Evening Republican, Volume 14, Number 256, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 27 October 1910 — RECORD OF A. A. FELL AS TP. TRUSTEE [ARTICLE]

RECORD OF A. A. FELL AS TP. TRUSTEE

Drew in Salary for Four Years $1,550.00, and iftMud in After Failure of Parker Bank Sum of $1,785.70. MORTGAGED HIS FARM & i Republican Candidate for County Treasurer Borrowed Money on Farm to Meet Township Needs. > . ■, A. A. Fell, of Carpenter township, is the republican candidate for treasurer of Jasper county. He is not extensively known throughout Jasper county but is known to every man in Carpenter township. During the fall he has been busy caring for a 77-acre farm and until the past few days has not bqen out soliciting votes. His name is as good as gold in Carpenter township, where his honor stands at the very pinnacle of good citizenship, and he meets up to the highest requirement of merit for the office he seeks. The Jasper County Democrat would smirch his character for honesty by claiming that he had not been honest in the transactions following the failure of the Parker bank in Remington, and the Republican takes pleasure in presenting to its readers all the facts of his experience following the failure of that bank. The bank closed its doors on Dec. 19, 1907. Mr. Fell had deposited in the bank at that time $3,210.70. Twelve days later he made the December draw for the township from the county, amounting to $4,712.75. With this money he carried on the business of the township until the funds began to be exhausted when he went to George A. Chappel, of Remington, and made application for a loan on his farm to get money with which to carry on the township’s business. He borrowed $1,785.70 and put the money into the township treasury and met the bills of Carpenter township as they came due. In July he made the semi-annual draw and there was enough money to meet all the expenses of the township and when he turned the office over to his successor the.lst of January, 1909, he turned over about $7,000, and the $1,785.70 of his own money went villi it. The day after the bank failure he first made an application for a loan, expecting to pay into the township treasury the amount that was lost through the bank failure. He called his advisory board together, consisting of George Welsh, John Hudson and Robert Irwin, and told them what he expected to do. They told him to wait and see what developments there would be in the bank’s settlement. Acting on their advice he waited, but when the township needed money he put the mortgage on the farm and met every obligation of the township. On the first of January, 1908, a law went into effect that relieved trustees and other officers of the responsibility of selecting a depository and by bonding the depository relieved the trustee of the possibility of loss. The law went into effect 13 days after the Parker bank failed. Before that time the officer selected a depository and chose the one most convenient to the business of .his locality. There was but one choice for Mr. Fell to make, that was the Parker bank, of Remington, and in keeping the township money there he did what any other citizen of that township would have done had he been the trustee. Was it right that he should lose the money deposited? The legislature decided that it was not right and passed a law to relieve responsible officers of such responsibility. . A democratic governor, Thos. R. Marshall, signed several bills for the relief of democratic officers who had lost money in a similar way in Jackson and Washington counties. Was it right or is it right that A. A. Fell should’lose by the fact that he had deposited in good faith the peoples’ money in a bank that the people were doing business with and that waff presumed by every man in Carpenter township to be solvent? Mr. Fell’s term of office expired Dec. 31, 1908, and he called his advisory board together and showed them that he had lost in the bank $3,210.70 and that he had mortgaged his farm and paid into the township treasury $1,785.70, and that there was still owing the township by reason of the bank’s failure $1,425. There had been paid in dividends at that time not a cent and the probability was that the < bank would not pay more than 20 per cent. For four years in office as trustee,

and Mr. Fell made a good one, he received a total salary of $1,550. He had mortgaged his farm and paid into the township treasury $1,785.70, or $235.70 more than he had received in salary. The advisory board decided that it was the right thing, the honest thing lor them to relieve him of the remaining indebtedness of $ 1,42 5, and they so ordered. Since that time the bank has paid in dividends 20 per cent and Mr. Fell has received $640.14 to offset the $1,785.70 he had paid into the township funds. The advisory board had relieved him of the $1,425 charge and it was expressly agreed that the dividends should go to him to repay him the money be had advanced, and now he is out above these dividends $1,343.56. Based upon the relief action of the last legislature and directed to help out the democrats of Jackson and Washington counties he would have tljat difference coming to him from Carpenter township and Governor Marshall would be bound by his previous action to' approve the claim. Mr. Fell stands ready to abide by any action of the courts and If it should be decided that he is indebted to the township the balance of the money lost in the Parker bank, amounting to $1,435, he will pay it in, even if it required him to sell the little farm. But every voter knows that this would not be right and every man of conscience would say that the Parker bank was the township depository and that not one penny’s worth of responsibility should attach to Mr. Fell for having lost the people’s money deposited there. This is the campaign that the Jasper bounty Democrat would make against A A. Fell, whose honor, whose uprightness and whose excellence of citizenship is not excelled in all Jasper county. A vote for Mr. Fell will be a vote for a good man, a qualified-man, and a man whom a vindictive newspaper would seek to shadow for a misfortune that the township should share the consequence of. An expert designer himself, the man direct from W. D. Schmidt & Co., can give you pointers on what’s right in men’s clothes. He’ll be here Friday and Saturday, Oct. 28th and 29th, with the snappiest, up-to-date assortment of woolens you ever saw. Also a full line of woolens for ladies’ tailor-made suits. Will be pleased to have the ladies of Rensselaer call. Model Clothing Co., Simon Lidpokl, Manager. Wait for our car of Michigan potatoes; you’ll save money by doing so. ROWLES & PARKER. Calling cards at the Republican.