess i that has been made of the commit 1 tees work, not neglecting to make certain reflections on Mayor George A. Quigley: Auditor William B. Rossberg, the apparent scapegoat of the municipal
 farm committee, has his limitations the same as we other mortals. Evl- dently he was not molded for his present position, so please allow me,
 as one who has tried to fam1l1ar1ze
 himself in a limited way with the
 working of the city management Of
 potato raising, to add something fur- ther to that much discussed subject.
 MT. Rossberg did not buy machinery and potatoes alone to start the farm
 neither did he hypnotize the board of finance and taxation and the com mon council to indorse this Colonel Sellers scheme and furnish funds for it. It is true he fell for accepting l place on this celebrated board of managers along with some others of higher standing in business and l social circles. He did not elect him. | self auditor of said board; others 1 put him there, but none has been ] more faithful or worked harder to 1 further the ends of obey the orders 1 of the directing genius of this Uto- | plan enterprise. As in 'Tennyson's l poem, "The Charge of the Light l Brigade" it was not for him to Ques- ton why but to do or die, and he has been acting under orders since. Not being purchasing agent, business manager or seventh son of the seventh son he was not able to record business transactions until he was informed of them, and consequently had to do his bookkeeping in &C., cordance with the information and instructions he received.
 lie made some errors, but only part or those now so apparent. His voting power of the committee was one-n1nth, to that extent he is respon- sloie. In influence there are others With very much more weight Many tnlngs Were done by members of tho committee or by one of the members without the approval of the board or sometimes even without the knowledge or more than one or two of its nine members. MT. Rossbers is not resnon- slble for securing the consent of the council for purchasing potatoes in hopes of covering the committees fn- ability to return the appropriation which was known to members of the committee but withheld from the council at that time. He did not or der a carload of potatoes on his own responsibility, stating he would handle them himself for the peoples benent and then welch when they got here throwing them on to the committee so the city felt impelled to pay for them. He did not manage committee affairs in such a reckless or extrava gant amer that notwithstanding vol- unteer help was used to a large ex- tent city departments were nearly de- 1 pleted of their working forces at 1 times and most everything was dkawn l upon to help out. The cost of work ! ing the f0rty-three acres was nearly l