Decorah public opinion. (Decorah, Winneshiek County [Iowa]) 1895-1928, 1921-02-09
TO THE PUBLIC!

i In the last issue of the Decoral
Republican there was an article re
garding the st. Cloud Hotel bein,
{ raided by Attorney Nelson, and
a am writing this article for no othe
reason than to tell the public thu
truth. In the first place Mr.. Edito
E you stated that attorney Nelson
E had started cleaning house at the st
Cloud Hotel" That Mr.. Nelson foun(
, poker game in full swing. This !!
false. Mr.. Nelson did not raid thu
hotel, nor did he find a poker game
: in full swing.
Peter Peterson, better known a.
"Pete the Dane" gave Mr.. Nelson
the names of the men who had beer
gambling at the st. Cloud hotel. This
. was given to him voluntarily. Mr.
Nelson has a letter from me, dated
Jan. 26. 1921, in which | informed
him that had started cleaning house
at the st. Cloud hotel. As | had no
evidence, all | had was what | heard
| sent an officer to the hotel, but he
found nothing out of the way at that
time.
He brought the young man who was
running the hotel to my office.
could get nothing out of him, but at
that time ! ordered him to clean
house, and that the hotel would be
policed night and day from then on.
This was on Jan. %. On Saturday,
Jan. 30, Mr.. Nelson came to my of
fee and told me he had the names
of the ST. Cloud gamblers, and want
ed me to take charge. / did not re-
fuse as the editor would have you
believe. | asked Mr.. Nelson if he
couldn't put it off until Monday, and
| would take charge, as Saturday
is a busy day for me, in fact it is
the one day of the week that bar
Der makes his money, and this would
take the whole day. Mr.. Nelson said
he would see what would be the best
to do. After he looked up the law he
found the fines would have to go to
1.-THE school fund, whether they were
fined by the mayor or justice of
the peace. This is per your one ar
| ticle Mr.. Editor. Mr.. Bailey does
this look as if there was no cooper
alton with the attorney from the
mayor? Therefore Mr.. Editor I can
see no other reason for your lying
article, except politics.
As | read the bible I find in
Deuteronomy, Chapter 5 in the ten
commandments, where it says,
"Neither shalt thou bear false wit
ness against thy neighbor." Did you
ever read those commandments Mr..
Editor? If you did you don't prac-
tice them.
You also stated in your article
that information was brought to the
Republican office that there was a
still in the vicinity of certain cor
poration. Mr.. Editor why didn't you
Quietly give this information TO the
city or county officials and help
capture the stillers. No, you would
rather make the announcement in
your paper and let the stillers have
a chance 70 get away. This IS the
kind of help you would give the local
officers, and all you will do is TO
criticize and publish false state
ments.
| have been a city official for ten
years and | have nothing to regret
about what | have done during those
ten years. During my second term in
the office of councilman | was elected
chairman of the waterworks COM
mittee. At that time the waterworks
committee was elected by the coun-
Gil. After years study of the
waterworks system found it was a
losing game to the city, as every
customer was paying fiat rate. I'D
naturally the public was careless
about leaks, and would let the water
run all night, so it wouldn't freeze.
After some time | got through a
motion to meter the whole water
works system, and today the water
works is not only self supporting
but is bringing in some revenue.
was on the council when the
sewer system was put in, thanks to
Ex-mayor Baker for the sewer sys-
TEN. During the year this was put
in | was on the job every day, dur
ing the whole JOB, looking after the
interests of the city.
Then | was for four years trying
to convince the council to buy FIRE
truck. This was accomplished during
my term of office as your mayor.
have done everything | could the
past two years to promote the dry
run improvement, which had been
talked of for the past 40 years, but
nothing was done TO start the inn
provement until it was started under
my administration, and still there
are certain citizens who criticize
and would condemn me for this.
Everything is about completed for
the letting of the contract for this
Improvement. And if your next adj
Iministration does not finish this i'm
provement they should be condemned
for the rest of their lives, as | feel
it is one Of the most wanted i'm
provements in the city. | also have
favored paving and did everything
| could to have paving done in De-
corah, as most every little town IL
Iowa has more paving than DEBORAH.
| am a booster for every improve
ment to further the welfare of the
city. | am not writing this article for
political ambition, but | want to
let the public know that my career
as city official is not what the
editor of the DEBORAH Republican
would have his readers believe.