The Bottineau courant. (Bottineau, Bottineau County, N.D.) 1895-1929, 1908-09-18
Attorney General 7. F. McCue RepIIes
to Accusations Of Executive,
SHOWS UP GOVERNORS RECORD
Gives Some Pertinent Facts in a
Strong Letter to Saturdays
Fargo Daily Forum.

Gov. Burke, having made
an uncalled for and malignant
attack upon Attorney General
L. F. McCue, the latter makes
reply in the Fargo Forum, as
follows:
THE article by Governor
Burke in your issue of Septem-
Der 7, is couched in language
which portrays the character of
the man. In his public utter
ances he has always made it
point in his own peculiar sar-
castle, insinuating manner to
belittle some official, and at the
same time never misses an op-
'portunity to laud himself. In
other words, he wishes to inn
press upon the. public mind
that he is the only honest COM
petent official at the capital, in
fact the only Simon pure in
dividual that has ever been
there.
I had hoped to close my
term of office and hand over
the keys to my successor with
out being compelled to 60 into
the press and defend myself
against malignant attack by
the executive of this state.
What l say here is not with any
hope of political reward for /
shall never be an aspirant for
any public office.
THE governor conveys the
impression that he was the
person who caused the first
raid on the saloons at Dickin-
son, which is absolutely untrue.
On August 10, 1907, l relieved
Mr.. Miller from the routine
work of the office and put him
in charge of enforcing the pro-
hibition law. He and | arranged
the attack on Dickinson; l
personally interviewed Judge
Winchester on the subject 80
that there would be no delay.
After the papers wers issued
the governor accompanied Mr..
Miller to Dickinson as a sort of
brass band attachment. The re-
suit was, an account either of
the speech making or some
other delay, the cause of which
[ have never been able to learn,
the papers we're not served un-
til after 10 o'clock at night and
the sheriff found no evidence.
The liquor which the governor
says he caused to be secured,
was gotten long after these
first injunctions were issued.
AS soon as we can get a term
of court in the different counties
/ shall see to it that every case
will be prosecuted. l have per-
sonally prosecuted a large num-
Der of liquor cases and secured
a conviction in all of them.
The letter which the COVER
11O1 W1OLC O11 W
1907, called for no answer. Be-
sides he gave it out to the press
before he sent it to me. The
first place that | saw the COM
munication was at the Tribune
office at Bismarck where the
governor sent it for publication.
[ was in my office at Bismarck
the day he wrote this letter,
and if he was wrapped up in
the enforcement of law, he
could have called me into his
office and discussed the matter,
which l would have gladly
done, but that would not have
had the political effect. This
would not have left political
document for the governor to
publish and re-publish.
Two years ago the governor
made his campaign on railroad
taxation. When the state board
of equalization had the subject
under consideration at the 1907
meeting, the governor voted
blank. This year the board
adopted the roll call method
and the governor voted. He
had his private stenographer
(his nephew at the meetings of
that board, who took down in
shorthand the statements of
himself and other members.
We had an official steonograph-
er whose duty it was to take
down the official proceedings.