The Bismarck tribune., 1919-03-25
.T0WNLEY LOSES
OUT ON BATCH
OF GOOD JOBS
Eighty Thousand Dollars Worth
of Patronage Lost for Lack
of Emergency
WALLACE is IN MINORITY
Packard and Steele Pay Little
Attention to Political
Considerations
WALLACE IS IN MINORITY

That ToWnley lost control of eighty
thousand dollars worth of patronage
when he failed to place the emerg-
ency clause OIL his one-man tax COM
mission bill was discovered today
| With the announcement that the stat i,
tax commission, without regard 10.
politics and with no more respect for
the opinions OF George f. Wallace,
F'Pazier's choice for tax commissioners,
than he commands as one member OF
the present thfee-man board, had ap-
pointed nineteen tax supervisors in
AS many North Dakota counties.
The appointment Of George T.. Wal
lace. chairman OF the present board,
to be tax commissioner under the act
Producing the membership of the com
missioner under, the act reducing the
membership of the commission to
one, was confirmed by the senate dur
ing the recent%assembly. The law Gre
|atihg "a One-man commission did not
secure the majority necessary to give
| It Immediate effect. Another bill,
providing that the tax commission
name tax supervisors in each. co,.n-
ty. carried an emergency clause and
kreceiTed the necessary majority. 1t
was imperatiVe that these tax super
! yisors be appointed at once, IN order
to carry the league's new scheme Of
| taxation into effect and to make The
required assessments and adjust
ments. The duty OF appointing these
supervisors, therefore, devolved up.
on the tax commission
Anticipating that the league tax
commissioner would make these ap.
pointments, league candidates for the
| supervisorship appear to have offered
| no further qualifications in their ap-
plicatiOns than the fact that they had
been loyal to Townley or that they
had garnered a certain number Of
votes for the league. Others who
! did not base their applications on
politics set forth qualificatins which
appealed to Commissioners f. j..
Packard and II. H. Steele, VIII con-
stitute majority of the board, and
it is understood that these latter,
without respect to political affilia-
tons, are getting the jobs. The Of
flee Of tax supervisor pays the same
as that Of county auditor, or an aver
age of $1,5O0 for each county, or ap-
proximately $4,000 per annum for the
state. f
| Depended on Towniey.
Commenting on this situation, Com.
missioner Steele said today: .
The tax commission had before it
applications and recommendations OF
persons for the appointment, as tax
supervisor in many counties of the
state, where neither the application
nor the recommendation mentioned a
single. qualification of the applicant
for the place, except that he was a
follower of TOwnleyism and had
worked faithfully in a political way
and was solid against the old gang.
"The appointments that we have
made are strictly upon qualification
and without regard to the appointee's
politics. It may be that some of the
men appointed were supporters of
John Steen or S. J. Doyle for govern
or, or they may have voted for Gov
ernor Frazier. do not know how
they stood and I do not care how they
voted. In the general election voted
for Frazier but l do not require an
applicant for appointment as tax SUI
pervisor to have voted that way