The Orange Leader (Orange, Tex.), Vol. 21, No. 202, Ed. 1 Friday, August 24, 1934 Page: 5 of 10
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We respectfully submit to you the
following facts, to aid you in fnaking
selection of your next County Judge:
Mr. Watts has placed his "record"
as County Judge in issue in this cam-
paign. He has not shown you the full
record, but has only picked out here and
ere, instances where h^ has p§rform-
his duties, and other instances where
others have performed their duties, and
claimed credit for all of same for him-
self. This is characteristic of his type.
He has not shown you all of his record,
and he greatly dreads that it will be
shown.
County Judge H. A. (Tubby)
Watts refuses to make speeches at meet-
ings where his opponent is present, but
calls ms own private political meetings,
where he will have the great advanta-
ges of speaking last when he would
make false statements relative to his re-
cord and false statement about his op-
ponent and friends, and put such by on
the voters of Orahge County. He recog-
nizes his own failing candidacy, and
dreads to face the truth. He knows that
his opponent will tell the truth and will
show his real record. Watts cannot af-
ford to hWe his real record shown to
the voters, and therefore has resorted
to the trickery above stated. Watts calls
his meetings "Democratic Rallies" as if
he, who supported Hoover, were a
Democrat of the old! school. He has cir-
culated bill posters all *bver Orange
County calling his own rallies "Demo-
cratic Rallies." He knew that he could
not get people enough out tfc^ speak to if
he stated the truth as to his meetings,
and therefore resorted to such trickery
to induce the people to come out and
hear his propaganda. It is generally con-
ceded that a man who will resort to
trickery to get an office, will resort tp
trickery while in office, if he sees fit.
Mr. Watts lis contending from the
platform and privately that he has kept
; Orange County on a cash basis for the
past four years. This is untrue, and is
known by Watts to be untrue. He is
claiming credit for what the people and
the Secretary of State, at Austin, have
done for Orange County. In the year of
1933 the Secretary of State, at Austin,
paid the vast sum of $88,658.43 on the
interest and principal of Orange Coun-
ty bonded indebtedness, and approxi-
mately that amount or greater has al-
... ready been paid, or will be paid, this
year (1934) on our bonded indebted-
ness. These payments have kept Or-
ange County from being in a most de-
plorable financial condition. Mr. Watts
did not even have any voice in these
payments, and knew nothing about
same being paid until after they were
paid. They were paid out of the Gaso-
line Tax moneys paid into the State
Treasury, and were not even handled1
through Orange County. Mr. Watts
should find out something about these
matters so that he can give the voters
the correct facts, instead of ballyhooirig
his "record." '
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Our laws require that the County
JucHges shall make up and submit to the
Commissioners' Court at the first of
"each year, a sworn Budget, showing the
amounts of moneys needed to operate"
the county upon, in order that the pro-
per tax levies be made. Tlie Constitu-
tion and laws fix the limit/of the vari-
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ous rates of taxes to be set in various
funds of the County. The maximum li-
mit in the Jm|pjnd is 15c on the one
hundred dollars valuations of the pro-
perties in the county, in the jury fund,
and 15 cents on the one hundired dol-
lars valuation of property for the Build-
ing & Improvement Fund. The County
Judge caused the maximum rate of 15
cents in each of these funds to "be fixed
for the past four years, or 30 cents per
hundred dollars of valuation for the two
funds. This was in violation^© f law, for
approximately 6 cents per hundred dol-
lars, of valuation was amply sufficient
to take care of thje-expenditures m^de,
lawfully, from those funds. This^ Was
done for the purpose of making an over-
levy of taxe& in the General Funds of
the County, wherin the maximum rate
fixed by law was made each year, and
the expenses of the County were not by
the County Judge kept within the a-
mounts levied and collected for that
fund for each of those four years. Then
to take care of the excessive expendi-
lures ipad'e from the General Fund of
the County, large sums of moneys were
BORROWED and transferred from the
Jury and Building funds. They were as
follows:
Aug. 17, 1933, from Jury to General
Fund ...v $3,500.00
Aug. 17, 1933, from Building
* to General Fund 2,000,00
July 25, 1933, from Jury
to General Fund 2,000.00
July 25, 1933, from Building
to General Fund 1,500.00
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May 10, 1933, from Building
to General Fund . 2,000.00
March 15, 1933, from Building
to General Fund 3,000.00
Jan. 1-16, 1933, from Jury
Fund to General Fund ...... 3,000.00
Jan. 1, 1-16, 1933, from Building
Fund to General Fund 3,000.00
TOTAL ... $20,000.00
ELECTION YEAR:
April 24, 1934, from Building
Fund to General Fund .... 3,500.00
June 12, 1934, from Building and Jury
Fund to General Fund .... 5,000.00
With the County Courthouse in very
bad condition, and in great need of re-
pairs and renovation, the moneys thus
collected from the tax-payers for the
purpose of taking care of those require-
ments, were, under the I direction of the
County Judge improperly and unlawful-
ly diverted from their, legal and proper
uses to the General Fund of the County
and used for the paying of the County
Judge'8 salaries, trips and expenses to
Austin (the latter of which were paid
on bills which were not properly itemiz-
ed showing the purposes for which
spent), as well as either salaried and ex-
penses payable from the General Fund
of the County.
On July 9, 1934, an order was en-
tered on the Minutes of the Commiss-
ioners Court of this County, by direct-
Jon of the County Judge, authorizing
"the borrowing of $2,000.00, in addit-
ion to the borrowing and transferring of
of the $20,000.00 from the Jury and
Building & Improvements Funds, above
setforth. There also appears on the
Minutes of said Court, or recent date,
$; * an order authorizing "Refunding War-
v rants" againstv.the County, in the sum
of $248,000.00.
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Mr. Watts was personally instru-
mental in killing the Evarigaline High-
way project IN ORANGE COUNTY,
thereby preventing the opening up of
new farming territory, as well as open-
ing up lands for homes and other pur-
poses, although now, on the eve of an
election, for the purpose of shifting the
blame on innocent persons, he is deny-
ing the sahne. ,w
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Mr. Watts is also claiming privately
-and from platform that he is the friend
of the working people, farmers and oth-
ers. He took an active part in causing
the scale of wages, which were under t
direction of our President, Franklin D.
Roosevelt, fixed at 40 cents per hour
for common labor and 60 cents per hour
for skilled labor, to be reduced in OR-
ANGE COUNTY to 30 cents per hour
for common labor and 60 cents per
hour for skilled labor. He accompanied
the Committee to Austin to secure the
approval of this reduced Wage Scale,
and later accompanied another commit-
tee to Austin to protest the Wage Re-
duction, but, upon the Committee being
given audience with the proper official,
took cold feet, and suddenly remem-
bered that he had business in the State
Agricultural Department,\ leaving the
Committee to fight out the battles of
the people without his help. He how-
ever acted as Chauffeur for the\Com-
mittee in going to and from Austin!
This wage Reduction prevented thous-
ands upon thousands of dollars fronV
being paid, as well as to be paid in the
future, to the workmen of Orange
County, and thereby prevented the
spending of thousands of dollars with
the merchants, farmers, workmen, doc-
tors, lawyers and other business people
in this community and county. Yet, Mr.
Watts, during this campaign claims
chat he is the friend of the people, and
that he is working for their interests!
Mr, Watts was against the Old Age
Pension until he entered the race this
year for the office of County Judge,
when as usual with him, seeing that
many people in Orange County were
and are in favor of same, he changed
and now loudly and vehemenly says
that he "is for Old Age Pension." A
year before the campaign, or there-
abouts, he spoke against such pension.
There are witnesses to such in Orange.
On July 25, 1934, (3 days before '
the July Primaries) Mr. Watts ordered
$40.00 worth of FERTILIZER from a
dairyman of Orange County to be de-
livered some time in the future to a far-
mer living near Orangefield, and at-
tempted to force payment for same out
of the County Treasury of Orange
County. He was foiled and prevented,
by the proper officials, from doing so,
when he tore up the bill for the same
which he, himself, had made out again-
st the County for same, and erased the«
entry of such claim from the Orange
County Claim Docket, thereby destroy-
ing all physical evidence of his culpabil-
ity in attempting to misuse and misap-
propriate the people's moneys for the
purpose of furthering his own political
interests.
Yet, in his attempts to deceive and
mislead the people, and to escape""t]he
of his own schem
consequences
;rrung,
Judge H. A. (Tubby) Watts, at Or-
angefield in One of his "Democratic Ral-
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lies" on August 22,
the above bill was just an old
FERTILIZER used in fertilizing the
flowers and shrubbery around! th
Courthouse Square several years ago,
or words to that effect. A man who will
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attempt to misappropriate $40,00 of
the County's money for his o\
political uses and purposes, is
taking any other amount
that he can get by with. Shoi
pe of man be returned to the high
fice of County Judge? Wesay most <—
piratically: "No." *
Many other affairs and circumstan-
ces of Mr. Watts have been brought tc
our attention, such as last night Barl
ques, promises, matters included
Grand Jury Report (the latter of wl
causes Watts particular uneasiness
which if not already brought to your at-
tention, will in all probability be dOne
so if necessary hereafter. These are all
parts and parcels of the RECORD
which Mr. Watts has placed in issue in
this Campaign, and which he is attempt-
ing to bolster up by trying to dress up j
and patch up and smear over the cank-
erous portions thereof. Had he not been
so extravagant in his claims from the
platform, we would have paid no atten-
tion to same, but since lie is making
such wild statements and is wandering
so far from the truth, we felt it our duty ]
to thus inform the people of the true
facts relating thereto.
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And in informing the people of
«e of the facts, we would not over-
look some of the recent statements I
made by Mr. Watts from the platform. I
He is using vituperative statements a- |
gainst all of t^ie people who oppose him
and is attempHng to^ intimidate people
into xtoting for him again. And he or his I
friends are whispering about in certain I
portions of Orange County that certain .
monied interests of Orange are support-
ing Mr. R. Lee Davis, anH.financing his
campaign. We desire to >efute such
statements, because the very ones!
whom they claim are supporting Mr.
Davis are in fact supporting Mr. Watts.
Therefore we urge all of the citizenship
of Orange County to step out with on^
accord and register an overwhelming
vote against Mr. Watts at Saturday's
Primary, feeling that by so doing Or-
ange County and her interests will be
by far the better served.
-
On tl^e other hand, we believe that
Mr. R. Lee Davis, of Orange, is the pieo- ,
pie's choice for your next County Judge
and we urge his election. We know
him to be an able, courageous and
painstaking lawyer and citizen. He was
reared in Orange County, and is like-
wise rearing his own family and child
ren in our County. He will treat all peo-
ple alike, whether rich or poor, impar-
tially and courteously. He several years
ago served as your County Attorney,
and has practiced law for many years,
and is therefore well trained to properly
and efficiently handle thf office of
County Judge. We know that he has the
welfare of Orange County deeply at
heart, and will do all in his power to as-
sist in bringing prosperity and happi
ness back to us. Let's elect him. |
,
Friends of R. Lee Davis Candidate For ,
County
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McBeath, J. S. The Orange Leader (Orange, Tex.), Vol. 21, No. 202, Ed. 1 Friday, August 24, 1934, newspaper, August 24, 1934; Orange, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth289758/m1/5/?rotate=0: accessed July 16, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Lamar State College – Orange.