The Daily Ardmoreite. [volume] (Ardmore, Okla.) 1893-current, 1911-03-12

mad been done by any responsible
person don't you know the courts
would be busy here for the next yeai
settling the matter. Dawson wouldn't
dare SANDER the good name of oul
fair city by making such a positive
statement. but his artful question
puts the poison in capsule.
This same question was asked by
a number of persons in this city not
long ago. They prepared and pre-
sented to Judge Russell a petition
calling for a special grand jury,
alleging among other things that the
city had been turned over to the
gamblers and jointkeepers and here
| read from the Ardmoreite of De-
cember 5, 1910, pant OF the in
structions given to this grand jury
by Judge Russell. Here is what
he said:
The sheriff and his deputies, and
the chief of police and policemen are
all executive officers, and so far as
| personally know are striving to do
their duty as they see it; but, gen
tlemen of the grand jury, the rumor
is just as rife in the city of And
more and all Carter county that
what is known as bootlegging and
gambling is carried on in this city
and county as it is the case we
have officers who are sworn to obey
and uphold the laws.
THE duty is yours in a manifold
manner, to-wit: To discover if such
offenses exist in Ardmore and else
where in the county; to ascertain
whether they exist after there has
been an honest, faithful effort and
purpose upon the part of the execu-
tive officers to wipe it out of eX-
istence. And if they do exist, and
your investigation satisfies you that
such is the case because officers
have not and are not doing their
duty under their oaths, present them
to this court, by indicating the per-
sons who commit the offences and
by indicting the officers who fail, re-
fuse or neglect to do their duty
in the prevention of such offences.
1T is the law, and | so instruct
you, that if any county, township
or municipal officer fails, refuses or
neglects to do his duty in this re-
gard that he subjects himself to re-
moval from office, and this applies
to the offence of gaming as well as
to liquor selling"
This grand jury met on the 9TH
day of December, 1910, and it was
composed of some of the best men
of Carter county. Joe NJ. London,
one of our esteemed citizens of
Ardmore, was foreman of that grand
jury, and no one can doubt the in
tegrity and honesty of Mr.. London.
Now, let us see what this grand
jury said on the subject after they
had given ten days arduous work
on this matter and had taken the
testimony of several hundred of our
best citizens.
Here is what they said in the
Ardmoreite of December 16, 1910:
The police of this city have will
lingly responded to all our requests
and have shown to us that they
were doing and exerting their best
efforts to suppress all law viola
tions coming within their jurisdic-
ton"
And here is what they said about
the persons calling the grand jury:
I'VE find that those who circulat
ed the petition, and were most prom
inent in plhnging our county into
the extraordinary expense of this
grand jury, are the very ones from
whom we have received the least
aid, assistance and information: not
one of them have voluntarily APP
peared before us, and when, near the
time of adjournment, we were com
PEELED to procure the attendance of
a number of them by subpoena,
not one was able to swear to a
single specific offense. and none
could, or did, present to us, the name
of any person, known to be a VIC.
lator of the law, or give us informa-
tion by which violation of the law
might be suppressed.
I'VE have had before us more
than one man who admitted signing
the petition, and who swore that
he had purchased liquor, but that he
always exhausted every means at !
his command not to know the ident-
ity of him from whom he was pur-
chasing"
Here is another:
HAS the peoples money been |