The producers news. [volume] (Plentywood, Mont.) 1918-1937, 1931-02-06
THROWING SMOKE SCREENS
By HANS RASMUSSEN

Ever since the State Examiners Report
printed it has kept the county officials and the
main street papers busy telling people what an
old crook the state examiner is; how ne doesn't
know what he is talking about and referring to
him as a druggist, for the purpose of giving people
the impression that he is drug addict.
One of the many things the examiner was call
ing peoples attention to in his report was the un-
lawful cancellation of Peter Marron's taxes. This
was explained to some extent in the last issue OF
this paper but it will do no harm going over that
transaction once more.
All taxes are supposed to be paid In cash. Ii
county treasurer permits people to pay with checks
ne simply does that as accommodation and IN
way is he responsible for the check being good
or bad Some people have been told that county
treasurer must present check to the bank on
which it is drawn within many hours. There
is nothing to that This is told to the people for
the purpose of putting the blame on Dan Olson in
the Peter Marion case.
When county treasurer receives taxes in form
of check, he makes out tax receipt for the
amount and pins the receipt to the check, then the
check and receipt sent to the bank direct or IN
direct If the check is good, the bank sends the
cancelled check, with the receipt pinned to 1t, back
to the man who issued the check. That man 5
taxes are paid and he has his receipt If the check
is no good, the bank sends the bum check, with the
receipt still pinned to it, back to the county treas
urer, dthat mans taxes are not paid-he has no
receipt to show
Let us follow up what happened IN the Peter
Marion case: In 1923 Peter Marion gave to Dan
his taxes. Olson made out tax receipt for the
amount, pinned the receipt to the check and sent
it to the bank as usual, but the bank had closed
is doors bfoTe the check got there the check was
no good-that's the way banks do business-the
bank returned the check, with the receipt pinned
to it, back to the county treasurers office. There
it laid for two years waiting for some KIND OF a
settlement, but the settlement did not come The
check and receipt, was turned over to the Clerk
and Recorders office and placed on file where 1t
laid for another five years.
Then, seven years after the receipt was made
out by Dan Olson, it was given to Peter Marion
Not because the taxes had been paid, but because
the taxes had been cancelled by the commissioners
In order to fool you and clear themselves they are
now telling you that Dan Olsn gave the receipt tt
| Peter Marion. Dan never did 1t was given t.
| Peter Marion by Niels Madsen seven years after
| it was made out by Olson.
By unlawfully canceling the taxes the taxpay
ers were not only beat out of the $4,000 but alst
the penalty and the years of interest, which
amounts to more than the taxes.
The parties directly responsible for this trans
action are the three county commissioners and In
directly the Clerk and Recorder and county treas
urer If either of the five had raised vOic
the rest of them would not have dared to go thr
with it-but none did 1t might be that Victo
| Anker and HOLMAN did not know what it al
about but do know that Frank French, Ed liver
son and Nieis Madsen did. The thing had bee
hanging fire for the past sevent years waiting t
be slipped when nobody was looking.
Too bad some of these supposed to be good
straight and honest people take so very little in
terest in how the taxpayers money is handled a
long as they themselves can be on the county pay
roll.
This is only one of the small items mentione
IN the examiners report. There many other
and bigger ones, which was the reason the repo1
was suppressed until after election and never woul
have been printed had not been for the Producer
News