Evening Republican, Volume 19, Number 120, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 21 May 1915 — BUTTER GRAFT IS SAID TO BE $2,000 [ARTICLE]

BUTTER GRAFT IS SAID TO BE $2,000

Employes of Purdue Creamery Have Given Notes Covering Shortage and Incident is Closed. In the Indianapolis News of Wednesday Billy Blodgett printed what may be taken as the official statement of President W. E. Stone, of Purdue university, concerning the defalcation on the part of employes - of the creamery at the university. The following is an excerpt from the article in the News: “What in reality had happened was that two laborers employed in the creamery branch of the agricultural department had for several years been engaged in petty grafting in the sale of butter and have been called on to'make settlement for about $2,000. There is also indications that the laborers not only grafted from the creamery department, but that they ‘short-weighted’ the public to whom the butter was sold. “One of the branches of the agricultural department of Purdue is the creamery, and the material bought is usually for experimental purposes. One of the products of the creamery is a very high grade of butter and this butter is sold to the people of Tafayette. Under the system of checking it was shown there were discrepancies between the record of. material bought and the product sold and a quiet investigation followed. “It was discovered that two men employed as laborers had formed a combination whereby the man who was to deliver the butter to the purchasers was able to take opt an ad-

ditional supply on his own account, and this was sold and the money split between the two men in the combination. These men confessed, signed a statemet of what they had done and signed also a note for $2,000 and the trustees are now getting the money on the note. “That is the sum and substance of the whole affair, and but for the telephone message to the governor it would have been settled quietly. - As the matter stands the finances of the university are not involved in any way and the petty grafting that was discovered is such as would happen in-any line of business.”