People's voice. [volume] (Wellington, Sumner County, Kansas) 1890-1917, 1894-10-11
A Letter from ROGERS.
WELLINGTON. KAs.. Oct II. IS.

WELLINGTON, KAs., Oct II, 1894
To the Voters Of Sumner County,:
1t will be impossible for me to meet
large portion of the voters Of Sum-
ner county between now and Novem-
Der 9Th, and believing that have
something of interest to say to every
voter, have adopted this plan of
conveying it to them.
Possibly it may not be generally
known that several of the ex-cOunty
officers of Sumner county are default
erS. Such is the case. Ex-Clerk of
the district court. ThOS. DOnahue,
left his Office with his accounts
s., 5OOshOrt. His bOndsmen have paid
part of his shortage and there is an
action now pending against DOnahue
and his 6OndSmen to recover 81, 40S07.
This suit was filed January 18th. 1893.
and is not yet ready for trial.
Suits are now pending against VIM.
H. Carnes, eX-cOunty clerk. and his
0OndSmen to recover Sl.572 50 Of the
county'S money. These suits were
filed last spring. The defendants
filed demurrerS which have not yet
been passed upon by the court.
Another suit is pending against ex-
county treasurer, j. T. Sturm. and
his bOndSmen TO recover sci. 0S of the
c0unty'S money. Mr.. Sturm went out
Of Office almost two years prior to the
filing of this suit.
A law passed in 1891 provided that
county surveyors should receive S4.OO
per day for keeping his Office open at
least one day in the week. Ex-Coun-
ty Surveyor Lou Simmons construed
this law to permit him to keep his
office open six days in the week and
charge the county 4.OO per day. For
what? 'T) make plans, he testified.
And when asked what plans, be an
Swered when the room was too
warm | made a plan to open the win
dow and when toO cold made a plan
to build fire." For such services he
took S1O4.OO from the county treasury
before the supreme court could choke
him off.
John W. Nyce, cashier of the Stock
Exchange bank at Caldwell, was
clerk of the district court for two
years ending January, 1889, and 81 $50
of the cOuntyS money stuck to his
fingers when he went out of Office and
was retained by him for over two
years, during which time he loaned it
to the good people of Sumner county
at two per cent per month and would
still have been gathering in the inter
est had not Jim HeSkett procured an
investigation of his account to be
made.
Such is the partial record of some
of the ex-republiCan county officials
At the last session of the legislature
a law was passed reducing the fees
and salaries of all of our county Off
GERS. Regardless of It's provisions
Sheriff S. S. WOOdcOck is charging
the fees allowed under the old law
and Register of Deeds W. j. NewbOld
refuses to file reports required by the
law and refuses 10 pay money belong
Ing to the county into the county
treasury. These officers have been
violating the provisions of this law
for nine months and no effort has
been made to compel them to COM
ply with its provisions.
Last July the county commissioners
decided to re-let the county printing
Lyman Nauglp offered to do the coun-
t. nrinting for fifty per cent of legal
rates, but R. 7. SimOnS of Caldwell
was candidate for representative and
needed some financial assistance and
true to the instinct of Republican
county officers the printing was let to
Mr.: SimOns at nearly full legal rates
and the contract with SimOns will
cost the taxpayer fully $1,000 more
than the contract with Naugle
would have cost. What is the odds?
Liz people lOOG Cne Oils.
That the prohibitory law is being
openly and VIGOROUSLY violated in
Wellington, Caldwell and other local.
tiles cannot be doubted. That Off
GERS of the law knowingly permit
these violations there can be little
doubt. No officer can walk down the
main streets in Wellington or Cald.
well or stop at the Leland hotel in
Caldwell and not know of the fragrant
violations Of the law. 1t is the spe.
cial duty Of the sheriff and county at
tOrney to enforce the law made so by
special statute and having taken the
oath of office required by law are NOR
ally and legally bound to enforce It,
Nevertheless no effort is made by our
officers to enforce it.
Several weeks ago an ATTEMPT was
made by deputy sheriff to arrest
VIM. Nutting at Hunnewell: Nutting
pummeled the officer and got away,
going to Rock Falls in Oklahoma. five
miles from Hunnewell. The South
Haven New Era contained an article
few weeks age from which | quote
the following; "Mr. Nutting makes
no bones of saying that he has been
bled often and freely by the officers of
this county for the privilege of run
ming his drug store at Hunnewell as a
joint, in open violation of the law
and that such was the mission of
Henderson on his last visit to him.
He had made up his mind, be saws, to
be bled no longer. Nutting says the
county officers do not want him for
the reason that he knows enough of
their conduct in connection with
Joints and the running of the booths
during the strip opening tomake them
chary of placing him in a position
forcing him to tell what he knows