Askov American. [volume] (Askov, Pine County, Minn.) 1914-current, 1936-08-13

twisted Facts and false hOOey. III any
one is dishing out lot of hooey, it is
Mr.. Gustafson. All taxpayers of Pine
county know that in 1893 at the
January meeting of the county board
a delegation of taxpayers appeared at
that meeting demanding a reduction
of salaries of all county officials. This
was done by the county board at that
meeting. The county superintendent
salary was set at $500 per annum.
Mr.. Miller did not complain and re-
ceived that salary until his office ex-
pired. In 1885, at the county board
meeting in January, the salary of the
superintendent was again set at $1,000,
the same as was paid J. P. Miller. At
the February meeting Mr.. Gustafson
appeared before the county board and
! demanded raise of his salary. This
was denied at that meeting. In 1896
his salary was again set at $500, so
he again appeared before the board,
storming the meeting and citing the
law and basing his salary on the
schools that used to be in the county
at $3.50 per school, counting all
schools of record in his office, while
many of these schools do not exist
any more. Some were in the old log
houses and were later abandoned,
others have consolidated, and only one
school now exists in each consolidated
district, but he is still counting these
schools and drawing pay for most of
them as if the schools were still there.
| The law is not clear on this ques-
ton and it is hard to determine how
many schools he should be paid for.
county, but Mr.. Gustafson claims 1853
as of record in his office. So we COM
promised with him and set salary of
S1S75 per annum, thinking this would
stop all further disputes about his
salary, but he again came before the
county board and wanted some back
pay He claims about 5000 and this
was again denied, and he made the
statement that he was going to put the
county board ION the spot" Mr. Geb-
hardt told him to go ahead but at no
time did Gebhardt or any mem
Der of the county board threaten him,
dare him, challenge him, or defy him.
Those are absolute false and untrue
statements, the same as many of the
other statements in his letter. The
other members of the county board
and county auditor will bear me out
: in this assertion. | am surprised that
Gustafson would stoop to such tactics.
He says that he cannot find one
true statement in Gebhardt's whole
chapter. Yes, Mr.. Gustafson, Geb-
hardt'S letter is a true statement, and
a picture of the county superintend-
ent's affairs just as transpired for the
past one and half years, most of
which is of record in the court house.
The public examiner criticised his
office in the purchasing of certain
supplies paid by the county which
should have been paid by the schools
which received them. So you can all
see that Mr.. Gustafson will also deny
the findings of the public examiners
in the audit of the county records,
which records are examined and
audited each year, thereby trying
to evade the question. When he saw
Mr.. Gebhardts letter he realized that
he got himself into an awful mess and
tried to squeeze out by saying that he
had to defend plot engineered by F..
w. Stepan and j. P. Miller to take
over the Willow River school into the
unorganized district in 1888. This is
another false statement; neither did
]. P. Miller nor myself form any such
plot. This movement was started by
some of the intelligent taxpayers of
District No. 81 who tried to save their
homes from high taxation as the
school tax rate in this school district
is 1899 mills which is for school pur-
poses and which is almost confiscatory.
The school tax rate in the unor-
ganized district is 66.44 mills, or 3746
mills lower than in District No. 81.
Can you blame these taxpayers when
they could have saved over 30 mills
of tax rate or one-third of their taxes
by going into this unorganized dis
trict and their schools being the same
and he claims that he saved the Will
low River school, but the fact is that
these taxpayers did not get enough
signers on their petition to put this
matter over. The fact is that l an
swered some of his letters at that
time and when things got so hot for
him he could not explain himself any
more so he quit and said he did not
care to write any more, the same as
he is indicating in his letter now.
where he said that his friends per-
suaded him to enter the race for his
present job and to prevent a re-occur-
renee of this kind of plot against any
Pine county schools. That is another
joke.
If the majority of taxpayers of any
school district signs petition present
ed to the county board and the board
grants it, that is all there is to it.,
and they become the unorganized dis
trict and do not need your support,
Mr.. Gustafson. He says that there has
been a movement throughout the state
to take the county superintendent