Lewiston daily teller. (Lewiston, Idaho) 1900-1901, 1900-11-03

AhS AOiiCi HAS Hot yet lcdIueu tuaI
the law under which the late board Of
county commissioners was impeached was
not passed till after the board of which I.
l.. Armstrong, Z. Mccall and f L.
Parker were members had served their
terms and been honorably discharged.
This law went into effect April IA, 1900.
The republican board took the oath of
Office January I899."
The above from the pen of one Newton
Hibbs. political editor of the Morning
Tribune, is in reply to the statement
ment made i'll the Teller that the old
democratic board of county commission
ers were guilty of the same acts and liza
BILE to the same penalties as the present
board in the case just decided.
The statute under whose provisions the
present case was brought is section 74so
of the Revised Statutes of Idaho, in force
since 1887. This section reads as follows:
"When an information in writing
verified by the oath of any person is pre-
sented to district court, alleging that
any officer within the Jurisdiction of the
court has been guilty of charging and
collecting illegal fees for services rem
dered in his Office or has refused or neg
lected to perform the official duties per.
taing to his Office the court must cite the
party charged to appear before the court
at time not more than ten nor less than
five days from the time the information
was presented, and on that day or some
subsequent day not more than twenty
days from that on which the information
was presented, must proceed to hear in
sunni mary manner, the info1mation and
evidence offered in support of the same
and the answer and evidence offered by
the party informed against: and if, on
such hearing, it appears that the charge
is sustained, the court must enter de-
cree that the party informed against be
deprived of his Office and must enter a
Judgment for FIVE hundred dollars in
favor of the informer and such costs as
are allowed III CIVIL cases.
1t was under the provisions of this Sec
tion of the statutes that the cases against
Messrs. Isaman, Black and Johnson were
brought. If anything else than the
briefs of the lawyers and the decision of
the courts were needed to prove this we
need but cite the statement of Mr.. Tan
nahill's friends in private conversation
and on the open canvass of the county
that the $500 penalty would be paid to
Mr.. Tannahill. In one specific case an
orator on the stump said it had been paid.
Now section number 7459 has been
twice construed by the supreme court Of
Idaho. The first time in the case of
Rankin VS. Jauman, 36 Pacific Reporter,
500 where the court decided that section
745o is constitutional, and again in the
case of Rankin VS. Jauman the second
time before the court and reported in the
% Pacific IIII. when the county COM
nissioners of Ada county were removed
for charging IS per day for illegal fees as
commissioners when not in session. The
last decision was rendered March 7, 1895,
at a time prior to the terms of Office filed
by Messrs. Armstrong, Mccall aud
Parker, and the law has never been re-
pealed nor amended. 1t was in force
then; it is in force now.
SO much for the law, now for the facts
The TELLER has had occasion several
times in the course of this discussion to
refer to the acts Of the old board OF
county commissioners. This has been
done with no malicious intent, but in de-
fense of the unwarranted and untruthfil