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Billed As Non Partisan . . .Farragut Committee DiesA meeting at Coeur d’Alene Saturday night which was billed as --'tedious ; .with;? a lob of business to be done,” blew up in the face of self-appointed “chairman” Stanley D* Crow, Boise attorney who came to this Idaho city on his, campaign to institute a fact-finding probe of the ULC picnic at Farragut State Park.Crow, who arrived in Coeur d'Alene with a pre-structured, hand-picked committee and a self-written constitution to recommend found a probing and sometimes hostile committee along with about 25 area residents who rejected the constitution and questioned the Boise attorney’s motives for creating thecommittee.Following up on two previous meetings of his “committee,” one at Pocatello on July 29, and the other at Boise on July 30., Crow encountered eleven north Idaho committee members who bolted at his strict adherence to Robert’s Rules of Order and called for a looser, more open discussion on the goals and purposes of the committee.Crow’s refusal to allow the press to question his motives and procedures during the meeting, along with his strict refusal to allow local citizens to speak to the committee, caused a rebellion among members of the audience who spoke up in spite of his requests for silence, and brought chaos to. his attempts to railroad the self-written constitution through the committee's ranks.Instrumental in thwarting Crow’s attempts to organize what many . present described as a “witch hunt,” was Mary Hartung, wife of University of Idaho President Ernest Hartung, and Ellen Munson, wife of State Board of Education board member J. P. Mun.son.The two women, with lists of carefully-prepared questions, dissected what Mrs . Hartung described as, “a constitution composed and structured by the chairman. . J feel the purpose has been decided by a small group of people, and is too narrow, imposing a small group’s ideas on the majority.”They were aided.intheir efforts to widen the scope of the committee’s discussion and purpose by the only student present, Mary Ruth Mann, who was one of three token youth picked by Crow. Miss Mann was the only member among the eleven at Coeur d’Alene who was under 30.Mrs. Hartung told Crow that Robert’s Rules, carried to the extreme used by the chairman earlier in the meeting could become “a form of tyranny.” She said, “I plead for a little more time. . J do not even know the views of my fellow committee members and I find this constitution to be so ill-worded as to creat confusion.”Crow admitted to a Sandpoint newsman present that Lt.Governor Jack Murphy was aware of the committee’s formation and purpose, but that Murphy found out after it was formed, and had no part in its formation. He added that the Idaho Lt. Governor had said he would drop hjs own Farragut investigation if the work of the comrrrttee to investigate the affair got off the ground.Crow, originally from Nebraska, is a former newspaperman with the Idaho Statesman. He wrote a column for that paper entitled “The Young Republican.” He is a graduate of Northwest Nazarene College, Nampa and the Harvard School of Law.Crow told the reporter who questioned him that no. funds or sources of funds were yet available but that he hoped such funds could be found. Later during the meeting, the Boise attorney contradicted this statement by stating publicly that “there are some foundations with headquarters in Boise who may contribute to the committee’s work.” He refused to reveal the names of the “foundations,” and said that actually they had not yet been contacted for funds. •Tw:o legislators were present George Brocke, Kendrick, Idaho who served on the committee, and John Molyneaux, who came as an interested legislator. Molyneaux was silenced by the chair several times during the meeting, as Crow attempted to avoid discussion from bystanders or committee members until his constitution could be approved.The Coeur d’Alene legislator said, “I want to know if this is a citizen’s committee or a John Birch Society meeting.”Brocke emphasized that he attended because he is deeply concerned with the drug abuse problem in Idaho, but wanted to-work toward solving some of the problems throughout the state. He said, “I think we should consider the serious problem statewide, there’s no need to stress too much on Farragut.”Throughout the abortive meeting which had no conclusion and none of Crow’s pre-structured plans adopted, he stressed that the committee and its purpose was strictly non-partisan. He said, “There is a real risk that the Farragut issue could become somebody’s political football.'. . if so, I thought it would be better if this happened only after this committee had a chance to report both majority reports and minority reports.’’Crow added, “We’re talking about a particular illustration of what Idaho calls a problem. . . what we can-do is provide a focus on this event in relation to Idaho’s problems. . .we have to put it in perspective.”Referring to the lack of coordination between the three regional factions of the committee, Crow admitted under questioning that the constitution which he said had passed as written was passed in Boise by 11 persons and by only two in Pocatello. He gave no reason for the small number of persons at the Pocatello meeting.- Commenting on Crow’s constitution and by-laws, which were at,the center of the disagreement Saturday night,Mrs.J.P.Munson said, “A citizen’s fact-finding committee, sounds more like an FBI probe or something from the •Joe McCarthy era on un-American activities.”Mrs. Hartung said of the at-brought to Bonner General Hospital in Sandpoint where it required almost three hours of surgery to close the wounds.Mrs. Lang said today that Bud is recuperating at the family home.Moose Hunt Drawing SetFamily night is planned by the Bonner County Sportsman for their meeting, Thursday, August 5, at the Sandpoint Community Hall.The meeting, which begins at 7:30 pjn., will feature the annual drawing for the Canadian Moose hunt. Members are asked to turn in tickets prior to or at the meeting. Winners of the coveted trip will be leaving on September 5.A special class for ladies in the handling and use of firearms is being planned. Interested ladies ‘may contact Mrs.Jan Johnson at 263-4716 or Elmer Nikkola at 263-2789.Volunteers are needed for the annual stocking of high mountain lakes. Dave Ortman and Bob Cordingly of the Fish and Game Department will be present at the meeting to demonstrate the procedures used.The Sportsman Club has scheduled the annual Moose dinner for September 10. Chef Leo Hadley will preside with the able assistance of Mrs. Franklin. Door prize drawing at the dinner will be for a Parker-Hale 7 mm Magnum.tempts of young people to speak at the meeting, “the very people who need to get an understanding of this are being shut out. . .we’ll need their help at a future date and if we alienate them now, they won’t help us later.”The meeting, which started at 7:30 pjn., concluded shortly after 10 pun., with an open invitation from Mary; Ruth Mann that any interested “committee members” could meet at the U. of I. campus sometime in September for further discussion is at that time they felt such discussion was relevant and needed.
Newspaper Details
Sandpoint Daily Bee
Sandpoint, Idaho, US
Mon, Aug 02, 1971
Page 1
Full Page
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Anonymous
ID, USA 18 May 2024
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