Show ONLY 2000 A City Hall Shortage in Accounts YOUNG MR SHANNON Recommended to Mr Hyams by Judge Powers NOW ON THE RETIRED LIST The Leviathan Labors of the Finance Committee Com-mittee to Seek for Something Which Mr Hyams had Found and Settled Only about two thousand dollars short in the city recorders office This is the latest piece of news that comes from the inner circles of that pure and incorruptible organization known as the Liberal party To ascertain the truth of it THE HERALD started a vigorous course of investigation yesterday and learned that there was not a scintilla of doubt about it The Tribune yesterday intimated that there was something rotten inDenmark but there stopped short just as it did a few months ago when it said there were four boodlers in the city council and left the public the pleasant task of guessing which particular four were referred re-ferred to To learn the real facts place the blame where it belonged and to free the innocent ones in the recorders office from resting under the suspicion the Tribunes Trib-unes indiscriminate charge brought upon them THE HERALD reporter went direct to the recorder Mr Louis Hyams himself and asked for the truthabout the matter Previous to that however he sought I Messrs Pendletou Pembroke and Lynn of the city council and asked them what they knew about the alleged shortage Mr Pendleton knew nothing had heard rumors but had been home a good deal lately and knew absolutely nothing Mr Pembroke had heard a little more one man had told him there was a shortage of 1000 in he recorders office another I man said the amount was 1400 still another said it was 1500 but he knew nothing at all about it and he was free to say that he knew little or nothing about the inner workings of the city hall he had never even been shown a sight of the plans for the new city hal till one day lately he happened to run across the mayor and treasurer conning them over he was on no committee except the fire committee and for whatever ho learned about the city affairs he had to depend on the reports as they were presented in the council and that was perhaps one reason why he said a good deal he migbt not otherwise have said But as to the shortage he knew nothing at all A talk with Mr Lynn yielded something more definite Mr Lynn is a member of the finance committ ee and when interrogated interro-gated admitted that his committee had been at work for some time investigating the license department of the recorders office He couldnt say what tho shortage amounted to and was reluctant tOsay anything any-thing whatever till the committee got further into it Did the recorder still receive money for licenses l lcenses He thought not but couldnt be sure The license clerk was young Mr Shannon Shan-non was it not Yes he thought it was Andhe had recently retired had he II not lI lIYes Yes he rather thought he had How long since he had first heard of the shortage Well it might be n month or so maybe two months When would the committee meet againThey They meet again Saturdaytbis evening Mr Lynn further said the committee was interested in covering up nothing the truth ought to come outronly he thought it was all premature as yet He stated also al-so that the recorder was free from suspicion sus-picion and that whatever the shortage in his depar tent he would have to make it up RECORDER HYAMS The talk with Recorder Hyams indicates that Mr Lynns committee is not made up of the expert bookkeepers one would expect ex-pect from Mr Lynns bank connections or else that Mr Hyams is much quicker in getting at the truth than the gentlemen of the finance committee Mr Hyams was at first reluctant to say anything but when the reporter pointed out to him that it was due those who were innocent thattho real facts should be known he consented to talk a little more freely The thing in a nutshell is this said Mr Hyams There was a little discrepancy dis-crepancy but it has all been made good and theres anendpf it The public and your friends will be interested in-terested to know who was the culpable party Mr Hyams said the reporter I prefer to make no charges or name no names The trouble was in the license depart mont was it nOL I was The license clerk was young Mr Shannon Shan-non was it not Yes He had sole charge of the license books v Yes YeWas Was this the samevoung Mr Shannon who was formerly private secretary to Judge Powers I hI believe so May I ask what recommendations he brought to you Well Judgo Powers and others recommended recom-mended him Hum 1 Mr Hyams said the reporter there arc all sorts of rumors flying about as to the real amount of the shortage I have heard 1000 and 5000 named by different parties < Well you can say replied Mr Hyams somewhat hotly that it wasnt 5000 nor it wasnt 4000 nor it wasnt 3 000 no and it wasnt 5250 That was as far down the scale as Mr Hyams went You say the amount has been made good queried the reporter doesnt the city lose by the dishonesty of its employees em-ployees 1 Mr HyamB shrugged his shoulders expressively ex-pressively Thats thequeston he said whether it oughtntto or not But when they come t you and say you are under bonds and are responsible for your department depart-ment when you havnt put your clerks under bonds trusting in their honesty andyou lose by one of themwhat can you do but put up The reporter interpreted this last remark t mean that the committee or some one else in authority had already arrived at the facts laid them before the recorder and asked him to pungle up We give this to Mr Lynn for what it may be worth From other sources it was learned that the shortage was a peculiarly glaring and of ordinary one one that any man sense must know would be discovered in time Persons applying for licenses formerly paid their money to the license clerk and he kept a stub of the licenses issued is-sued turning the money over to the treasurer treas-urer At regular intervals it is the business busi-ness of the finance committee to see that fnance the total of the figures on the stubs agrees with the total amount received by the treasurer treas-urer About two months ago the finance committee were puzzled to find that the total represented by the stubs was about 2000 one report says 1800 another 2200 less than that paid over to the treasurer treas-urer The thing would seem to be as simple as A B C and was to Mr Hyams Why the committee should spend so much time and labor on the problem will remain a query With the light TUB HERALD has shed on the matter perhaps the movements of the committee at their meeting this evening will be somewhat expedited Next Tuesday Tues-day evening we may look to see Mr Pembroke Pem-broke if not Mr Hall on his feet demanding de-manding an investigation into the citys revenue departments THE HERALD SUg frents that it nant rome too soon or be too no n 0 thorough The public may recall that some weeks ago an assistant treasurer was created and that to all the queries as to what on earth Mr Walden wanted of an assistant the city council made no reply I now comes out that the duty of receiving money for licenses was transferred from the recorders i re-corders department to tho treasurers the treasurer receives the money issues a receipt and on this receipt the recorder issues a license This change was made when the shortage first leaked out I must have been rather humiliating to the recorder but how all those changes in the old customs could nave been made without eliciting from some one of the council a query as to what it was all for is another of the things unexplainable Said one Liberal gentleman to D HERALD reporter yesterday in a tone of intense disgust I hope this business will have one effect at least and that is to choke off Powers and others of the politicians who have made the officials life a burden since they went Into the city hall demanding places for their pets in all the branches of the city service war TUE TRIBUNE mOWED ON THE SCANDAL There was tall disgust in Liberalquar ters that the Tribune shouldnt have kept mum on the matter llt could have been hushed up by the payment of the money said one only the Tribune has had the knife into certain of the city hall crowd since they all bought stock in the reorganized reorgan-ized Times and divided city business with aur cty that paper In this connection may be related a certain cer-tain little yarn well authenticated now going the rounds During the last week in November a Tribune agent waited on Mr Clute passed behind the counter took the favorite office chair cocked his heels up on the desk and inquired When will the delinquent tax lists bo ready TI j For whom asked Mr Clute The Tribune Never was the reply The lists came out in THE HERALD and Times in due season and therein is i nrnh ably found another reason for the Tribunes sudden outburst of righteousness over the iniquity at the city hal I Mr Shannon has anything to say on the subject of the alleged shortage the columns col-umns of THE HEKALD arc open to him |