Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 41, Number 35, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 12 January 1909 — WAS NO SHORTAGE; EVERY CENT PAID [ARTICLE]

WAS NO SHORTAGE; EVERY CENT PAID

Former Treasurer Nichols Delayed Settlement Only Because He Believed that He Was Overcharged.

The Republican was in error when it stated in the Friday issue of the Semi-Weekly and in the Thursday Daily that the county commissioners had orderd an investigation of the books of the county treasurer and auditor to adjust the accounts between former Treasurer Nichols and the county. The order entered by the commissioners concluded with the language “It la further ordered and agreed that in case there should be errors found on further examina- ! tion that lu such case the difference shall be adjusted as equity may require.” The inference was that there was to be an investigation, and a head line in the Republican said that there would be. The Jasper County Democrat calls attention to this error in an article, that' venomously attacks and libels Mr. Nichols, and that leaves the impression Mr. Nichols is a defaulter to the sum of $7,500, when the editor of that paper knew, or could have ascertained if he had wanted to be fair, that 36 hours before the Democrat was printed Mr. Nichols had paid to Mr. Allman the sum of $3,649.47, and had the receipt of the present treasurer for every dollar j that was claimed by the auditor and the commissioners as coming to the county. When Mr. Nichols went out of office a year ago he turned over to : the new treasurer the amount he claimed to have of the county money. ■ The amount failed to correspond with j the accounts kept by the auditor and j Mr. Nichols claimed there was some mistake. He stated that he was willing to make settlement whenever he was certain that the record was right, but he did not want to pay any of his money into the treasury. During the summer his daughter, Mi s Bertha Nichols, worked in the treasurer’s office, going over the records and Auditor Leatherman also done what he could to properly adjust the matter. As set forth in the order of the commissioners and published in the Republican, errors in Mr. Nichols’ favor were found in the sum of $1,525.01. This was not nearly so much as Mr. Nichols had claimed, but it was sufficient to Justify him in the belief that errors had been made, and possibly more than shown in the investigation thus far made. Mr. Nichols stated all the time that he was ready to settle all that was coming to the county, and he postponed doing so merely to determine whether or not he was turning in more than was coming to the county. There was no way in which he could escape the payment, as he was bonded and ‘would be compelled to settle whenever the county commissioners made demand. Mr. Nichols wanted the commissioners to say that if he had paid more money into the county than was coming it would be

paid back to him, and he took this position on the advice of his attorney. He paid it in under protest but he paid every dollar and he had a receipt for every dollar 36 hours before the Jasper County Democrat went to press, and yet that paper says that “so far as the Democrat was able to learn yesterday (Friday) morning” Mr. Nichols had not paid what the commissioners had demanded. Mr. Babcock was at the court house and he did not ask Treasurer Allman if the amount had been settled. He did ask Miss Luers, Mr. Allman’s deputy, evidently selecting a time when Mr. Allman, to whom he has recently taken a strange dislike, was out |of the office. Miss Luers told him that she did not*know, and that was the Investigation that he made to try to avoid finding out that Mr. Nichols was not in debt a single dollar to Jasper county. With the facts where he could have ascertained them in a single minute had he been disposed to be either fair or honest, he maliciously and purposely libeled "Mr. Nichols and headed an article in his paper “Short $7,500, was extreasurer ‘Doc’ Nichols.” j It is doubtful if there is one man in 10,000 who would have undergone what S. R. Nichols did as treasurer jof Jasper county and have come out from under the load untarnished. He | was in debt personally to the McCoy bank $12,000 and he had $23 305 deI posited there when the crash came. ;The courts offset his $12,000 indebjtedness against a similar amount of his deposit of county funds and he ! later secured dividends on the re- 1 maining $11,305 to the amount of ! about $4,800, and still has coming j $6,500 or near that amount The | present law would have protected him in the loss, but he fell for it himself and stood up and took hi 3 medicine like a man. S. R. Nichols does not owe the county a single dollar and did not when the Jasper County Democrat was published Friday evening. And the amount he owed prior to that time was protested and paid under protest. The accounts between two officers might fail to balance without intentional wrong and while we have the greatest amount of confidence in the ability and honesty of Mr. Leatherman, it is barely possible that mistakes may have occurred in the settlement of the business of the two officers and we consider it entirely apropos that an investigation be made that shall leave no uncertainty as to the accuracy of the settlement. A bill will no doubt be passed at the present session of the state legislature that will provide for expert examination and a uniform system of book-keeping and the fact . that it is being considered is proof that its need has been felt in other 1 places. t