Grand Forks herald. [volume] (Grand Forks, N.D.) 1916-1955, 1921-11-24
Auditing Board Tuesday Al
lowed Bills Which Have
Piled Up For Two Months
And Which Show How
League Favorites Lived In
Luxury AT Taxpayers Ex-
pense.
tgy Staff Correspondent,

Bismarck. N. D., Nov IA thor
ough investigation will be made by
the new Independent state officials Of
the bills allowed by the old auditing
board at its session Tuesday after
noon, Sveinbjorn johnson. attorney.
said today.
A cursory investigation of the bills
allowed by. the board at the session
Tuesday indicate that it was one Of
the most successful raids pulled off by
the Nonpartisan league administra-
tion during it's term of Office;
Withheld From Public.
Among the bills thus allowed were
large mum Der incurred in connection
with the bond sale campaign carried
on by the Industrial commission for
which no bills had been filed during
the last two months, the evident de-
sire being that the voters Of the state
should know nothing of the amounts
being spent previous to the recall
election.
Webb Lived High.
For example, in the proceedings Of
the auditing board for the last day Of
the old administration is included
| twenty-seven thousand dollars paid on
account of George Webb. This includ-
apparently incurred by Mr.. Webb at
the >Biltmore, the most expensive hotel
| in New York.
! The only supporting s.atement for
this bill is statement from the Bilt-
more hotel showing the amounts paid
there weekly by Webb. but no item
lied statement showing what these
payments were for.
i State Treasurer John Steen. who
voted against allowing this. and other
similar accounts, has protested vigor-
ously against paying it and will await
an opinion by Attorney General J0aanss
son before SO doing
| The weekly statements from the
Biltmore indicate that Mr.. Webh ua1-
ronized this tavern from May 5 toaf M
tober 8. HIS bills there ranged
1 &3i.a2 ITO $424.l0 per week ssss sgE9
~ Commission Large sss2s
rs All Through the group ofkYounfierSl
run payments Of commissio MS inS AkT 81
ing amounts, one of which issSlnnSuaIxs
~ interesting. 1t is in favor ofsHerb8ff
{, S: Bigelow. of Cincinnati, who, t MsI sIE
be recalled, was the guest of hDners
at tar and feather party dsirinx TIE
war. He received $1,001.13 as COM
mission on a bond sale. At one time
league papers in this state were loud
in their praise of what Mr.. BigeIow
was doing for North Dakota, but no
mention was made then Of the fact
that he was to receive a big commits
sion for his activities.
$1,000 For Bond Printing.
Another bill in excess of $500 is
for the printing of state mill and ele-
vator bonds by Chicago house. The
bonds will have to be printed again
board that the law provides that the
state treasurer shall prepare and issue
the bonds, and that he had no knowl-
edge whatsoever of the bonds in ques-
tion. and he refused to approve the
statement. He also will refer the mat
ter of payment to the attorney general
for an opinion as to the liability OF
the state on accounts contracted by
individual officials other than those
authorized by law to contract the par
ticular Indebtedness.
The name of Carl D. Thompson, the
Chicago Socialist, appears with great
regularity all through the series Of
vouchers. He operates in Chicago
!, through the Public Ownership league,
and has been receiving a salary from
the state as bond seller. and also
has had part of his office rent paid
by the state.
State Paid For Trips.
Another feature brought to light in
this last group of payments is the fact
that NJ. Lee Brundage, of Minot
Stephen Ely of Montana. and E. G..
Hall, Of Minnesota, all labor orEaniz-
ers. enjoyed an interesting junket at
state expense. sa2
They were paid expenses for trips
to Chicago, Springfield. Indianapolis.
Bloomington. Cleveland Columbus,
Terre Haute. Cincinnati and Washing
ton. with S. s. Mcdonald, Of Bis
marck. a member Of the workmen's 3
compensation commission, acting in
the role Of disbursing agent. The state
paid s163.56 for Ely's trip; S167.5Q
for Brundage's trip and about a like
amount for Halls trip. Mcdonald
seems to have accompanied the party.
Frederick A. Pike, who got $7,716-
SO from the state and wanted $4,000
more so bad that he sued the Bank
of North Dakota several days ago for
that amount, was paid $31o.77 on the