Plentywood herald. [volume] (Plentywood, Mont.) 1908-current, 1932-09-29
Dagmar, Mont.
September 20. 1882

september ~, 1907
P~lentysxood Herald
Dear Sir:
The Plentywood Herald is devot-
ing a lot of space to me in its Sep
TENDER 10 issue and asking me for
an answer. Here is my answer to
you Mr.. Polk and you are at liberty
to print it in you paper in full and
give it all the publishity you see fit.
First you are referring to my ell
ection Promises of two years ago
and you are trying to make people
think. that | have failed in living up
to the Promises given. promised
at that time, that | would take care
Of the farmers interest, and this l
have done TO the best of my ability.
But | never promised to AXE care
of the interest of shady characters
with a past, that any decent person
would be ashamed Of, moving in
here from North Dakota for the
purpose of getting on our county
payroll by some hokus pokus trick.
And | am still opposed to having
the county support that kind of
E1opit. ain ybAy A" 09 49,
the one | am referring to.
At the line the printing contract
was given t you | voted no. | did
so because | knew what calliber of
a man you were, and knew that you
could not be depended on. | knew
that Y ur word was no good. In the
dealing / have had with you since,
yu hive fully proved, that was
right in this my oppinion about you,
1eu have lied before the board Of
,aunty commissioners and you have
Teen breaking the laws Of the state
Of Mont. net once but many times,
an you knew you did it.
You told the county commission
ers, that only twice had any Of our
county printing been done in Will
~liston, and I knew at that time you
were lying. Later you admitted in
ccurt, that it was not twice but
eight times that you had violated
Z law. You told the men who work
ed fer you to destroy the records
md you sneaked the county printing
in o t1wn in cars after dark so no.
b-dy should find out. When the
county commissioners ordered y3u
to produce your records you never
howed up. If you are given the linz
it of law for the printing crimes
you have admitted, you will be pay
ing a 100000 fine and be spending
AZ months in Jail.
You are complaining about, why
didn't ! insist on calling for bids
after we had cancelled your contract.
What ! was interested in first of
all was, that the contract should be
taken away from you, and | knew
that the majority of the people in
the county were backing me up in
this. | wanted to give it to the Pro-
lei sNews fer the unexpired term,
but had to make the compromise
otherwise the whole thing would
have been a deadlock. and that | did
not want.
That the county would be losing
any money by, giving the contract
to somebody else at the same figure
that you are getting is not so, as
you say it is. But ! will admit, that
the printing could probably be done
cheaper by somebody else, as the
Secretary of the Taxpayers ASCOT
alton on several occasions have made
the statement that you are charg-
ing all the traffic car possibly bear,
and very likely if your claims are
looked over a little closer it will be
found you are charging more than
the traffic can bear.
Why didn't listen to county at
torney Blackwell, and why didn't /
wait for the attorneys generals OPP
pinion before | did this illegal" act
of cancelling your contract. Mr..
Polk, am not so sure yet that WE
have done anything illegal. What I
am sure Of is, that you have repeal
edly been breaking our law and If
your contract should not be cancell-
ed for that reason, there is some
thing radically wrong with our
laws.
For weeks we waited for the at
torney generals oppinion and it did
not come. what our county attorney
had sent to the attorney general was
an oppinion Of his own, which he
wanted the attorney general to O. K.
but Bakewell in his oppinion had not
ztated the actual facts. From my
experience with Mr.. Blackwell, his
appirions and judgements is not
very binding with me, especially
when it comes TO pass his oppinion
IN a ease where the Producers News
and Chas. r. Taylor are involved.
Mr.. Blackwell was the one who drag
ged Chas. E. Taylor into court some
two years ago on a bum check
charge, something he has never done
to anybody else, although there
have been plenty of charges, just
to hand Charley some dirt. That
case cost the county a nice little
sum of money, and Chas. f. Taylor
was freed on the first ballot by the
jury. That is only one Of Bakewell's
many bum records.
Sheridan county has been gang
ridden and gang robbed long en-
cugh the taxpayers have been
mulcted Of at least a million dol
lars You say, and you are right.
But it is the verv people that you
are lining up with and sticking up
fer thai did the robbing.
When the farmers, that / am re-
presenting and sticking up for, were
in power. the county debt was re-
dueed and al county funds were
brought back on a cash basis. The