Site Mi Official Paper of Box Butte County TWICE A WEEKTUESDAY AND FRIDAY Official Paper of the City of Alliane. VOLUME XXVII. ALLIANCE, BOX DUTTE COUNTY.-NEBIiAsKA, TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 9, 1920. No. 93, ELECTION OF AN ASSESSOR MAY NOT BE LEGAL BOX BUTTE MAY HAVE ONE TOO MANY OFFICERS Four Year Ago Voters Decided , Abolish County Assessor But At torney's Opinion Prevented to Have the voters of Box Butte coun ty elected a man to an"office"that doesn't exist any more, fo far as this county is concerned? That's the question that is agi'ating County Clerk W. C. Mounts and a few other county officers today. The record shows that at the November election in 1916, the question of abolishing the office of county assessor was put to a vote, and the proposition carried by a comfortable majority, and there is nowhere any record of the action be ing rescinded. Yet Box Butte coun ty has had an assessor the past four years and has just finished the job of electing another one to 6erve forthe next four years. The Herald reporter visited the county clerk's office Monday after noon for the purpose of getting the official totals for last Tuesday's re publican race meet. In comparing the figures with those of four years ago, the reporter's eye caught the lines: "Against election of county as sessor" and "For election of county . assessor." The vote was 455 to 391 in favor of abolishing the office. Ac cording to M. S. Hargraves, county clerk at the time, some loci! attor ney gave an opinion to the effect that the proposition had faile dto carry be cause the number of votes cast was not a majority of all the votes cast at the election. This was apparently ac cepted without opposition. The prop osition was favored by a majority of those who voted on it, and this is now held sufficient, in the case of consti tutional amendments. At any rate, this is an opportunity for Box Butte county to save from $1,000 to $1,200 a year. If an adverse opinion was given at that time, it is possible that a new ruling could be secured. The office of assessor pays a small salary, as salaries go these days, and there was no competition devel- oped for the place. But one candi uitie iiicu. juiui riikioKiun. ocvnui . -1 . - 1 .1 T.I Ti: n C 1 of the voters of the county for a time this summer talked of putting the ' matter to a vote, which shows that ' the referendum has been completely forgotten Under the provisions of the law, the office of the county assessor may be abolished by majority vote of the county. The question will be put on the ballot after a petition of a cer tain size has been presented to the county commissioners. The commis sioners proceedings contain no rec- ord of the presentation of such a pe- i tition, and the petition has not been located in the files, although the search made was not thorough. How ever, the official vote record, proper ly attested by the counting board, wov.ld be accepted as evidence in any court, whether the petition could be found or not. The discovery of this referendum brings up a number of interesting questions. Among these is the ques tion of the tenure of office of J. A. Keegan. The law provides that the question of abolishment may be sub mitted in 1916 or four years there after, and that if the voters decide to do away with the office, it shall cease with the expiration of the term of the ircumbent. According to the time the question was voted on, the office should have ceased four years ago. Of course, at the time the question was voted upon, there was a chance that it would be defeated, and so two candidates filed for the place, J. A. Keegan and P. H. Dillon. Keegan re ceived 732 votes and Dillon 667. More people voted for the candidates than voted on the referendum, but the vote was sufficient to abolish the office. The law does not say "a ma jority of all the votes cast," and it is to be presumed that the votes on the question itself were all that were counted. A number of counties over the ;;tate have abolished the office of county as sessor, and many of them were con sidering the matter this year. The salary is so small that very few men desire the office, and the duties of the position are not onerous. The law contemplates that the county clerk shall take on the additional du ties if the office is abolished. Following is the section of the sta tutes which applies to the matter: "1956 Sec. 18. County Assessor when elected abolishment of office j At the general election in 1910, and each four years thereafter there shall be elected a county assessor in each county of the state, whose term of office shall be four years, and shall commence on the first Thursday after the first Tuesday in January follow ' ing his election. No county assessor shall be eligible for two consecutive terms: provided, in any county, upon presentation of a petition to the coun ts honrd, not less thnn sixty davs be fore any general election, signed by at iei. t ten per cent of the electors secure 1 in not less than two-fifths of the townships or precincts of said cointv, and praying that the ques tion of electing a county assessor in sa'd county be submitted to the elec- PROCLAMATION In order to co-operate with Gover nor S. K. McKelvie in observing istice day on November 11, I re hat all business places be closed at.' ock, and that a general ob serve 4 iul.l be marked with pa triotic ,ll4 ceremonies in both our homo our schools. 99 Aft . x. tors therein, the county board at the next general election shall order the submission of the same to the quali fied voters of said county. The form of submission upon the ballot shall be as follows: "'Against election of county as sessor;' " 'For election of county assessor;' "And if a majority of the votes cast shall be against the election of coun ty assessors in said county, the office shal cease therein with the expira tion of the term of the incumbent, and the-duties of county assessor shall thereafter in said county devolve up on the county clerk, who shall re ceive from the county board such al lowance for the additional duties as shall seem reasonable, until otherwise ordered by the voters at a new elec tion hekl under the same requirements us herein provided." BAYARD PLAYED AN INELIGIBLE Talks of Barring Alliance for Rough Play, But Her Own Skirts Far From Clean. Bayard high school, which has been doing a lo tof frothing at the mouth since. Alliance scored against their championship team, played an ineli gible quarterback during last season, according to revelations made at the state teachers' association meeting in Omaha last week. It was brought out during this meeting that the Bayard qaurterback had not been in school a year, and that his parents live in Au rora, not Bayard, which made him in eligible under the rules. Following the Bayard-Alliance game last year, Coach Prince entered a protest because of another ineli gible player, and the game was for feited to Alliance- . bince another player was ineligible, every game won by Bayard during the season could be declared forfeit, and in that event the Alliance team deserves the I championship. For the last two weeks, the news papers in the valley have been rap ping Coach Prince and the Alliance team, on the ground that the Alliance bovs plav too rough. They have called the pride of our hearts all sorts of harsh names. The Bayard Tran script started the fuss, and the Star- Herald of Scottsbluff joined in the anvil chorus. It is easy to guess the source of the Bayard paper's animus, but one wonders why Scottsbluff should be so eager to take up the hammer. TIGHT MONEY MADE MORE TAX SALES THAN LAST YEAR The sales of real estate for delin quent taxes, held the first of the month by F. W. Irish, county treas urer, amounted to $3,209.19. A total of 13o sales were made. inis in cludes both tracts of land and town and city lots in Box Butte county. The sales this year were almost double those of 1919, due, according to Mr. Irish, to the tight money con ditions this year a3 compared with a vear ago. A total of 1,492 auto licenses have been issued so far this year, as com pared with a total of 1,410 for the year 1919. One reason for the fact that only a small additional number have been issued this year is that in previous years a large number of auto owners from southern Sheridin county and from other nearby points came to Alliance and secured their licenses. This year the state board ruled that this could not be done tnd that the owners of autos would be compelled to secure their licenses from the treasurer or the county in which they reside. ENGINEERS HELD BUSINESS MEETING HERE SATURDAY Saturday afternoon, November 6, the Lincoln chapter of the American association of engineers held their business meeting in the assembly room or the court house, where impor tant plans were discussed. In the evening at 7:15 a banquet was given for the members in the Palm Room of the Alliance hotel, Interesting talks were, given bv K. T, Bracken, vice-president; Mr. Thiehoff, general manager; Mr. (.roune, general superintendent of building; Mr. Dar- row, assistant chief engineer and Superintendent G. L. Griggs. Mrs. E. R. Harris, Red Cross roll call director, accompanied by the lo cal secretary spent Mendav in Hoff land and Antioch, getting the roll Ci.1 lined up. BROADWATER MAN IS NOW IN MONTANA PEN Char Red With Transporting Young Girl from Nebraska and Living There as Man and Wife. A dispatch to Broadwater, Nebras ka, southeast of Alliance, states that Clyde Reeves, formerly of Broad water, has been sentenced to the Mon tant penitentiary for from three to ten years on a state charge for trans porting fourteen-year-old Buelah Agy, daughter of John Agy of Broadwater, to Montana and living there with her as man and wife. After the elopement the girl's fath er pursued the couple first to Alliance and from this city to Sioux Falls, South Dakota, but stopped his pursuit at the latter place when he learned hat Reeves would be prosecuted on a white slave charge if captured. Ihe eloping couple apparently ran short of funds upon their arrival it Billings, Mont., and forged the name of Cliff Guthrie to a bank in Broad water requesting the bank to wire the money. A few days after the bank had wired the money the officials of the bank learned that Guthrie mid never been in Billings, Mont, and the case was immediately put in the hands of the Nebraska bankers' association. Pinkerton operatives traced the forg ery to Reeves who was found at a rooming house in Billings with -Miss Agy. Prosecution followed upon the state charge and Reeves was convicted. The forgery charge against him wus dropped. GOLD WAVE HERE TODAY BUT NOSNOW WITH IT The first severe cold wave of the season arrived during the night and is with us today. The heavy snow which fell ten days ago was unac companied by cold weather. Doubt less the snow of that date and the cold spell of today were started to gether, hut became parted when Old Man Winter stopped at the Canadian border to take one last drink of bot-tled-in-bond before entering the Sa hara desert of these United States. Sprague & Wisely, the contractors in charge of the Alliance paving, were within three days of compleU their contract when the snow des cended on their outfit and suspended a ; ,ri . . i . . operation, iney started again Mon day and are making some headway, although a shortage of paving brick is delaying the work to some extent. The necessary brick to finish the job nave nen rn"yei rri are now in the care of the Burlington. The crew is laying brick this morning, al though they are working with frozen sand, which has to be broken with shovels. Burlington officials report that the weather west is clear. The lowest temperature last night was 10 de grees above with a wind velocity cf thirty miles. POTATO MARKET SOMEWHAT WFAKER THAN LAST WEEK The potato nir.rket is somewhat weaker this week, according to Geo. Walker, manager of the Nebraska potato growers' association. The movement of potatoes continues to be heavy and the price of Ohios today is irom i.bU to 11.80 per bushel. Mr. Walker sold a carload of Cob bler?; last week for $2 f. o. b. Alli ance, which was slightly more than tney are worth this week. He pre dicts that the car situation will prove and that the future prices dur ing the next few days will depend somewhsit upon the movement in Minnesota. - RED CROSS CONFERENCE WAS HELD LAST FRIDAY The regionl conference of the Red Cross was held t the court hou e Frv c'ay, November 5 at 10 a. m. Dele gates were present from fourteen neighboring towns. Thomas Allinvon or i.hicago, civilian relief director, called the meeting to order, and i'uve n talk en grneral Red Cross work. M. S. McMullen, director of the roll spoke of the ho"s still in hospitals and those ktill in the cei-vire. Mi km Dolly Tv.itchell of the department of nursing discussed public health nurs ing. At 12:i50 a luncheon was givn at the A'lianre hotel for the visitor;". after which Mr. Allinson sroke on "The Red Cross Health Center," Mi. McMullen on "Oragnizat on for R,!1 Call, and a genera! round table cMf cussion followed. At 4 p. m. they visited the Worn an s club meeting and gave talks on why nnother rob call was necesrarv at th.:- t.me. Bom To Mr. and Mrs. Willi vm G. Niemann, Frida ymorning, a 7 3-4 lb. boy, named William Kenneth. Moth er and baby doing fine. WESTERN BANKS ARE HELPING OUT THE STOCKMEN South Omaha Journal-Stockman Tells or Instance in Which Hanker Was After Spendthrift. When a western rancher comes to market and says he has been force.! to sell close this year in order to sat isfy his country banker who is push ing him hard for ready cash, natur ally the hearer sympathizes with the cattleman ami scores the banker for his selfishness and greed, says the Omaha Journal-Stockman. Instances have come to light, how ever, in which it is the rancher him self who has bought about this forced liquidation. Just recently a shipper from the west came on the market and was hot against his banker, who he said forced him to sell off almost everything he had. This rancher hud a sympathetic audience and the bait er was branded as an outlaw. A few hours later the reporter had a conversation with another man jn the lobby of the Exchange who, by a strange coincidence happened to e from the same locality as the mucii eppressed rancher This man hu l no personal live stock interests and he was asked how he happened to be bt the market He replied that he wiis down waiting for : rertain shiirr from his point to get his cattle cashed In so that Le could jet some i nne from him. It developed that the self-same shipper who was scoring the banker ro nard was the man this outsider was trailing. Immediately he was asked why he was pushing the cattle ranchers so hard when they needed all me time imv could possibly secure. His reply was, "We are not pressing the real cattle producers, in fast we are trying to encourage them ail we can. lhis man .o whom I refer runs about a hundred head of cattle an an open range and v-ithin the past two years he has bought at least three automobiles. I am here to get my mone 101 tne automobile. iou understand, it is rot the producer ve are after, but it is the spendthrift und the ruto fiends who have no limit to their reckless spending as this nun that 'vk are after." This explanation put an entirely different light on ihe subject of ranch er versus banker and did considerable to elevate the standing of the country bankers in reference to their treat ment of the cattlemen. mf f... FORMER IOWA MAN NOW LIKES BOX BUTTE CROPS Made More Money in One Year in Box Butte County Than in Five Years in State of Iowa. Lew Lauer was an Iowa farmer, For five years he farmed near Pres- cott, la., and saved his pennies and nickles and paid high rents to the owner of the farm, who had to have high rent in order to nav interest on his investment and pay the taxc on nis mgn-priced land. Lew came to Box Butte county not many months ago and bought IfiO acres of land near Berea, ten miles northwest of Alliance. He and his wife and sons came to Box Butte county to make their home the hitter part of I-ebruary, 1919. i When Lew left Iowa, his trui'ier. with tears in his eyes, begged him to' put a nest egg of $1,000 in the bank and leave it there, for the time when he would fail in Box Butte county and come back with the other farmers in Iowa who rent year after year. But Lew and his industrious wife wanted a farm of their own anl they found the opportunity here. As tney told the reporter on Monday, their eyes aiight with pleasure and satis faction that comes from succe. well earned, they were tired of fanning the clay hills and rocky glade i cf Iowa, and came out where they cin see the boys at work any place on the farm from the house. They built their house and barn and other needed buildings and put in a crop in the spring of 1919. Said Mr. Lauer, "1 made more money last year (r.U'J) rrom this farm than 1 made in five years on the Iowa farm, and I made twice as much money this year as I made in 1919, for I had out more crops and knew the country better. My white potatoes this year made 3 -10 bushels per acre, my red (Triumph) potatoes made 130 bushers per acre, and my Early Ohios made 102 bushels per acre. Potatoes were bringing around $1.30 per bushel Monday through the potato growers' market. "And our old friend bid us good bye with tears in their eyes when ve lett Iowa, said Mrs. Lauer, "and said tl.ey would send u-t things to eat and wear when we needed them. Our old grocer wanted our address so that he could send us a barrel af groc eries when we began to starve." The Lauers are anxious for someone to induce their old friends to come out to Box Butte county "just to look around". W. M. Shean and family, who have been living at the Lloyd Thomas home have moved to bOS Box Butte. THE WEATHER. Alliance, Neb., November 9, Fair and colder tonight; cold wave east nnd south portion; temperature ten to fif teen degrees: rising temperature Wednesday north and west portion. NEWCASTLE THIEVES ARE CAPTURED IN ALLIANCE Officer Nova Taylor Friday morn ing took two colored men off of train No. 42, following receipt of a tele gram asking him to be on the look out for Perry Grover and James Hughes, who were wanted in the Wyoming city to answer to charges of robbing bunk cars. The men are said to have helped themselves to a number of articles of more or less value, including a suit of clothes apiece, several shirts, a Smith A Wesson .38 caliber revolver and; other things that took their fancy.! 1 he men did not argue the matter when placed under arrest, and stayed quietly in the city Jail until the sher iff from Newcastle arrived to take them back to Wyoming. This was done Monday night. ARMSITICEDAY PLANSAREMADE American Legion to Hold Dance at Roof Garden in the Evening Stores Close in Afternoon. Armistice day, November 11, will be observed in Alliance Thursday. The American legion decided, after discussing the matter, that it would not have a set program, but would celebrate the day in a dance, which will be held at the Lowry & Henry roof garden in the evening. Indica tions are that at least 300 ex-soldiers and their friends will be present. The dance is to be open to the public, and in order to help Becure good attend ance, the owners or tne iooi garden called off their Wednesday night dance and are boosting for the le gion dance. It s a pleasing favor, and the soldier boys will undoubted ly show their appreciation of it. Mayor Rodgers this morning issued a nroclamation asking the co-opera tion of merchants in properly observ ing the day by closing their business ho'-s Pt nnn. The football game between Alli ance -and Crawlwd, watch .had, been announced for Friday afternoon, will be played Armistice day instead. Mr. Prince had a considerable straggle with the Crawford authorities before they would consent to advancing the date, but they have agreed to the change. CHARLEY FULLER T OLEAVE SUNDAY EVE FOR ENGLAND Charles Fuller and wife will leave at midnight Sunday on a four-month trip to England, and will have an op port unit yto visit with friends r-nd relatives they have not seen in thir teen years. It will be a most enjoy able trip and they will make the most of it. Reservations have been made for passage on the Aquitania, which will not sail until November 23. This gives" them four or five days in New York city. They will arrive at Southampton and will proceed to Kent, th eold home of both Mr. nnd Mrs. Fuller. Mrs. Fullers parents are still living, and Mr. Fuller has several brothers and sisters. They will also visit in Oxford and if .o. sible will take a trip through France before returning. Mr. Fuller came to Alliance in 1912 as general foreman of construction on the court house building, then being erected by R. A. Matthews. When the contractor blew up, the work was assigned to Mr. Fuller', and was com pleted by him. He remained in Alli ance and has a numlter of fine build ings to his credit. He was employed ! on the construction of the Elks club; he remodeled the old Gadsby build ing into the present Masonic temple; remodeled the McCorkle building into the Coursey & Miller garage; had the contract for the community houses two years ago, and in addition to this he has built at least fifty houses during the past two years. Ihe trip, he says, is for the pur pose of getting rested up and ready, on his return in February, to put in the biggest year yet. William Grant of Lincoln, the city's consulting engineer, is in Alliance to day and will meet with the city court cil this evening, at which time the naving assessment will be made, two or three more days should see the windup of the paving, and Mr. Grant is exceptionally pleased with the way the work has gone. His firm super vises some twenty paving jobs, an the Alliance work has gone faster tha nany of them. The Woman's club will meet at the library Friday afternoon. Roll call Famous Educators. Lecture, "Prac tical Psychology," Prof. Pate. Host esses. Mrs. O'Bannon, Mrs. Snellen berger and Mrs. Neuswanger. OR HANSON IS , SUGGESTING A LINE OF ACTION COMMUNITY WELFARE MEET INGS AROUSE INTEREST Committee of Thirty Selected to Maka ' Recommendations to the Mayor and the City Council Theodore Hanson, director of th Nebraska state hygiene and welfare campaign, opened the Alliance and Box Butte county campaign Sunday night at the Presbyterian church in this city. While these meetings mrm held at the church because it is con veniently and centrally located, thesa are not church meetings but are com munity gatherings of concern to every citizen, as Dr. Hanson is setting forth a program of action adaptable to ev ery community in the state. Sunday night Dr. Hanson spoke en "Community Salvation." Strewing? the fact that the boys eat and sleep at home, but live in the environment and social atmosphere of the com munity, he developed the conclusion that the entire community is respon sible for the environment in the pub lic arena and has no more right to turn its streets over to a carnival company with its organized band of gamblers and prostitutes than a hom would be permitted to furnish such amusement Monday night Dr. Hanson took up the governmental steps necessary to remedy this condition in a community. He presented the need and work of a public welfare board and officer au thorized for its work with govern mental authority, as the school board or health board is authorized and em powered. A committee of thirty was called together to form a provisional wel fare committee. W. R. Pate waa elected chairman of this committee. The province of the committee is to study the program in its relation to this community and recommend to the mayor and council an ordinance pro viding for a welfare department in the city government. Sub-committees, were appointed to expedite the work of the general comnvttee. The afternoon meetings held each afternoon at 3 o'clock are of first importance to parents as well as young people, as they treat in a scien tific way with the problem of child training and supervision. The sub ject for Wednesday afternoon is "Home Government." There meet-, fugs afford a rare opportunity for thet . mothers of this community and should be improved by them. The Monday attendance at both aft ernoon and evening meet'ngs ex pressed the splendid interest that has been awakened in this piogram. Dr. Hanson is especially anxious that every business and professional man be present tonight at 8 o'clock. The subject of the lecture is "Col lective Immorality Vs. the Individ ual." The campaign closes w'th tho Wednesday evening lecture on "The World Asset Our Liability." MEXICAN LOSES TRACK fF WIFE AND TWJ CiOREn An untden'ifed Mexicr" h v"s willing to -Hve. hi name, hut the of ficers couldn't undert''nd what he was driving it. shewed up ft the po lice station last Friday afternoon. Ho had lo t a wife and wo 'h'ldreri and he drdn't know whether they had deserted h:m or whether he was to b'ame. Se was divided be' ween wor ry and suspicion, and was in rather a bad way. It seems that the Mex and family were en route from Peadwood, S. D., to Denver. Fonr tickets had been, purchased. The husband carried them all. At Edgemont he left the train to get something to eat and when he had finished he found the train had departed He came on to Alliance to locate his family. lie knew ne was to blame, but the thought struck him that maybe they had skipped. He was in the position of a man who wants to lay the blame somewhere. but don't know where it fits. Officer Taylor and Special Agent Todd came to the rescue. They did some investigating and found that the women and children had gone on to Denver, Alliance friends putting up the cash for the railroad fare. Probably, when tne Mexican geis home, his wife will have a lot to say." But that s his war. Elliott Beaumont, son of Mr. &nd Mrs. M. C. Beaumont, returned from California on Friday of last week, ac companied by four large sacks of Eng lish walnuts. Elliott and his parents left by auto in the early part of Sep tember, taking their time in making the trip. At that time he was in poor health, caused by the railroad accident this summer in which he was bad'y- hurt. He is now-looking fine an i is spending a little time with his siutet and brother-in-law, Mr. and Mra. D. W. Konner at G'rard. G. K. Meeks, manager of the Flis stone Tire & Lubber Co., of Dearer, stopped ove? in Alliance for a short visit with Coursey & Miller, local di ttibuters, on hih way to Kansas Citj