Fergus County argus. [volume] (Lewistown, Mont.) 1886-1946, 1906-10-26
OLD TIMER ON
ROY E. AYERS
Great Scheme of Arrestinq Parties
First and investigating the Evil
dence Later.
THAT HAS BEEN Mr.. AYERS PLAN
Great Injustice Done Innocent Men
and Needless Expense Piled UP
on the County.

able paper for a few words OH this
election. have taken your paper for
years and always like the fair manner
/ in which YOU treat the claims of can
d1datGS thai are up for eleCtlOn-a
/ great contrast with your rival, the
/ Democrat | notice by the Democrat
Of the 23rd that they are making a
savage assault upon Billy Neill They
do not say what Billy has done, as |
take ii because they cannot say any
thing against him that would wash
He has made. to my mind, a fine
county commissioner and ! think the
people Of the county will make the
mistake of their lives if they do not
stand by him in this election. l think
probably the reason why the Democrat
is sore is because it did not get the
printing contract. / have investigated
the charges made in the Democrat
at the time of the letting of the con-
tract and since, where it is claim I'll
the commissioners paid $500 more 70
the Argus than the Democrat bid.
lind that it is not so. | tried to see
the bid the Democrat put in, but for
some reason il is not in the office of
the clerk and recorder, where it ought
to be, so that a man cannot see for
himself what the bid was. | have
seen the business manager of the Ar
gus and he tells me that your bid was
lower on the whole than that of the
Democrat. ! would rather take his
word than the word of the Democrat,
especially where they have not filed
the bid as required by law, as | I'M
derstand it. 1t seems strange that
they did not file it, anyway. If it was
lower any person could see it at once
There's niger in the fence on the
printing bid, so far as the Democrat
is concerned, or I'm mistaken. | have
known Billy Neill a long time and |
nave known him to be all right and
he will get one of the biggest votes on
the ticket, now | tell you. They can't
SANDER him and have his old friends
lay down and take it without murmur.
| noticed by the Democrat a long
article telling how Ayers was such a
good county attorney, and on the same
day | saw an article in the Argus
showing him up in a pretty bad light.
took the trouble to look up the rec
ords-the article said that they were
county records and anybody could sec
them and SO | looked over Judge Bras
sey's books and the ones that Judge
Mcfarland kept and | found out that
the fellow who wrote the article in
the Argus knew what he was talking
about. | saw that a good many of the
cases were where the county attorney
mad got man arrested and then when
1t came to a show down couldn't make
any case against him, and had to dis
charge him. If he didn't do it the at
torney for the fellow who was arrested
made a motion of that kind and the
judge let him go and he didn't have
10 swear witness at all. That struck
me as poor proposition, | can tell
YOU. | should think Ayers ought to
know better than to do that Think
now tough it is to be arrested and
then not TO have the state show any
thlnS against man. 1t gives him a
bad reputation and hurts his family
They told me that Mcfarland would
not issue a warrant unless Ayers said
to do it, so that Ayers Is to blame
and nobody else. | saw one case there
where they arrested a man named Nc
kechnie and he didn't swear a witness
and the county had to pay $263.2O in
costs. That seemed foolish to me-
saw another where they arrested
two men named kitchner and Vogel
and the county had to pay $l024o for
that piece of laundering; there was
another where they arrested a man
named Folmer and the county had to
pay $l56.3o for that mistake of Mr..
Ayers. l found one where they arrest
ed man named Hervey and fined him
and then dismissed the case in the
district court and the county had to
pay Sl56.30. | saw case there where
h<N rod ooh A.
Lackie and they We're turned loose by
jury, and the county had to pay
$3.50. | saw where he arrested Fred
Irish for stealing a horse and Judge
Malcolm who is running for commits
sioner, turned him loose as soon as he
heard Irish's statement and the coun-
ty had to pay s11250 for that piece
OF foolishness. ! found a case where
he arrested two boys named Haggerty
living out near Alaska bench and a
jury turned them loose and the coun-
ty had to pay $3.50 for that diversion
of Mr.. Ayers. | saw case where
they arrested George Pirrie and one
of his herders and the Justice dis
missed the case against them on the
motion of their lawyer, and they didnt
swear witness and it cost the county
Sl2l.5o for that mistake. And there
was plenty of others. 1t looked to me
that it was too expensive to keep up
that clip any longer than we had 10.
| saw by the Democrat that Ayers
had SO convictions out of "a. But |
saw by the article in the Argus that
there had only nine cases been tried,
SO that the other must have pleaded
guilty. | don't think Ayers is entitled
TO any credit for them fellows that
pleaded guilty. The stock inspector
and the sheriff should have that if
there is any. The Democrats are try
Ing to double shoot the turn and get
us TO give credit TO Ayers for those
cases where he never had to try them
at all and at the same time give the
sheriff credit for getting the evidence
that made the men plead guilty. That
doesn't look to be a square shake to
anybody. I'm going to vote for Frank
Smith because | have known him a
long while and know he wouldn't ar
rest man first and then try and find
out if he had done anything wrong
afterwards. The Democrat says that
they always get some one else to help
in murder cases. When they first tried
Koch, Mr.. Be.len tried it all alone. I
That was the only murder case he
had the last two years. You can't I
make me believe that they hired Bel
den just for fun-they thought they
needed him. | don't care whether il
was the stock association or the coun-
t,l -