The Idaho Republican. [volume] (Blackfoot, Idaho) 1904-1932, 1921-05-16
Forty-four Days
'.ss and Nothing Done

ss and Nothing Done
CENTRAL COMMITTEE
UNDER REPR0AUH AsY fe
People who are raising the Ques-
tion whether the Republican central
committee has any power to remove
the assessor or any right to demand
his resignation, have now been repre-
sented In an expression that says
they could not remove the assessor
IL they chose, and that having made
an investigation and found just what
he Is doing and reported 1t to the
public their whole duty is done.
II that view. is accepted by the
committee as being correct, then that
defines the power and value Of the
Republican central committee of this
county. Their value lis limited only
by their determination in such mat
ters, and If they determine that hav-
ing elected ticket, and found that
it or part of it is unfit to be.left In
charge of the official business, that
in the fact of such fact they will sit
down and accept bad situation
without making any move to correct
it, then that is probably all that the
people of the county want to know
about the Republican central COM
mittee and the Republican party as
constituted in the county, that car
ried with it an endorsement and
guaranty of good service, but now it
appears that their endorsement and
guaranty mean nothing after cleo
ton and have no value. The paper
that lays down that rule of party
conduct, IL its expression is now en-
dorsed by the committee who repre-
sent the party, then the people have
to accept a piece of bad news about
q part that has heretofore been con-
sidered party of responsibility.
This paper has been slow to be-
lieve that it belonged to a party that
had run down at the heel to such
straits as this, and II there Is no ex-
preston to the contrary coming from
we'll be accepted as an expression OF
the party that 1t guarantees nothing
and endorses any kind of inefficiency
which its officials chose to give the
public, going so far as to say that
it is all right so long as he does not
make reprisals," meaning, steal the
money. And If he makes reprisals,
that is, IL he spends large sums of
the public money on himself and
his friends, then they will dicker
with him to get him to pay back
as much as he will, this latter being
matter of experience and not an
original expression in the present
controversy.
But there is one very lame fea-
ture Of the present tax situation with
the county central committee which
its members and apologists seem to
be overlooking. When The Idaho
Republican made statements about
how the assessor. was misconducting
his office, they met in special ses-
sion to take notice of the matter,
and the chairman and others stood
up in meeting and said that these
charges were SO serious that it was
time to investigate, and If the ;
charges proved to be true, then
something should be done about it,
and If they were not true, then
something should be done about a
Republican newspaper that would
publish such things when they were
not true. The whole tenor of their
speeches was that if the charges were
true something should be done with
the assessor, but they seemed to en-
terrain the mental reservation that
1t was prepOsterOus that it should
be true. They wanted to investigate,
II one could read between the lines,
SO they could show that it was not
true or was only partly true.
The committee report showed that
1t was not only true as published,
but that it was even worse than had
been represented in the matter of
PADDING expense bills, for members
of the committee went even further
in denouncing the mileage expense
bills than did this paper.
When the committee reached that
stage, when 1t got up against this
unexpected and unbelievable situa-
ton, it sat back in embarra ssment
and then ENGAGED IN ? discussion of
how to operate cars That brought
on a discussion of how to make re-
hairs, that led to cOmmenGs OF how
the garage men charge for their
work, and then they found it was {
line to adjourn. Having adjourned
The meeting it was then too late to S
reach any conclusions about the mis-
conduct of the assessor, and nobody
calls them together again and the +!
assessor is left operating at the old c
stand and its apoligist explaining a
hat he has done wonderfully well c
IN that he did not make reprisals." 7
IN other words, he might have done r
worse, and so he might. IN
In the whole ludicrous situation, t
he thought keeps coming up, "What v
lid the central committee investigate t
or if 1t did not intend to do some
hing about it if it found that things
we're going wrong?" 1t might bet
er have said in the first place that, !.
having elected its men it did not J.
are what they did with the peoples :
BUSINESS. "
Their apologist says they cannot q
Just the official, and we begin to :,