Clearwater Republican. [volume] (Orofino, Idaho) 1912-1922, 1914-10-16
Elk River, October l4th, 1914

| wish to use your columns to call
attention to some matters of especial /
to the community. For some /
reason not apparent to many of us
these things seem to be overlooked by /
our county papers. Had more atten-
ton been paid to these matters the |
terrible murder of Saturday night .
would not have occurred. This muir
der is the elimination of the disregard
of the laws, glaring and fragrant, by
those whose duty it is to enforce them
Had not the officers winked at the
Bookkeeping going on here
the last two years Elk River would
have been saved the disgrace of this
homicide.
Will our sheriff or his deputy, or
the prosecuting attorney say that they
did not know Of the existence of the
house of ill-fame within one-half mile
of the village? Will they aver that
they did not know that liquor was be-
ing sold there continuously? Will
they state that they have made any
effort to stop the sale of liquor there?
If they have made such effort what
was it and when did it occur?
An inspection of the list of liquors
received by the operators of those
houses and by other persons was pub
lished in the Clearwater Republican,
running through many issues. A
very interesting list could be added
at this time. If our officers have not
yet discovered it they should read the
list.
1T SEEMS VERY HARD TO
MAKE THESE VIGILANT GUARD
IANS AWARE OF THE INFRAC-
TON OF THE LAWS.
The sheriff and his deputies have
been lamhasted by the papers for
their failures in Office, but the prose-
cutting attorney excuses his very palp-
able failures on the ground that he
cannot do anything on account of the
shortcomings of the shreiff's Office.
Let us see how that has worked out
in the vicinity of Elk River.
So far as l have been able to ascer-
tain our prosecuting attorney has
visited Elk River three or four times
since he assumed Office. The first
time was in April, 1918, when he
came up ostensibly to prosecute some
half dozen cases growing out of alleg-
ed violations of the liquor laws. The
arrests had been made by the village
policeman who was honestly trying to
enforce the laws. The whole bunch
of cases was thrown out on the advise
of the prosecuting attorney on the
ground that the policeman was not
legally an officer, he not having SUBJ
scribed to an oath of office or filed a
BOND, although the village ordinances
made no such requirement, nor is
there any such requirement in the
laws of the state.
BOOTLEG CASE A FARCE.
On the Goth day of September, 1914,
complaint was filed in the justice
court at Elk River charging one Joe
LaDuke with selling liquor in pro-
hibition district. The justice of the
peace Immediately thereafter, as
am informed, called up the county at
torney by telephone and asked him to
come and prosecute the case. Mr..
Holsclaw said he couldn't come anG
told the justice to go ahead with it.
The justice told Mr.. Holsclaw he woulc
have to have his assistance and tolG
him to fix date when he could come.
Mr.. Holsclaw said he would see if he
could find time when he could come
Mr. Holsclaw said he d see if he coule
find time when he could come. TIL,
justice fixed the case for the 29th ant
so notified him. A few days late
Mr.. Holsclaw informed the justic'
that he was too busy and could no
come on that date. The justice toll
him he must come and he would con
tinue the case until he could. Mr.
Holsclaw would fix no date. The jus
tice then took the matter up will
County Commissioner Torgerson VIII
called Mr.. Holscaw and in no gentl,
tones told him he would come and at
tend to the case or he would draw n,
salary for this month. Finally Mr.
Holsclaw agreed to come on Octobe
9th and the case was postponed to tina
day. On October 9th Mr.. Holsclay
appeared, nineteen days after tn
complaint was filed. The deput
shreiff reported that HE COULD NO
FIND THE PROSECUTING WIT
NESSES, and on advice of Mr.. Hols
claw the CASE WAS DISMISSED
THE WITNESSES WERE IN TOW
THE NEXT DAY. They said the
had been out to the Jerico mine hunt
ing.
We do not know whether Mr.. Hols
claw was influenced by his friendshi
for LaDuke in delaying this matte
nineteen days in order to let the wit
|