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About Gold Hill news. (Gold Hill, Jackson County, Or.) 1897-19?? | View Entire Issue (Feb. 4, 1912)
TA ere’s No Further Need to R ead the Gold Hill News if You Want Muckraking — Read the Medford Mail Tribune (Eoia B ill To County Cngineer (or County Roadmmter) Harmon t What Are Bridge Specifications for if Not to Be Followed ? \0 L 14 Muckrakes County • Clerk Coleman But Cam» Warden Finley Ha» No Trouble Recovering Money Due State A warrant for the arreal of County Clerk W. It. Coleman waa hutted Monday night for failure to forward the recslpts from gaine and angler llcunaea. amounting to approximate ly 110,000, to the statu treasurer us la required by luw. The warrant waa laaued on com plaint of State Uame Warden W. L. Finley, who arrived In Medford Mon day with deputies and an expert ac countant. who examined the record« of the county clerk's office. Mr. Coleman frankly admitted that he had broken the law and declared , that It action waa brought against him he would willingly pay the fine To the Honorable County Court Are taws, in Your Opinion, Made to Be Kept or Broken ? The People Want to Know: NO. 3 9 ~ GOLD HILL, JACKSON COUNTY, OREGON, SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 4, 1912 I Something in the Woodpile Sure * ♦I* llin ik lîb ll Vi I f❖ In Justice Court Before the warrant win Issued for his arrest Mr. Coleman made out a chock for *3,720 for the licenses In 1910 and *(.000 for the licenses In 1*11 and forwarded them to Salem. According to Mr. Finley, Mr. Cole mans own figure« «how that he owes the state *10,18*. Mr. Coleman appeared before Jus tice Glenn O. Taylor at Medford Tuesday morning and plead guilty to the charge. He was represented In court by C. L>. Iteames, who, before Mr. Coleman pleaded to the com plaint, objected to a clause which rend, “lie refused to pay on do- uiund." For this, with the permis sion or District Attorney Mulkey nnd Warren Finley, was substituted He failed to pay on demand.” With this alteration made Mr. Kearnes entered a plea of guilty to the complaint on behalf of his client. r Mr. Finley then outlined to the court the reason for the complaint, stating that he had been sent to Jackson county by the state fish and game commission to demand this money from Mr. Coleman and to prosecute him under the provision of the state fish and game law. For two years, be stated. Mr. Coleman has not made a remittance, the amount now totaling *10,000. al though every other county clerk In the state had done so. Mr. Finley was followed by C. L. Rea mes. who took the game warden to task for certain statements pub lished la the Mall-Tribune Monday afternoon, la which he was made te any that “several letter«“ Instead of one letter had been eeat tn Mr. Cole man demanding that he pay this money over to the state. He also made several Insinuations to which Mr. Finley took exception and an swered. "You say that I was In a great hurry to run Into print with state- » raents which I cannot back up,” stat ed Mr. Finley to Mr. Reames. "I am not responsible for whnt appears In the papers. 1 say now that one let ter was sent to Mr. Coleman. But since you arc so very apt with your Insinuations I might ask to have you produce before this court the bank records showing where this mou lins been during the past two years anil whether It has been drawing In terest or not. The single letter re w*nt out to the county clerks of this state was sufficient to have them :t’l turn the money In to the state treas urer. ‘ But here In Jackson county wo find a clerk who disregards our request and who alone among the clerks of the state Is behind two years with his remittances, which he Is supposed to make every three months. If he was behind one quar ter or three quarters II would not bo . so had, hut when a man Is behind eight quarters and disregards a let ter sent him four months ago asking him to square It up. It Is time some body got busy.” After Mr. Finley had completed his statement to the court Mr. Cole man made a short statement, snylng In part: Mr. Coleman’s Statement "Your honor, I am absolutely guilty as charged In this complaint. I know the law. perhaps not as well as Mr. Finley, but I have read every line of It and nm guilty of a techni cal violation of It. But I have the money— every penny of It. I am (Continued on last p.'gJ. ) Co °Q > o o , G o E> HERE IS NO QUESTION but that the forces behind the muck, raking of County Clerk Coleman this week were-and are-simply playing politics. They were not actuated by any motive higher than that of putting that hard-working and popular official out of the run ning politically. W hat better way to bring this about than t o muck rake h i m ? G a m e Warden Finley, scholar and scientist, but no politician, is made the unconsious t o o l of those who, to serve their ow n political uses, desperately desire Coleman’s disgrace. Honest himself, Finley is made to believe that he is to hunt o u t dishonesty. He finds the hunting made easy. He finds technical violation of th e law. He finds Coleman ready and w illin g t o make good. But he finds n o dishonesty, nor th e slightest sym tom thereof. A nd he fr a n k ly says so.■“ The clever coterie of mercenary schemers who, are at th e bottom of -the Coleman m uckraking conspiracy may reap muck political profit, including a county judgeship, from t k e affair—or t k e y may n ot. For the people see behind t k e puppet show sensationally sta g ed o n the front page of tk e Medford Mail Tribune. They see who is pulling th e strings, and w h y the strings are being pulled. And they will judge accordingly. Coleman is Honest Says Finley A f t e r In v e s tig a tin g T h o ro u g h ly H e B iam ea N e g lig e n t C o u rt H ouse System "There Is no question about the honesty of County Clerk W. R. Cole man,” said State Game Warden Fin ley Wednesday night. “He was fair and open and frank with me. Two weeks before I came here the eaae mystified me. A county official two jear« behind in his license accounts Is most unusual. But I found no gates up. It was the result of a sys tem of letting things slide along un til suddenly called to a halt, and then not knowing where he waa at. “I would never bare said anything against Mr. Coleman had not his at torney and friends accused me of playing politics. Nothing is farther from that, aa far as I am concerned. Had Mr. Coleman been dishonest he had p'enty of time from October to Jan.uar’' to straighten accounts. He must tare known that the state au thorities were liable to come at any time. It is one of the most perculiar cases I ever heard of, and the result of a negligent system in rogue at the court house.” County Clerk Coleman and State Game Warden Finley signed a treaty of peace Wednesday after an exciting and eventful day. Following up his threat to make the county clerk show where the *10,329 due the state for fishing and hunting licenses had been deposited, the state game warden went to Jack sonville. accompanied by newspaper representatives, requested the coun ty clerk to accompany him to the Jacksonville bank, where he looked over the books. Mr. Coleman admits that he hadn’t the money in tact. as his attorney at the hearing had said, and made a personal loan of *1.(0* to balance the same. Before his pitiless accusations Mr. Coleman retained his good nature and frankly admitted that he had broken the law, but that the condi tion of hie office had forced him to do so, and repeated that he had not profited by the technical violation one cent. “All right.” said Mr. Finley, “yon have been straightforward tn this matter from the very first. I had no desire to make yon unnecessary trouble. But when you intimated that I came down here for political purposes It made me hot!” ”1 didn’t say you did.” “No. but your friends did.” “I can’t be held responsible for what my friends say. I am sorry that it waa ever suggested that you came here for any other purpose than to discharge an obvlonr duty to the state. That was my belief when I first saw you. That Is my belief now.” "All right,” returned Mr. Finley, obviously relenting. "As far as I am concerned, let It go at that. I came here for the money due the state. You’ve paid It. That concludes my Interest In the matter. If the state demands Interest on the money held ! here I will send yon the amount and expect you to pay it.” “ I certainly shall pay It.” returned Mr. Coleman, shaking hands with the state official, “and If you ever find a’.vthlng wrong In the way of remit tances from this department reaching you hereafter, let me know. I have nothing to hide In this matter. I have told you candidly that the law has been technically broken and trie I to show you why It was broken All I ask Is that the case he present ed to the public exactly as It Is.” Where all had been clouds and thunder was now clear 'sky and sun- sh.ne, and the two principals In the recent county drama separated with apparently the friendliest feelings on both sides. Coleman’s Statement “I want to clear this matter up In full,” stated Mr. Coleman, “for I want the people of Jackson county to know the truth of the matter. I have made It a practice to deposit all moneys received by my office In a common fund which I have split be tween several banks In the county. This money has been deposited In (Continued on last page.) .
