King County's Clerk and the Ghost of a Defaulting Treasurer
A petition asks King County taxpayers to guarantee Clerk John W. Maple's bond, reviving memories of Adolph Krug's default and the 'kid committee' that controlled public money.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
John W. Maple, the county clerk, has a petition to the taxpayers of King County asking them to sign a bond for him to obtain possession of his official trust. It is for the good name of the county that a person to whom is entrusted the custody and possession of county moneys should be compelled to file a bond before entering upon the duties of his office. If Mr. Maple were a man of recognized ability, he would not be placed in this humiliating position; nor would he have any difficulty in obtaining a bond without the endorsement of the responsible papers of the community.
The people of this county have had one illustration of the folly of permitting irresponsible parties to control public officers and indirectly public moneys. Adolph Krug, the defaulting city treasurer, turned himself over to the tender mercies of the "kid committee," and the consequences of this action not only to the taxpayers, but to his bondsmen are too well known to require comment. Mr. Maple contemplated a similar course, provided he could find men foolish enough to furnish him a good and sufficient bond.
When Mr. Maple is able to satisfy the people of King County that he is competent to discharge the duties of the office to which he has been elected, and to convince them that he did not agree in writing to turn over the county funds, so far as their safe keeping was concerned, into the hands of irresponsible politicians, then and not till then will he be entitled to the sympathy and assistance.
It is a significant fact, and one that goes far toward demonstrating the truth of the charges against Mr. Maple, that the Populist party, to whom he owed his nomination and election, are most pronounced in their opposition to him and his methods. Mr. Maple has no one but himself to blame for his humiliation. He has, fortunately for the good of the people, demonstrated his unfitness to hold office before he obtained the opportunity of doing harm.
“Mr. Maple has no one but himself to blame for his humiliation. He has, fortunately for the good of the people, demonstrated his unfitness to hold office before he obtained the opportunity of doing harm.”
Public officials still post bonds, and fights over who controls county money remain a civic flashpoint. Maple's failure to secure a bond—and the memory of defaulting treasurer Krug—shows how a routine bonding requirement can become a referendum on competence and political patronage.
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