Plentywood herald. [volume] (Plentywood, Mont.) 1908-current, 1931-04-02
MENTAL BANKRUPTCY

by tax payers OF Montana. MUS. VI
vestigations are ordered by our District
Judges only after hundreds Of taxpayers
have signed petitions praying that a Grand
Jury be called to investigate the alleged
wrong doing of the elected officials. Our
District Judges are not anxious to grant such
an expensive investigation as it has been
clearly proven that in most instances these
Grand juries fail to bring any indictments.
and where they do, it results in still greater
costs to the taxpayers, and throws the cases
into our District courts with long drawn out
Jury trials, and which usually result in the
cases being dismissed, by the the jury bring
ing in verdict of not guilty
Our county attorneys have tremendous
political pressure brought to bear on them
before they ordinarily consent to bring the
matter of calling a grand jury to the atten-
ton of our District judges.
In nearby counties we have glazing ex-
amples of this waste of taxpayers money.
McCone county's Grand jury was called af-
ter the State Examiners report had charged
the officials with many misdeeds. The jury
brought in several true bills, which resulted
in a legal battle in District court, and the up
shot of it all was, the defendants were acquit-
ted.
These District court trials Of several
criminal cases cost that county many thou
sands of dollars. 1t also resulted in the i'm
poverishing of the defendants, who had to
employ expensive counsel to defend them
for doing their utmost to serve their county
to the best Of their ability, as such elected
county officials.
An Examiners report of Roosevelt
county caused such a stir there last fall that
HUNDREDS Of taxpayers clamored for the priv
ilege Of signing a petition to nave a Grand
jury called. At first Judge Paul refused but
again the taxpayers petitioned and the sec
ond time with the approval of the county at
torney, the District judge consented to the
investigation.
The jury deliberated for l8 days, and
last Saturday evening after having quizzed
scores of witnesses, they reported they could
not find discriminating evidence sufficient to
warrant returning a true bill against any of
the accused officials or other persons who
had been Investigated. They were promptly
discharged as having done their utmost to
satisfy the craving Of disconnected polite
ians and believers in false and misleading
stories in yellow newspapers, who grasped
at the fault finding report made by the dep
uty State Examiner Of affairs in that county.
The Grand jurors did their duty, and
in spite Of having had only the darker side
Of the picture presented to them, they could
no find evidence sufficient to return any
indictments. BUT, it cost Roosevelt county
thousands Of dollars, to be paid by the tax
payers.
Some recommendations were made
that civil suit be started but we understand
the prosecuting attorney is not very keen
about doing SO, as he has had an opportunity
to see both sides of the picture.
Neither of these foregoing Grand juries
would have been called if the State Exam
iners deputy had used common sense in
making out his report Of the financial condi-
tons and recommendations for those w
counties.
And if the populace had not been so
prone to look upon the worst side of the re-
port, there wuld have been less taxes to pay
in those counties. And we are pretty sure
that the majority of those who signed the
petitions are folks who neglect paying their
taxes.
Petitioning for a Grand jury is done
in most instances by people suffering from
a peculiar hallucination which we will call
mental bankruptcy, brought on by an over
dose of State Examiner deputies whose sole
aim is to make a showing 50 they can con-
tinue holding down salaried positions to be
paid for out of the state treasury.
THE SPECIAL STATE ELECTION
ILL u Al