The Ward County independent. [volume] (Minot, Ward County, N.D.) 1902-1965, 1914-06-18

the taxes that they owed as they said
that the were hard up and I, when
making my return to the county, had
to pay in the full amount in order to
get the receipts issued and then I got
my so per cent back from the county
and in many cases ] was only getting
my own money back, and yet this is
charged up to me now as profit. Con-
sidering the opposition that l have
and the combination that they have
made in this city Of Minot and know
ing them personally as we'll as I do,
! know that no truth or fairness can
be expected from such gang.
When my opponent states that was
dealing with the people as a private
citizen while collecting taxes then he
knows as we'll as in other statements
that he is not telling the truth. My
contract read, "John J. Lee, as sheriff
of Ward County" When the sheriff,
as have stated before, is responsible
to the county for the taxes that he
does not collect, if he does not show
by affidavit that he cannot collect
them, then it does not look to me as
If he is acting as q private citizen. In
regard to Mr.. M. s. Williams having
offered to collect these taxes on q Is
per cent basis, must say that have
never heard of it before and if he did
offer to do it for Is per cent the
county commissioners should have let
it to him If they could. The county
has contract with the present sher-
if exactly the same as I had for the
collection Of the old taxes and I have
never heard anybody say that it is il
legal nor that he is making fortune
out of it. There is little or nothing
in it but the sheriff has to do it &C.
cording to the law. They are trying
to confuse you, Mr.. Voter, by insinu-
ating that had so per cent of all the
taxes that I collected and the fact of
the matter is that l only made between
eleven and twelve hundred dollars on
the collection of the old taxes and it
took me nearly year and a half to
do it. I have not found any people
anywhere that took any stock in my
opponents political ad and I therefore
believe that the voters are intelligent
enough to see that if as sheriff had
violated my oath of Office or collect
ed any illegal fees from the attorneys
or from the county my political ene-
mics would have done something about
it besides in political campaign.
Two of the best criminal lawyers
in the city of Minot, who are known
all over the county to be the defend
ers Of nearly all Of the criminals that
come before the court have sent out
letters broadcast over the county in
this campaign against me saying that
there is no question but that the fight
is between John J.. Lee and w. S..
Shaw and that it would be more salts
factory to them, personally, to have
Mr.. Shaw elected Sheriff. l wish you
would investigate this and find out
and you would be able to see the rea-
son why they want a sheriff that
would be more satisfactory to them.
This gang of would-be political bosses
have organized themselves for their
own special benefit to see if they can
not control this city and county.
I had the honor of being your sher-
if when this county was new and
about four times as large as it is now
and / conducted the office to the best
of my ability and will do so again if
elected. Any man who lived here
WucH uISU tOOh Vic oHCAA OAACc
will remember that ! had no small job
on my hands. The county consisted Of
Ward, Renville, Burke and Mountrail
counties and when you stop to consid-
er the size of the county and that we
handled 896 prisoners, and many Of
them the worst criminals in the land,
you can readily see that there had to
be some expense incurred. Yet l. han
died the sheriff's office and did more
work for the money than any other
sheriff before or since. charged only
five cents mile for summoning juries
and the sheriff before me charged ten
cents per mile and the sheriff after
me charged fifteen cents per mile and
some attorneys say that fifteen cents
per mile is right. Now you may Won
der why there should be any doubt
in this case and for that reason will
quote what the law says on the sub
ject. Section 1900 of the Code says:
1.-THE sheriff shall receive ten cents
per mile actually and necessarily trav-
eled in the performance of his duties,
ETC." Section 2601 reads as follows:
mileage for Summoning Jury. The
sheriff shall be entitled to receive five
cents per mile for each mile actually
and necessarily travelled in summon
ing Grand and Petit Jury to be paid
by the county in addition to the COM
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