The producers news. [volume] (Plentywood, Mont.) 1918-1937, 1920-10-15

Subject Matter Of the Land ClsssaR-
cAtton Controversy lANoW PendlnR
IN Supreme Ceurt, Yet Conner Al
lows Judgment 10 Land Classiaers.
Lockwood 4 Blakeslee, the Glasgow
Land Classifier, who got the contract
to classify the lands Of Sheridan
county for the sum Of about $4,000
without the trouble of submitting
bids, contract to make q bunch Of
maps Of the county and to classify
the lands of the farmers for more
money than the average farmer can
make in an entire lifetime, and which
classification is not worth the cost of
the paper the maps are made upon.
at last, by the aid and grace of
Judge Conner, has been able to COL
lect another $S,47S.21, on this clas-
sification contract, and which money
is paid for pure bunk.
As soon as the judgment was rem
dered, Lockwood rushed to collect for
fear that an apepal might be taken
and his judgment held up.
Matkins was rounded up and all
the arrangements were made 10 is
county commissioners were to meet
Wednesday and Commissioner Tyler
and Matkins were at the meeting but
Legge was not present, probably hav-
ing forgotten to come and Lockwood
and his Attorney, H. M. Lewis, ap-
*Pearedy before the board and asked
Tor 4 warrant in payment Of the
Judgment. Matkins wanted to issue
the warrant and Tyler refused and
a long talk ensQed. Finally Tyler
called up A. T. Vollum for legal ad-
vice and as soon as Lockwood and
Attorney Lewis heard that Vollum
was on his way down to the court
house they beat it up town.
The board was checlmated and
nothing could be done, so the board
adjourned with the matter unsettled,
to meet next week and Commission
er Tyler went home. Thursday
morning Legge arrived and he and
Matkins held another rump board
meeting and Lockwood and his attor-
ney, H. M. Lewis, went before them
and they ordered Major to issue the
warrant which he did and the war
rant was marked in payment of
Judgment rendered by Conner and the
warrant was taken to Movius and it
is claimed that he transferred money
from the road fund into the classifi-
cation fund in order to pay Lockwood
his money in order to not cause delay
sufficient to allow time for Vollum to
file an appeal to the supreme court.
And so the Land Classifiers have
gotten all of their money in spite of
the fact that case questioning the
legality of the whole procedure is in
the supreme court.
It will be remembered that County
Auditor O'Grady last year refused to
audit any claims in favor of the Land
fare ever since.
She refused to audit the claims
for the classification of the lands on
the grounds that the entire contract
was illegal because it involved more
than $4,000 and had not been .sub-
n,itted to the people for vote.
Clair Stoner, by Onstad & Greer,
attorneys, sued out an injunction to
prevent Lockwood & Blakeslee from
proceeding with the contract. Judge
Conner refused the injunction, hold
ing that the Constitution did not hold
in cases where the legislature had
directed the commissioners to con-
tract the indebtedness, and made a
very liberal Interpretation in favor Of
the land classifiers as Conner always
does, thus putting the expense Of the
appeal upon q taxpayer who brought
the suit to protect all of the taxpay-
ers.
This method is q nice way to dis
courage taxpayers from going into
court to put q stop to graft.
Then Stoner appealed to the Su-
preme Court for a ruling in the mat
ter, and Of course by law, this should
have put a stop to the payment Of all
claims and further work until the
Supreme Court passed upon the mat
ter.
The law supposed this protection
lockwood 4 Blakeslee however
simply ignored the appeal and went
ahead with the work and presented
claims in the sum of $4,000 to Mrs.
OGrady which she refused to audit
until the supreme court had passed
upon the legality Of the contract,
which case had been appealed.
Finally in their desperation to
make collection lockwood got the
Commissioners to allow the same ov-
er the head Of Mrs. O'Grady in spite
Of the fact that the court had ruled
that claims could not be paid with
out the ar6roval OF the auditor, and
Major issued The warrant and Moyius
transferred money from tie general
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