Jasper County Democrat, Volume 8, Number 25, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 23 September 1905 — JASPER COUNTY FARM. [ARTICLE]

JASPER COUNTY FARM.

We are informed that the Jasper County Poor Farm under the management of Philip Blue, from Aug. 31, 1904, to Aug. 31,1005, shows receipts from all services $2,981.63 and expenses $2,352.88, leaving a net balance of $628.75. The invoice shows S6OO more -personal property Aug. 31.1905, than when Mr. Blue took charge of the farm, and yet during the last year The Jasper County Democrat has repeatedly spoken of the farm as a “financial sink hole.”—The Which Is It Review. If the “publisher” of the Review would do his own thinking and informing instead of letting interested parties do it for him he might publish more accurate news ■—were he so inclined, of course. The facts are that the reports of the retiring poor farm superintendent show that the receipts for

the year ending August 31, 1905, were 92,981.63, and the expenses for the same period were *2,205.60, leaving an apparent surplus of $776.03. BUT, the report for December did not contain the 1150 quarterly salary for the superintendent, which would cut this apparent surplus down that much, and in the March, 1905, report is included $256 that was reported in sales’ report of June, 1904, and therefore has no business to be reported as a part of the “receipts” for the past year. The two items cut down the apparent surplus of $776.03, to $371.03, which shows, on the face, that the farm has been self supporting for the past year. During the past year, however, there has not been scarcely anything paid for improvements or repairs of any kind, and the expenses are for maintenance alone. We do not know, either, how many outstanding bills there may be that properly belong to the expense account of said year. It might be well, also, to give the receipts and expenditures for the preceding year, and (including the $256 reported in June, 1904, which we have very proper: ly excluded from the March,. 1905, report in our figures above) we find that the expenses for the year from August 31, 1903, to August 31, 1904, were $3,092.47, and receipts for the same period were $1,626.61, making a net deficit for that year of $1,465.86. Now, regarding the property on hand as reported. We know nothing about the values placed on the property in either case, but accepting each as correct and we find Blue’s report shows $185.47 worth more than Clark’s. The corn, potatoes, etc., in the Blue report are still in the field and are estimated. They must also be harvested, and the yield is problematical. The two reports are published in another part of this paper side by side and the reader can judge for himself. The figures The Democrat has published have been taken from the records and were not given to us by any county officer who might be interested in making a good showing, on paper, for the late administration and a bad one for the previous one. We think the records in the auditor’s office will bear out the statement that the Jasper county poor farm has been a gigantic sink-hole.