Bemidji Daily Pioneer Newspaper, September 9, 1908, Page 1

VOLUME 6. NUMBER 122 CHARGES MADE BY BROSE ANDMOON FULLY REFUTED County Auditor Wilmann Replies to Charges and Insinua- tions, Brought Against Him by Ex-Employes at Instigation of a Political Opponent. Brose Was Paid, and He Gave a Duly-Signed Receipt for “Settlement in Full.” Loans made to Brose, in var from 50 cents to $5... (Our heart was “touched” by appeals for funds with which to obtain medicine family (?)—which was often.) Fees collected by Brose, retained by him.. Total..... —————— (None of the above was voluntarily paid back. Brose finally agreed, after bein to repay the amount in month! which he finally did, as follows: April 1, 1907, Brose credited with...... May 1, 1907, L June 1, 1907, “ July 1, 1907, N “ August 1, 1907 * & Total credited to Brose Balance in favor of Brose............ $ .75 3 days’ salary due Brose, Oct. 1-2-3, '07 Grand total due Brose May 4, 1908.. BROSE GAVE R The $7.75 which Brose agreed was due him was paid to Brose May 4. 1908, and Brose signed a receipt for that amount as “settlement in full,” as follows: Received of John Wilmann settlement in full $7.75. 54°08. (Anyone calling at my offic of which the foregoing is a corr Respectfully, Bemidji, Minn., Sept. 9. To the editor of the Pioneer and the voters of Beltrami county. My attention has been called to an article contained in the Enter- prise, published at Blackduck, set- ting forth certain charges pre- ferred against me by Mr. C. O. Moon, deputy auditor under my predecessor, David Sylvester, and- at the earnest solicitations of his friends at Blackduck, retained as deputy part of the time during my first term in office. The fact that the letter addressed to C. O. Moon was not written by A. B. Allen, editor of the Sentinel, but my opponent, James L. George, is in a way Iimmaterial as the charges have been made and it is up to me to admit or deny them. As to the authorship of the letter, Mr. A. B. Allen has already replied in the Sentinel, and that emphatic denial is reproduced in another column. It is evident that James L. ious amounts, .. $14 25 for Brose’s sick 35 00 — $49 25 g hard pressed, ly installments, “ 10 00 7.00 $7.75 ECEIPT IN FULL. Arthur Brose. e may see the original receipt, ect copy.—John Wilmann.) JOHN WILMANN. George wants my job very badly, as he has to sail under false colors by signing somebody else’s name to his own letters, and for lack of more honorable means re- sorts to methods of campaigning unbecoming a2 man who seeks a public office. Now as to the charges: “No. 1—Did he ever loan any of the tax records of this county to the Crookston Lumber company?” The facts are as follows: In 1906 an employe of the Crooks- ton Lumber Co., and a personal friend of mine, came into my office and asked to see the assessment book of the Town of Roosevelt. Inasmuch as section 614, of the Revised Laws of Minnesota pro- | vides “that the county auditor shall exhibit any paper, files or records of his office or in his official custody for the inspection of any person demanding the same, free of charge” there never was and is not now any e BEMIDJI, MINNESOTTA,. WEDNESDAY EVENING, SEPTEMBER 9, 1908. “(Signed) Editor Bemidji Pioneer: ment: tacties. Challenge ‘f(f)r Mr. Opsahl. Bemidji, August 29th, 1908. My opponent, in a recent issue of his “Sentinel,” makes the following state- “I note Mr. Funkley’s remark in the Pioneer in which he plainly states that he does not wish to take a stand on any platform.” I have never made any such remark, and I am astonished that my opponent, who says he stands for clean polrtics, should in an issue of his paper (said to include a thousand extra copies to be distributed broadcast over the district) resort to such I did say that I did not want to run a race wifh him in making election promises, and which I still stick to. . In addition to what I have already said with reference to my stand on public questions, I will say that I will meet my opponent at any reasonable time and place and publicly debate any question that has any relation to any issue now before the people or likely to come before the legislature at its next session. Or, if this is not satisfactory, I will, at such reasonable time and place, publicly discuss with him his own political record as representative. ] Respectfully, Allen Didn’t Wfite the Moon Letter. [Printed in the Bemidji Sentinel Sept. 4, 1908.] “I was much surprised to see a letter in The Enterprise at Blackduck signed with my name. I never wrote such a letter or authorized the writing of such a letter, although it was written in my office, during my absence in St. Paul. It was an un- warranted liberty. Iam sorry that Miss Allen should in any way have been imposed upon in such a manner. The letter was copied on the typewriter and signed with the typewriter from copy furrished by James L. George. A. B. ALLEN. —Henry Funkley. e e e doubt in my mind but that the Crookston Lumber company’s offic- ials are entitled to the same privilege as any other individual. The book was furnished him for inspection. Said official further stated that he would like to make a copy of the description and the valuation placed upon the description entered on the book. I told him that he had my permission to do so—something that is being done every day in any~and all the offices of this as well as any other courthouse. Being unable to finish his work before my office closed in the afternoon, I wasasked if he could take the book in order to complete his copy in the evening as it was necessary to have the copy made that evening. Inasmuch as he was a gentleman who stood high in my estimation, and does today, I accorded him the previlege on the condition that he give me his receipt for the book and promise to lock the book in his safe over night and return it in the morning. He did so and the book was returned as promised. The seri- ousness of the case disappear in view of the fact that the book in question was an old assessment book, for 1904, a copy of which had then Fall Millinery Opening 1908 Friday and Saturday, Sept. 11-12 We will show the latest creations » MILLINERY ‘New Stock New Styles The Fashion Leader And Many Other Styles You are most cordially invited to attend our First Opening of The Gage Hat our New Fall Hats, Yours to please, WALSMITH & BRANNON - Located in O’Leary & Bowser’s Store - BEMIDJI, MINN, already been placed in the hands of the treasurer, who had made collec- tion of the taxes entered against each and every tract for thg._t particu- lar year, and the Crookston Lumber | Co. had then paid their taxes in full. It appears to me as though the Crookston Lumber Company’s employes are treated by George, Moon, et al, not as gentlemen, but more like a pack of wolves who are suspected to the most damnable things. Whatever the Crookston Lumber company may be as a cor- poration, the employes of said com- pany are gentlemen as far as I have learned to know them, and should not be made a target for attack, may the charges against me be ever so serious. “2—Did he ever have an employe of that company at work in his office, without fee, changing the valuations in the assessments bodks, after the Board of Equalization had made a sweeping: reduction of said company’s assessment? As to this charge,I answer,empha- tically “no!” I believe, however, that the connty as well as myself would have been benefitted if I, instead of making the mistake of employing men of Moon’s and Brose’s stamp, had secured the services of such men as are now em- ployed by.said company in their local offices. My gravest mistake, and the only one than I have regretted as an offi- cial, is that in appointing my assist- ants, the present ones excepted, the appeals to my heart prevailed over those of my reason. “3—Did he ever keep a special clerk in the office for nearly a year at a salary of $50 per month at wark on the current business of the office, when the commissioners’ resolution authorizing his employment espec- ially provided that said clerk should work only at correcting - old records, thereby taking out of the taxpayers’ pockets $50 a month for current clerk hire, to which he was was not legally entitled?”” This is not true. The new code, which went into effect in 1905, made forfeited land sales annual, while prior to the adoption of the code such sales were held every tenth year, the only sale in our country being held in 1900, In accordance with the new law, the auditor is required annually in July, to make a list of all lands for- feited to the state for back taxes The list was made containing in the neighborhood of 2,200 descriptions. ‘In -looking over the tax judgment records, I became convinced that something was wrong somewhere, and I made up my mind to “take the bull by the horns,” and set to work at once to rectify said tax judgment records by checking over and comparing every delinquent tax receipt issued since the organization of the county, beginning with receipt No. 1. v, I had a great task before me and during the year, 1905, there were very few Sundays and evenings that I did not spend at my office straight- ing out the tangle. I found that a great many pay- ments had been made but not credited on the tax judgment records. 1 communicated con- stantly with the U. S. Land officials at Cass Lake and Crookston to ascertain the status of each and every tract of land, which, after the final checking, proved to remain un- paid. Said correspondence revealed the fact that many of the tracts, the title to which was still vested in the government, were on my list. My investigation revealed the further fact that several tracts were entered in duplicate. I had a piece of work before me that req’uired time and a careful investigation. In the meantime, the date for the sale was drawing near, and I was thoroughly con- vinced that I could not hold any forfeited tax sale until the records (Continued on last page.) NEWEST GOODS LATEST COLORINGS ‘|accused of dynamiting the lake and THE BEMIDJ1 DAILY PIONEER. W. C. CHURCH TELLS OF HIS PERSECUTIONS IN BEMIDJI Local Nimrods of Jealous and Covetous Nature Would Question DesMoines Ma Seen Lake Where H “Des Moines, Sept. 5, 1908. Mr. Rutledge, Game Warden, Be- midji, Minn. “My Dear Rutledge:— “There seems to be a disposition on.the part of my pretentious friends to take advantage of my absence and humiliate me with postal cards, pen sketches, etc., like sample en- closed. These bequests have be- come so numerous that the postal clerk has already hinted for a horse and wagon for Christmas, and I notice the government is building a new commodicus postoffice here to make room for the increased business. If the ‘proof of the pud- ding is the eating,’ why can’t the proof of the catch be made in the same way? It seems it is now up to me to defend myself and as you sampled and saw the fish some de- pendence should be put in you. When a first successful catch, I was accused of buying everything| onthelake. When I made good and proved it with a larger one, was threatened with arrest with exceed- ing the limit of the law. “Well, there is gallant Doc. He doesn’t know what the wild waves are saying—here’s the poetry. truth in “Mother may I go out to fish, “Yes, my gallant Frank, “Equip yourself with a very long pole, “And stand safely upon the bank. i MINNESOTA HISTORICAL SOCIETY, n’s Veracity.—We Have e Caught Big Ones. “‘He has been known, though, to drive away around by the bridge, take a very long pole and catch fish off shore (way outin) for the big deep ones. There’s Dick Leet. He never was known to get farther than ten rods from the boat house, and then for only twenty-three minutes, claim- ing he would be late for supper—when in reality he was afraid of getting lost. And as for George Baker, his ‘grand stand’ fishing has all been done with Muscalonge home made Dbait, off the pier, and you know all he ever caught wasn’t much. “Ordinarily, I wouldn’t say much about these things, just consider the source, but when it comes to Doc holding down one corner, Baker another and Leet working the middle, it covers the greatest part of the business section of Bemidji and it is bound to create an unfavoroble im- pression, even upon most ardent friends, and I am obliged to sit up and take notice. “Iappeal to you as a friend, law- abiding citizen, lover of justice, to rouse the ‘blue blood,’ the tried and the true of Bemidji and dissolve this Boomerang. “Whenever a ‘real sport’ does wander into that town he is at once ‘queered’ by a bunch of these ‘four flusher’s.” “Very truly yours, —"“W. C. Church.” _— Wes Wright Is Very Active. Wes Wright, who is seeking the republican nomination for sheriff.of this county at the forthcoming primaries, is making a whirlwind campaign in connection with his candidacy. Mr. Wright is visiting nearly | every family in the county and is!| putting forth his claim for the shrievalty in very strong terms.| Having been a resident of Beltrami| county ever since the settler mixed with the Indians in this vicinity, | Wes Wright is personally acquainted with every white men in the county. In fact, his familiar slap on the back and hearty “How are you,” is known to every taxpayer of the county. Wes has a pleasing personality that takes well wherever he goes. and he is receiving all | kinds of encouragement in his candidacy. The services rendered the county by Mr. Wright since he has been a| member of the board of county com- missioners are known and recognized by the taxpayers and he will undoubtedly be fully rewarded at the forthcoming primaries by a heavy vote. Mr, Wright is confident that he will receive the republican nomina- tion and has no doubt of his election MRS. CONGER'S MILLINERY OPENING SEPT. I AND (2 Extends Invitation to Ladies to Attend Fall Opening of Beautiful Line of Millinery. Mrs. J. J. Conger announces her fall millinery opening for Septem- ber 11 and 12. Her stock has been selected with great care from three of the most popular whole- sale houses in the country, and the fall buyer is sure to find at Conger’s Millinery a beautiful show- ing of pattern hats, ladies’ tailored hats and a special line of hats for young ladies and school girls. You are cordially invited to attend the opening and judge for yourself. Prices are more reasonable than last year. Mrs. J. J. Conger, 209 Fourth street, Bemidji, Minn. Food Sale Saturday. The M. E. Ladies’ Aid society will bold a food sale Saturday afternoon at the I. 0. O. F. hall. Will serve sandwiches, cake, doughnuts and coffee during the afternoon. Price at the general election. Fall Showing of STYLES Sept 11th and 12th OUR SPECIALTY IS “TO PLEASE THE PEOPLE” Hetland-Fallon _ 313 Minnesota Avenue .|15¢c. Fall Millinery WE WILL BE PLEASED TO HAVE YOU PAY US A VISIT .RIGHT PRICES COURTEOUS TREATMENT