The Kinsley graphic. [volume] (Kinsley, Kan.) 1890-1940, 1895-10-11
KlNsLEY EDWARDS COUNTY, KANSAS. OCTOBER 1895

former republican registers of this
county as deliberate and premeditated
fee-grabbers. We believe them to be
honest men, and that in taking the
same fees that Mr.. Evans has taken.
they did not violate the law. The
charge is made that Mr.. Evans exacts
and receives both the item Of 1Octs.
under the head of certificate of filing
and recording, and, also, 25ctS. under
the item of certificate and seal. That
this is false, anyone can prove who
will take the trouble to go to the court
house and compare his charges with
the recorded instruments. He makes
only single charge of 25cts. for GER
tihcate of fling and recording, to which
under the generally accepted construc-
tion of the statute he is entitled. The
Mercury also makes the broad asser-
ton that Mr.. Evans 'shas collected an
illegal fee of 25cts. on every deed and
mortgage flied in his Office the past
two years." The Mercuru demonstra-
tes the falsity of this statement by
afterward figuring out the legal fees
for the recording of warranty deed
to be one dollar. For the recording of
over two hundred warranty deeds the
records show that he has charged one
dollar each to which sum the Mercuy
admits that he is entitled. AS con-
sequence he certainly could not have
collected an overcharge of 25cts. on
these two hundred instruments. The
editor of the Mercury is lawyer but
we presume he would repudiate the
legal doctrine, when applied to his
statements regarding Mr.. Evans, that
when one has willfully misrepresented
IA single fact we are at liberty to dis
regard his whole statement.
The assertion is also made that for
every deed Mr.. Evans has charged the
sum Of SI25. This statement is
malicious inaccuracy. The records
will show that he has not charged az
much as 81. .25 Oh one half of the deeds
filed during his term of office.
1t is not necessary for the voters of
the county to have go-between to
settle the question as to this matter of
fees. There is no call for arbitration,
that the editor of the Mercup and
Tony pick a man and they two pick
third man and these three ''go at ran
dom to the records" They would
probably go to them ut random and
come away from them at random and
nothing would come OF it except Il lot
OF jockeying as to who would get de-
cision, that the Mercu1y would not
abide by if it was against it. If any
voter is in doubt about this question,
let him go to the records himself.
they are open to the inspection of the
public and any man who can count a
hundred can figure out the number of
folios in a deed. and add to that the
other fees that are conceded to be
legal, such as filing, indexing, etc.
The only question he will have to de-
eide for himself is whether the register
is entitled to the 10ct. or the 25ct.
fee, which has been discussed at length
This is a matter that has never been
decided by any competent authority,
so far as we can learn, and as tie
Merculy produces none, we will assume
that there is none. The editor of the
Mercury with unbounded selfconfidence
asserts that his construction of the
statute is right and III support thereof
produces himself as uthorIty. If he
were the Kansas Court Of Appeals,
Southern department, Western Divis-
ion, we would have to submit to his
over-uling the generally accepted con-
structiOn of this statute for over a
quarter of a century, but when we con-
slider the fact that he is not that august
tribunal, and that his decision settles
nothing, we ask you to accepS our ver-
sion of the law. which is, {. say the
least, ihe more charitable =, since
we do not arbitrarily decid" That the
several hundred good republicans who
have been elected to the office of regis
ter of deeds in this state, have delib-
erately stolen from their constituents.
The Mercury man not being able to
find anything to say that would in any
way reflect OIL our present County
Treasurer S. 6. Clark, turns his i'm.
aginatioI loose and says: I'VE be
here that when Mr.. Hoffman takes
charge of the Office he will find the
| books full of errors.'' The Mercury
| doubts Mr.. Clark ability because be
! never held Office before. that seem.
to be good logic, again. The best