The Ward County independent. [volume] (Minot, Ward County, N.D.) 1902-1965, 1910-04-21
Reishus Makes Explanation,
Reeiste- Of Deeds Says Comparison Of His Office
M With the Williams County Office Is Unfair,
and Gives His Reasons

Editor Independent, Dear Sir:
In last weeks issue Of the 1ndepen-
dent you quots at length from an edi-
torial which appeared dn tho WiAiston
Graphtc-an article which purportel
to contain comparison Of receipts
and yaxpenses connected With the
ONCE Of register Of deeds in Ward and
Williams counties. II
Taking the facts and figures from
that article and basing your conclu-
sions thereon, you find that 1.-The ex-
penses in Ward county are much high
er than they should be- Very natur-
ally therefore, you draw the inference
that affairs In my office in the past
have not been conducted wisely and
we'll, and as the exponent Of the
voter and taxpayer you call upon me
to explain. In that you are quite
right. feel that there is duty
resting upon me as register Of deeds
self imposed though it may be-to
give an account of my stewardship
when the request is made fairly and
for an honorable purpose, but where
you err Mr.. Editor, is when you fail
to enquire into the authenticity OF
your source. r
From the article, in question one
may draw one of two conclusions.
Either that the facts, as they appear
therein are purposely juggled and
the truth perverted IN the foolish
hope OF making out of it political
capital; or that the writer, or his
informant-unfortunately for himself
and me-unwittingly omitted some
very essential parts Of his so-called
comparison. Did 1 believe the
former to be true, did believe that
the real motive underlying that pub
lication was maliciously' to poison
minds against me and gain for the
writer or his allies, political advant-
age, should scorn to put pen to
paper in justification of myself.
have no quarrel with men who en-
ploy such methods.
But Mr.. Editor, 1 will not believe
this. l prefer to take the more char
liable view, and so, to set at rest
those who are interested and have a
right to know, shall venture COM
parison through your paper, though
unfortunately, I have not all the flg-
ures from the Williston office that I
had wished to get. ''l,,
1 find it extremely difficult to 70
concile AN honest comparison, careful
ly complied, with that Of the COM
parison previously mentioned. be-
cause on its very face. it raises q
presumption of knavery. For how
can anyone who earnestly desires
an equitable comparison, so grossly
tumble matters rs to compare the
figures in my Office in the month Of
i 7 OO1 udAy WILL LA1L u CAAO W AAASsAAo
county Office in March. To the cur
sorry reader, this error will seem
slight but permit me to explain. The
most natural way to go about it would
certainly be to collect data from the
two offices in the same month or at
least in two corresponding. Is this
his method of procedure? No sir!
He compares the figures of my office
in February-the shortest month in
the year, containing but % working
days-with those of Willioms county
in March with 81 full days excepting
Sundays. Now mark you well, the
expenses of that brief month of Feb
ruary were the same as those of
any other month and the receipts,
generally speaking the same but minus
that amount which would have been
taken into the office In the five days