The silver state. [volume] (Winnemucca, Nev.) 1909-1925, 1923-02-22
,e advertised for bid and awarded

to the lowest bidder. Attorneys in
form me, however, that the inter-
probation of this laws means that it
must be applied to period of one
year, and that the supreme court of
this state has repeatedly held that
parceling out such work is merely
an evasion of the law and techni-
cally is a direct violation of the law,
and that you may be punished by
removal from office, fined and even
put in Jail for the offense, besides
being forced to return to the
county treasurery all sums so IL
illegally ordered paid. | warn you
that it is my intention to carry this
matter through to any length it may
be necessary to obtain justice and
break up your political methods.
Now | would have you under
stand that it is my intention to
meet any subterfuge that may be
brought forward in this matter and
show to the people of this county,
in a manner similar to this, exactly
what is going on in regard to coun-
ty affairs, particularly as they apply
to county printing. 1t has been
said to me that your action is based
upon personal dislike of w. II.
Ayres, because he dared to oppose
you in an election and otherwise.
would call to your attention that
iimiar condition existed until ten
years ago, when C. Z. Haviland
was elected commissioner and H.
Warren was appointed district at
sorney, and these men, with Com
missioner Hoskins, broke up the ex-
sting scheme of things for a period
Of eight years, and until Commits
5ioner Bell came into power. For
many years prior to that time,
when your chairman, w. J.
Bell, was said to have been a
political dictator hereabouts, the
county printing was given out to
the Humboldt Star exclusively, and
other county expenditures were
made on the plan of political ex-
pediency, as is the case now. There
was no fairness then, as there is
none now. And at that time w. H.
Ayres was not in the state of Ne
vada, nor known to you at all.
So the matter of personal likes
and dislike does not enter into the
question, and if it did l fail to see
where you have the right to waste
county taxpayers funds because of
personal matters, nor attempt to
Destroy the investment of another
taxpayer, referring to myself, which
is surely what you do by with
lrawing opportunity for business
activity.
The matter of respective circula-
tions of newspapers carrying official
county advertising mas also been in
iected into the matter, apparently
for the purpose of furnishing to you
an excuse for your unfairness in
the distribution of county business
and your waste of several thousand
dollars of taxpayers funds-at
least $4,000, | repeat-during the
year 1922. would call your at
tention, however, to the fact that
newspaper circulation cannot pos
sibly have any bearing on county
job printing, which is the principal
item. But to meet the issue | will
say that | have no knowledge that
any newspaper distributed in this
county has a larger bona fide cir
culation than has The Silver State,
and if future Investigations prove
that such a condition does momen-
tarily exist, you may he sure that
| am not going to quietly permit
such a condition to continue indefi-
nitely. To quiet the matter once
and for all, however, / agree that
if you gentlemen will award all of
the county printing to me for the
period of one year | will guarantee
that The Silver State containing
such advertising will be furnished
to ninety per cent of the voters and
taxpayers of this county throughout
such period, and prove to your
board that such circulation is made,
or accept no pay for the services
thus performed. Beat that, if you
can.
Now, to sum it up. your action in
the county printing expenditures,
as well as other expenditures, ap-
pears to me to be based upon the
old political scheme of things that
existed and | though was killed
forever, when | was a small boy.
and | refer to the old ward political
gangster methods SO apparent in the
city of Chicago at that time, where
the politicians used their Official
positions and taxpayers funds prin-
cipally for the purpose of forming
political gang, politely referred
to as machine, going to the length
IF having murdered their political
enemies if they were strong enough
md at least running their business
lrnsnects Many neonla xuho rranld