The Bowbells tribune. [volume] (Bowbells, Ward Co., N.D.) 1899-1969, 1916-02-04

er will. In these two instances
the county lost in the vicinity of
about! $4,000. There might have
been many other errors. but Stef-
onowicz did not take the. trouble
to look them up. Romine admit
ted on thes witness stand that these
errors were made by his clerks
during hia administration.
A. number Of other tax lists, an
arm fulI3Sfor each year were intro
duced toSshow, the large amount
l. of erasuibs made owing to errors,
and whiA errors were later corr
rected. MANY books were In an
awful shApe, and Romine admitted
that all :the books were filled in
during his term of office.
Stefondwicz started introducing
the recoEd of bonds and contracts
showing Ihat Roinine had neglected
to record such instruments during
his term in Office, and that the
clerks during Melbys administra-
ton were compelled to put in be-
tween two and three weeks record
ing instruments which should have
been recorded by Romine, but the
court. would not allow. this book in
evidence, ~,
In order to give Rominc as much
Of a square deal as possible We are
giving such statements which John
admitted were true while he was
under oath. He admitted the
truth. Of practically every statement
We made In the article sued on with
tho exception Of the statement
that he was gone for three months
at one time. He would not admit
that lie was gone for three months
at one. time. and wc were unable to
prove that he was, and probably
FOR that reason the jury saw fit to
bring in a verdict against us FOR
one dollar. The amount sued for
vas $4,000. -
The costs In the casa are to be
paid ~ Romine, and Will amount
to quites.a sum-. In casss OF libel,
malpractice, slander, ETC.. where
the plaintiff does not recover all
amount :s,of $4,000 or over, accord
ing to law, he is compelled to pay
She costs, of the. suit himself. n
$4,000 or-oyer was recovered then
OF course Stefonowicz would be
compelled to pay the costs.
t5 we hope thatSthe article as pub
!ished, the libel suit that followed,
Ind everything else connected with
t will bea lesson to the other
county officers and that they will
onply$ with the law In every re-
spect. The Tribune feels that it
S our duty to let the voters and
taxpayers know just what each
ounty officer Is doing when he is
1ot doing what lie should do, and
We are not going to let a libel suit
now and then prevent us from civ
ng the voters this information.
It cost both Romine and ourselves
quite sum of money to fight tliic
ase, and as far as we can see the
:nly one that is any gamer by it
the county. Ronine will NJ
doubt be compelled to turn over
he money which he still has be-
onging to the county, and it ma
,e that some OF the errors he made
an be fixed up in such way that
the county will not lose all tho
money*it is out at the present
time. The case opened the eyes
Of the people as to what really had
been going on during Romine's adj
ministration, and the other county
officers will no doubt profit by It,
The Tribune is unwilling to be.
llevo that Romine wilfully, with
full knowledge of the law, tried
to get away with the f'as. We
would not believe that he was as
foolish rs that: The only reason
we can Aec at: the present time is
Romino was ignorant enough to
think that he could get around
the law. and learning that he
couldn't he put back most of the
money, still hanging onto the fees
Of three months. The amount he
held out was not noticed by the
general public until this lawsuit
vas tried. We do not think that
John, had ony criminal intent IN
any Of his delinquenutcs, and we
believe that he is just as honest as
any man In the county, but we do
believe that he sia just as ignorant
as he fs honest,