Tonopah bonanza. [volume] (Butler City [i.e. Butler], Nev.) 1901-1909, 1908-10-31
EDITORIAL COMMENT.
SHERIFF OWENS REPLIES TO EDITOR MORRIS

~ VAA A&AA ANO - ADAAON NASA
James Morris of the Tonopah Miner is bitterly opposed to me and in
this campaign is resorting to desperate expedients to encompass my de-
feat, and among these "expedients" is his deliberate and malicious dstort-
ing and Justification of both facts and figures in his printed statement of
the comparative cost of the sheriRs Office under my administration in
1907 and the administration of my predecessor in 1906. I use the word
deliberate" above, because / know Morris had determined to defeat me-
If he could, long before he examined the records o knew, n even
imagined he knew of anything whatsoever against me OF my ofheial rec
ord. l use the word malicious" above because his real motive for OPP
posing me is not because he knows or even thinks my official record is
not what it should e. ut 1t is because o my refusal 10 comply wn ms
demands upon me over a year ago, that I divert to his paper all 0 r a large
portion of the county printing from the sheirs Office.
/ say he has distorted and falifed both the facts and figures in his
published statement, and this is proven by the fact that in gathering ma
terial for his printed statement. and in order to swell and initiate the
1907 expense total TO as large a hgure rs possible ne mclude items uh
IS court house supplies, court reporters fees, town constabes' fees, fuel
for court house, expenses of INDECENT sick and death investigations, labor
on court house, meals to jurors fuel to county hospital n county pest
house, refund on taxes and the like, amounting in the aggregate for the
year 1906 to $16,e55O2. Not a single n of these items is in any event
properly chareeabie to the Sherins Office for either year Or fol any term
any more than they IN chargeable to the office of the clerk, treasurer,
recorder or district court. Court house supplies, fuel etc, are bought
and paid for through the board of county commissioners and arr TO the
benefit of all the county officials alike. The court reporter is appointed
by the district Judge, and has absolutely no connection with and performs
no services for the sheins office Fuel TO county hospital and county
pest house, cost of INDECENT sick and death investigations, labor on
court house, meals for jurors, refund on taxes and the like re all items
beyond control OF the sheriff n NJ person a m q inc Morrls
caliber, undertaking with falsehoods, in order to crafty a personal
grudge, would attempt to use them as charges against the sherin's office
any moret haa against any one of the other county offices.
But shysterlike, in order to make his case, he includes all of these
inegitimae items against my administration, but wholly and deliberately
tails to include n same Identical lass of items against ne m
israion of my predecessor. If that class of items had been charged to
the 1906 administration, 1t would have sweled the Morris total for that
year $l6,o55.o2' but a the Morris statement unfairly makes 1t appear
there is a apparent difference against me of $16,O55.02. Taking the
Morris figures as a basis, there should be added to my predecessors
1906 account, of SOL $685. rs total the sum of $16O55.O2, making his
total expense account for 1906 the sum of $4742O.27, Is against the
Morris total of 500 "a for my 1907 administration.
But another dagrant error appears in the Morris statement. During
1907 I loaned to Nye county, for general county purposes, the sum of
$4,000 cash from my personal funds, and in October when the county
was in funds l flied a bill for this amount, that being the only method
by which | could obtain repayment, and because the county returned this
money to me- Morris has included that item as expense of my office. In
hts statement he has included other smaller, but exactly similar items,
making with the $4,000 loaned and repaid, a total of $708134, not one
cent of which is a legal expense item of my Office Deduct this from the
$S06S024 OF the Morris total and we have $53,54S.90 as my 1907
total expense The proper total of the 1906 administration, taking the
Morris basis. is s4T,42O27 or $6,12863 less than my 1907 adminisra-
ton, but this s6,f28.63 is more than wiped out in my favor by the fact
that during 1907 my Office performed twice, and in some instances more
than three times Is much work as the 1906 administration, as, witness
the fact that in 1906, the total number of witnesses subpoenaed was EOS,
s against 45z for 1907; that in 1906 court sat twentythree days and
three evening sessions. as against ffyfour days and six evening sessions
in 1907; that. while / am unable to obtain figures on but one month in
1906, owing to the reckless and unsystematie manner in which jail rec
1906, there were ten persons registered at the county jail while for
February 1907, there weret hiryfour, and the average number of per-
sons registered during each month in 1907 was thirty-four, a matter of
about three times IS many persons at the county Jail per month al in
nesses, Jurors, court attendants and regtsarHon of prisoners can not be
furnished owing to the fact that the records n same are 81 incomplete,
r is safe to say that the expense on the foregoing items was at least
twice a much for 1907 as for 1906, and that this difference would amount
the county some thousands Of dollars less than the 1906 adminisha-
ton, taking Morris own figures fr a basis of calculation. Again during
the early portion OF the 1906 administration, several town policemen
were paid by private subscription made up by the business men of Tono-
but for the 1907 he includes against me the salaries of all town police
men who were paid by the town and not by Or through my office. Again,
did not take office until January !, 1907; yet Morris charges up to ne
cost OF sherih's office from January /, 1907, while at the same time
credting licenses, etc, collected for those seven DAYS to m predecessor.
This item amounts to nearly $500. His bitter prejudice is shown through
out and 1t has led him into the grossest errors. A mere glance at his
false report, compared with a correct one, will establish this. | set forth
below a copy of the Morris statement Of comparative cost of sheriT's
of 1906 with 1907.