Jasper County Democrat, Volume 13, Number 59, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 2 November 1910 — MORE ABOUT MR. FELL’S SHORTAGE. [ARTICLE]

MORE ABOUT MR. FELL’S SHORTAGE.

The Rensselaer Republican, in j its usual most vindictive arid in-! suiting manner, has had consid- j erable to say about The Demo l l crat’s trying to niake ex-trustee j Fell of Carpenter tp.,- —who is. the present republican candidate for county treasurer —out a rascal because he lost money in the Parker hank- ; Readers of The Democrat know that this paper has tried to do nothing of the kind, and in fact has not mentioned Mr. Fell in any way except in connection with other re-

!>u; ikan official > '*i |a-pcr county wh • . ere found short in their acc> un:~ In the held examiners of the 'tate accounting boards. The Republican has all along had n : ing but denunciation for this n •n-partisati accounting law. and its- reasons tor denouncing it is because it has feared from" the first a probing into the offices of jasper county. That its fears were well based# is shown from the fact that the examiners have found the following shortages in the accounts of republican officials here: Fred Karch. trustee Walker tp..s 781.89 Mcses Leopold, ex-treasurer City of Rensselaer (iand the republican county chairman) 76.71 Paulsen. ex-treasurer of Wheatheld school board ... 67.30 S. L. Luce, ex-trustee Keener tp 725.00 A. A. Full, ex-trustee Carpenter *!»-. 1.423.00 Total 3.075.10 Xot a democratic official in the lot found short, and. previously stated, the democrats have had eight of the thirteen township trustees and two school boards a part of the time during the period covered by the examination. So. it appears, there is “reason in the madness” of the Republican. A part of this money has been paid back, but Mr. Luce ( who is a brother-in-law of Abe Halleck and was the subcontractor on that Burk bridge extension a few years ago > has moved out of the state and it is a question whether his bondsmen can be held for it or not. Mr. Fell, the Republican says, in effect, will only pay the amount found against him at the end of a lawsuit. Mr. Karen paid back the amount found against him, as have the others, which were due to, errors. But that they were errors doesn’t change the fact that they would likely never have been discovered but * for this accounting law which the Republican so fiercely assails. Now, as to Mr. Fell, no one knew, so far as we can learn, except himself, his advisory board and the trustee of the Parker lank, how much money he had in the bank at the time of the failure. It was stated that he had but little. The writer asked

im personally about the matter, '.ut got an evasive reply. The h .ok- were turned over to his -ticces- >r and the people of Carpenter tp.. almost to a man sup- * *>ed ‘vhatever sum he had lost had been made good. W e thought so and everyone else thought the >ame. Some few months ago the Indianapolis papers published that the examiners had founcf trustee Charles V. May of Carpenter tp., —the present trust ee---$1,425 short in his accounts. This article was copied by both The Democrat and Republican. We were very much surprised over the alleged finding and made inquiry of both the county auditor and county superintendent forinformation. but each stated that l cy were 3lso astonished by the publication as they understood Mr. May hail a “clean-bill" from the examiners. Mr. May called us up by phone after our publication of the article and stated that it must be a mistake, as he had a “clean bill" and would bring it over the next time ke came to Rensselaer, which would be in a few days, and show it to us. He said nothing about its being ex-trustee Fell who was meant, and apparently did not know that it was he. \\ e then called up—the same day we talked with Mr. May—the ; office of the state board of accounts at Indianapolis by longdistance phone and was told that the shortage was charged against the ex-trustee and not against Mr. May, and that the reporters of the Indianapolis papers who had come in and taken the amount of the shortage from the records had by mistake taken it as against the present trustee in , stead of Mr. Fell. A copv of , the official report of the examin ers was mailed us that night (which we still have) and a full ; and complete correction of the j charges as against Mr. May was | published next day in The Democrat. with extracts from the rejport. showing that the charge of ; shortage was against Mr Fell. jThis was done-without any personal * feeling whatever against Mr. Fell and without comment as to the justice or injustice of the claim. This publication in The Demo'crat was the first intimation that t:e people of Carpenter township or Jasper county had that

all the loss of township funds in the Parker bank had- not been made good. It had been currently reported that Mr. Fell had mongaged his farm and paid every penny of the loss, and outside of the advisory board of that township who knew the facts, everyone believed this was the case Neither then nor at any’ time since has Mr. Fell ever mentioned the matter in any way to us or tell us what he had lost in the Parker bank, although he usually called on us for a friendly chat whenever he was in town, and has done so many times since this, for we have been acquainted for a number of vears.

Later, in conversation with Mr. May, he stated that he supposed this 51.425 was the amount Mr. Fell lost in the hank, and as tb;had been made good to Fell—illegal}- though it was —by the advisor V board, he thought with us that the dividends paid by the hank belonged to the township arid not to Mr. Fell. But he also stated that it was reported that ‘Fell had filed no claim against the bank—and we have since so heard from several different parties —and he (May) ltad had no notice of any dividends and knew nothing whatever about any. The whole thing seemed to have been kept very secret, and would have never been made generally known except for the examining board. Some time after this, in reply to one of the Republican’s attacks on the accounting law and the writer, to e* mentioned the alleged shortages found in the county and the statement of the Republican that Mr. Fell would only pay his shortage back at the end of a lawsuit. We stated that if the advisory board had made Mr. I'ell’s* loss good to him that the latter was in duty bound to turn the 20 per cent dividends thus far paid over to the township, but Mr. May had told us that he had never received a penny. \\ e also stated that if it was the law .—which it was—that officials who lost money in the McCoy bank, should make the good—and they did make it good, one democrat mortgaging Iris farm—it it was right for them to pay, it was also right for Mr. Fell to make good. On this proposition there can be no argument. The Republican says now that some 83.000 \vas lost in the bank and that the advisory board "relieved” Mr. Fell of about onehalt this amount and agreed that he should have all the dividends paid by the hank, amounting »«.- far to 20 per cent, ft also* says there was nothing to conceal in the matter. Then why was it concealed? For this is the first time the public has ever been enlightened as to the amount the trustee had in the bank or that he was receiving the dividends. Up to the time the field examiners' report was made public the |>eople of -Carpenter tp.. and the entire county supposed the loss had been made good by the trustee. When this report came out they supposed that 51.425 was the full amount he had in the bank and that the advisory hoard had tried to make this good to the trustee, although it had no power whatever to do so. The advisory boards cannot make laws of their own-in defiance of the state laws. The Republican says that Mr. Fell ought to be relieved because the last legislature relieved certain democratic officers in Jackson county in a similar case. We don’t know whether the officers relieved were democrats or republicans, and it doesn’t matter. But in those cases Jhe officers. it seems, had paid in the amount of the loss "sustained by the bank failure and the people of the respective townships and county presented signed petitions to the legislature asking for their relief, and the legislature ordered their successors to pav back to them the losses sustained. Mr. Fell can, perhaps, even yet be re-embursed for any loss he has sustained, but the township advisory + board has no power to reimburse him: this cari only be done by the legislature. There is a right way and a wrong wav to do certain things, and the wrong way seems to have been used and a lawsuit must result for the township to recover. One of the greatest mistakes that was made was the trying to keep the matter of the amount lost and the illegal action of the advisory board from the taxpayers of the township interested. They had a right to know what had been done all the way along. If they have been deceived in this matter perhaps they have in others.