The producers news. [volume] (Plentywood, Mont.) 1918-1937, 1919-03-28
Producers News Publicity Cam
paign Bearing Fruit, and Tax
payers Money Now Sneaking
Back into the County Treasury
Where it Belongs.
ESTATE EXAMINER WHITEWASHINC?
That is Now the Big Question The Hell
ena Democratic Gang Seem to be get
ting Busy, According to Reports Re-
ceived in PlentyWood.

1t now appears that Redmond has
come back with a thousand bones of
gofer poison money since the State
Examiner arrived and started to-
check things over at the court
house.
1t seems that in all, since the State
Examiner was in Plentywood last
July, about $1,000 of gofer poison
money has been turned over to the
county treasurer, where it should
have been at all times, and that there
is on hand about $4,000 of gopher
poison grain that has not been sold
and which is now in the hands of the
different distributors throughout
Sheridan and Roosevelt counties,
which will probably make the fund
come up to the $4,000, which it is
claimed that the gofer poison fund
should show, although it is reported
that there has never been a COM
plete check on the 1917 gopher poi
son distribution and collections, and
| it seems that the account is SO badly
mixed up and has been kept in such
a careless and inefficient manner that
there is no untangling the mess.
Whether the gopher poison fund
has been doctored up to such an ex-
tent that it will be able to get by
the Examiner will be known for
certainty when the Examiners report
has been received and published.
However it is a fact that since the
Producers News has turned the light
of publicity on the dark and sinister
doings at the courthouse nice little
nest egg of money has come back,
sneaking into the country treasury: it
is expected that before the move
mentss. that are now started are
terminated that there will be lot
more money saved to the taxpayers
of Sheridan county.
Is the State Examine Whitewash-
ing? That is the question that is on
the lips of everybody. Time will
tell us this. For the Producers News
is in possession of lot of facts, and
time will show whether the report
exposes certain irregularities or
whether these irregularities are
smoothed over and whitewashed. In
the background, however, can be dis
covered activities. The powers that
rule the state at Helena, who are
closely associated with the Montana
Loyalty League are seemingly busy,
at least so it appears from letters
received by parties in Plentywood,
from Helena, and if ''everything is
lovely and the goose hangs high"
at the Court House when the Ex-
aminer's report returns from Hell
ena, nobody needs to be surprised,
! for the democratic administration Of
the state is likely to be looking after
it's own. 1t is the opinion ever since
the Examiners report was filed last
summer that that Office was not show
ing much inquisitiveness, for if
it had been, it surely would have
found that the seed grain money was
in private hands, unlawfully, instead
of in the hands of the county treas
ury where it belonged, and it would
have ben far more emphatic than it
was in regard to the handling of the
gopher poison fund, also unlawfully,
by the ex-county auditor. 1t was
felt that the kindness shown by coun-
ty officials last summer to the ex-
aminers, was not without an object,
for the 1918 report was much milder
and tender than the report of 1917.
There also appears to be a con-
certed action to make it appear that
the gofer poison stock on hand has
deteriorated to such an extent that
it is a dead loss to the county and
should therefore be charged off from
the books. If this is done, it means
|. great loss to the taxpayers and
!, creates an opportunity to fix things
up; for this paper has found out
! from the farmers that there is abso-
lutely no truth to the above asser-