The Greeneville daily sun. (Greeneville, Tenn.) 1918-1920, 1919-08-13
Hot Time in
County Court

NEWPORT, Tenn, Aug. 13.-The
county court met Monday in special
session, pursuant to the call of the
chairman, which call was ordered upon
the petition of John Harrison, NJ. N.
Rutherford, Jno. F. Meas, B. D. Ca
ton, L. L. Hicks and H. Green, the
purpose of which, as enumerated in
the call, were to abolish the old pike
commissioners" and turn over the
funds in their charge to a new COM
mission under the new, recent bond
bill; Ito fill vacancy in the office of
superintendent of pike road work.;
"to appropriate the rock crushers now
in the use of the pike upkeep commits
sion to the new pike commission;" "to
provide means to expedite the work of
auditing the different county Offices"
and to fill vacancy on the high school
board"
Immediately upon convening, fol-
lowing the call which was read by the
clerk, Esq. O'Neil moved to dispense
with the entire call, as ne knew moth
ing about it and hadn't found any
body else that did, that he didn't
know whether or not it was legal, etc.
The motion was put to vote and lost
by two. Thereupon the gentlemen
of the court proceeded to act upon
the items of the call.
G. w. Gorrell, attorney, and chair
iiansof the pike commission told one) /;
in response to certain criticisms of the
old commission, took the floor and
spoke at length concerning a member
of the court and an ex-member, with
regard to the accusations toward the
pike commission. He bitterly ar
raigned Jno. Harrison, member of the
present court and one of the petition
ers for the special session, and charg-
ed that Harrison, when the road was
being built up through his Cosby farm
forced the commission by a suit in
court. to pay 5000 for a 50-foot right |
of-way through his land, which was
a little more than 5000 per acre, and
that after the road was built Har-
rison fenced up one-third of the right
of-way. In the course of his discus
sion a great many hot shots were ex-
changed between Mr.. Gorrel and a
or two of the court.
Mr.. Gorrel proceeded to point out |
to the court that every single item
in the call of the ptitioners was il
legal and that not a single one Of
them could be acted upon at this ses-
sion. He explained that the pike COM
missioners were legislated into office
in a special act in 1875 and that the
county court had no right to under
take to supersede the legislature.
At this point, Esquire M. N Ruth
erford interrupted by saying that he
considered the county court above the
President Of the United States, and |
that it had far more powers than the |
state legislature; he said he believed |
that was the impression of a majority |
of the court. Mr.. Gorrel agreed with |
MIN and stated that he was sure that |
the court was called to meet without |
any notion of what could bedone when |
It did meet. At this point Mr.. Gorrell |
suggested that the court should pur-
chase code for each magistrate, so |
hat they could study up some on the |
egal points of matters. Esq. Ruther-
ford suggested that they didn't want |
o know too much law.
Following Mr.. Gorrell, Esq Harri-
son and Esq. Rutherford spoke feel
ngly of the situation. Harrison.
growing personal in his remarks, dur
ng which c. B. Allen, whom he had
attacked personally, arose and bitter
Y replied to Harrison. Order was re-
tored without a casualty list and the
.ourt adjourned without having acted
IN a single point in the call.