The Birmingham age-herald., 1924-09-08
JONES DEMANDS AUDIT OF BOOKS IN HOT DENIAL Shortage Accusations Ma licious, Says Former
 Comptroller DECLARES OFFICIALS WOULD CLOUD ISSUE Will Pay For Probe If Misappropriations Are
 Discovered

Any charge or insinuation that some of the city hall shortages date back to the ad- ministration presided over by Dr. N. A. Barrett is "a lie out of the whole cloth," J. M. Jones, IT,, former city comp troller, declared in a vigorous statement Sunday.
 MT. Jones said he was con- vinced that charges of such Ia shortage exists were made maliciously, for the pur- pose of diverting attention from current misappropria- tions. He demanded a com plete audit of the books of the Barrett regime and said he would bear all expenses of such an audit if it showed that lone cent was stolen or mis- appropriated"
 He further asserted he would assume full responsibility for any shortage during the period he served as comp troller. He said the authorities in charge" should be impeached if they have known of old shortages for months without taking action, as re- ported.
 MT. Jones said people now "hold their hands on their pocketbooks when they pass the city hall" He de- nounced what he termed an effort to blame all the shortages on William u Lehman, flor the evident purpose of protecting others and avoiding public trial where the facts might be inquired into"
 Lehman "COntaminated''
 The former comptroller said Lehman, who now is in Kilby prison serving a term for embedding city funds, con- ducted himself properly during the previous administration, land in my judgment would have continued to do so had he not been exposed to some contaminating superior officers when the Barrett administration went out and the present administration came in"
 Mir. Jones' statement, the warmest that has been issued since the city Shortages began coming to light, is a direct challenge to the present admin istration to show where anything went wrong during his administration as comptroller.
 His statement makes no effort to ''pass the buck" to others for what happened in the financial department when he was comptroller, but flatly as- serts his willingness 70 accept full re- sponsibility.
 Await Audit Finish
 F. Hopkinson Smith, in charge of the present audit of the city hall books, do so until his work is finished, but the alleged existence of a shortage in the books of the previous administration was the subject of widespread talk at city hall Saturday. It was believed that of the Alabama Great Southe rail road, involving $6,500. The auditors, early last week, denied such a shortage, but later said they could neither deny nor confirm it. An aft-rnoon news paper has published dates and other data in support of it's contention that the shortage exists. The date of this alleged dedication is January, 1921- nearly a year before the present admin istration took office.
 The full statement of former Comp troller Jones follows:
 Sundays Age-Herald carried a story to the effect that some of the shortages in the public improvement de- partment of the city comptroller's of f;oa dota hack tO the nreViOus adminiS- tration when Dr. N. A. Barrett was commission president and Jimmy Jones was comptroller.
 "The same story contained state ment by 'one city official that addi- tional shortages in accounts handled by the former administration might be ex- pected when the auditor submits his re-
 (COntinued on Page 2.)