Clearwater Republican. [volume] (Orofino, Idaho) 1912-1922, 1914-10-09
THE GANG

THE GANG
A hundred times in the past ten
months has the editor of the Clear
water Republican been warned that
he was in danger of bodily harm.
We were warned that our life was in
danger. We knew that Blair Hoar
intended to assault us at the first OPP
portunity. We were warned that a
deputy sheriff would come to Orofino
and assault us. We were repeatedly
warned that our life was in danger,
and by people whose fear was based
on what they heard from members of
the Blake gang and the court house
ring. We were warned and urged
to 60 armed.
But has it ever occurred to the cit
liens Of Clearwater county that there
has lurked q danger far deadlier and
vicious than the knife of the assassin
or the gun of the brute? What will
the men and women of Clearwater
county say when they know that in
the dark hours Of night or in back
rooms behind locked doors plans were
laid for the ruination of the editor of
the Clearwater Republican? When
we first started the fight against gang
rule in Clearwater county the gang
made an effort to dig up some scan
dial, tried to find some concealed thing
in the life of P. L. Orcutt, that these
hell hounds might come to us and
with the threat Of exposure, with
threats of breaking up our home, COM
pei US to let up on the gang. We
know letters were written to Moscow,
inquiring for some bit of scandal that
would enable the authors to hang a
club over the head of man who dared
to fight gang rule in Clearwater coun-
ty.
Some weeks since an effort was
made to hire certain woman to make
an affidavit rejecting on the reputa-
ton of the editor of the Clearwater
Republican. It is intimated that the
proposition was the foundation for a
dirty scandal, the purpose Of which
was to ruin P. L. circuit in the eyes
of the citizens of this county. And
the public may draw their own conclu-
sions as to who would be interested in
such malicious labor. Who would
profit from such infamy?
The Weippe incident, in which
Sheriff Harper figured so conspicuous
ly, was not mere accident. No un-
prejudiced person will believe it was
not concocted scheme to bring about
the downfall of man who has fought
gang rule in Clearwater county. It
was staged. It was no mere accident
or incident that Roy Leeper, Sheriff
Harper's deputy at Elk River. hap
pened to be in Weippe at that time.
It was pre-arranged plan, staged at
time when the gang would make an
example of the editor of the Clear
water Republican, and ruin the infu-
ence of P. L. circuit.
We are not posing as a martyr.
But because we have undertaken a
fight for the people of a county that
was being strangled by gang that
has robbed and skinned the people,
and have succeeded in exposing rot
ten condition in this county, we have
become the object of vicious attacks,
and won the enmity of men who have
exhausted their fertile resources try
ing to bring about our downfall.
The one thing the gang found was
that we are poor man; that like
hundreds of other editors we are gull
ty of the crime Of being poor. There
for, if the gang could not ruin the
Republican by intimidation and brute
force they could ruin it financially,
and the Fidelity Bank of Orofino has
male at least one underhanded attempt
to destroy our credit with at least one
wholesale paper house in Spokane.
We have the positive proof of this,
How far Jim Blake has carried this
damnable undetermined work we do not
know. We know the Fidelity bank
did it once. We know the dirty trick
was tried to be laid to the Bank of
Orofino. We know the Fidelity Bank
was the outfit that did it.
We know that the Blake gang ac-
cused u Of every conceivable thing