Elmore bulletin. [volume] (Rocky Bar, Idaho) 1889-1906, 1897-07-28
A Card from w. II. Manion.

ply as possible to the article devo-
ted to myself which appeared in the
Gilmore County Republican of July
10, 1897, and signed Citizen" By
this publication l am represented as
a very bad and dangerous man to
put forward as the successor of w.
A. Reynolds. AS To the disgrace to
Gilmore county by my appointment
to the honorable pos ition of Auditor
and Recorder, | W ill say that the
best citizens of M puntain Home,
both Democrats and Republicans,
signed my petition pr the appoint
ment and became sureties on my
bond, knowing well what my official
acts in the past had been. AS to
my candidacy for the assessor
office, following my term as COM
missioner, | was defeated for the
nomination, as stated-but | took
my defeat without a murmur and
remained in party line just the same.
| would ask Citizen" if defeat for
public Office is a disgrace? If so,
perhaps he has met the same fate
AS to my appointment by Mr.. Rey-
nolds as deputy clerk of the district
court and ex-officio a uditor and re-
corder, had / been the man "Citi-
zen" represents me I'd be, | am sat-
isfed that l could not have held my
job long. The affairs of the office
were at many times left in my keep
ing, and had they not been con-
Quoted upon honora BILE principles
the principal would certainly have
supplied my place with an honor
able and capable persp on.
l will now refer I'd the Wicker
sham matter. To present this in
diligently to the citiz en- who is not
familiar with county governments
it will be necessary 70 r me to recite
some statutory law. Sec. 1866 of
the Revised Statutes SAYS: "The
board must require their clerk at
the close of every session to furnish
them with list of all bills and ac-
counts of every nature approved by
them at said session, giving the
name of each person in whose favor
an account or bill of any kind or
nature has been allowed, with the
amount allowed him and out of
what fund the same is to be paid.
They must compare their list with
the record of the proc eedings and if
not found correct, make it SO, and
the treasurer must pay no warrant
drawn on any fund in the county
treasury that does ~ OF correspond
With the files furnished him by the
board" This law was not complied
with by the boa,d, for the reason
that the board was Igu orant of such
law. The first term t hat | served
as q commissioner there never was
list of this kind furnished the
treasurer, and my tw 70 other asso-
ciates knew nothing of this law
but at the same time we were pay
ing an attorney to advise us on all
county matters, and h didn't seem
to know of the existence of such
law or he would have called our
attention to it. 1t was important,
as Understands illega acts began
during this period, the second year
of his term of office.
Upon my second term of office as
county commissioner the same law
was not complied with until about
the time that the commissioners
were informed of Understands con-
duct. Then the law above referred
to was cited to the CO minis sioners,
and it was seen at once that ignor-
ance of the law by the commission
ers made it possible for the auditor
to draw these illegal W arrants.
When the board n let in regular
session in January, after getting
through with the regul ar rotine bus
ness, we took up tn s matter and
after ascertaining as best we could
the amount of such illegal issue of
warrants, we notified Wickersham s
| DOllucLIOh w ulCOb no t1iiu oCO "hdo
might be done in the premises. At
such meeting it was agreed that
Mrs. Wickersham, as deputy, should
draw all warrants and sign for the
same, and that Yves. Wickersham' S
salary should be held by the county
until the end of his term of office.
Wickersham had made pledges to
his bondsmen and to the members
of the order to which he was then a
recognized member that he would
from that time forward conduct
himself honorably and attend to the
affairs of his office uprightly, if he
was given the opportunity. About
this time Mr.. Catalan came up
from Boise at the instance of the
bondsmen, and at meeting an
agreement was drawn up between
Wickersham and bis bondsmen
that Mrs. Wickersham should have
the entire issuance of warrants, and
that all salary earned by Wicker
sham should be held from him
Many of the influential men and
taxpayers, both demo Gratis and re