The weekly miner. [volume] (Butte, Mont.) 1878-1881, 1880-11-02
WILL 1T PAYf

ana MAINTAINING q county OfSaiiiAasiVh AVi r.
new county, would entails an onerons bur
den upon the people. We admit that these
objections would be fatal to the project i'll a
thinly settled and impoverished county. Ii
such q case matters of convenience would
have to give way to the law of necessity; but
here, very fortunately for us, we are relieved
from these very embarrassing conditions. We
are, even in this early day, a comparatively
wealthy section. Butte and its vicinity pos,
sess property of an assessed valuation equal
to that of Lewis and Clarke county, whose
warrants are to-day selling at 90 cents OH the
dollar, and whose Indebtedness amounts. we
believe, to over $125,O00. Yet Lewis and
Clarke entertains no idea of attaching herself
to either of her contiguous counties for econ
omic purposes. Again, if we divide this
county, the southern portion would contain
a population exceeding that Of every other
county in the territory except Lewis and
Clarke, and her taxable property would ex-
coed in one year from now any one of them.
We stated yesterday that Deer Lodge
county is parallelogramic in form. The form
is favorable to an equitable division so far as
the area which would fall to each portion is
concerned. BY drawing a centre line through
the range of township :, north Of the base
line extending through the ranges 6 to H.,
west of the principal meridian, as the north
ern boundary line of the proposed new coun'
ty, it gives US a county 45 miles by so miles
in extent, containing all area of $3.50 square
miles, and leaves Deer Lodge in a county of
an average width of about 45 miles by 10
miles in length, containing an area of 1915
square miles. A division upon this line we
believe would be a just one, and would leave
each portion, with its constantly growing pop
ulation and increasing wealth, in a position
that would entail no hardships upon the tax
payers of each section II erecting the neces-
sary county buildings and maintaining a
county organization.
The cost of county buildings would not
reach a sum that is not annually overbalanced
by the amount expended by our citizens in
their travels to and from the present county
seat. We are informed OH good authority
that a court house and Jail of the material
and capacity of the present ones at Deer Lodge
can be built at the present time at a cost not
exceeding the sum of $4,000. To raise tbs
amount an assessment of only abou. four
mills on the dollar of our taxable property
would be necessary. There is certainly
alarming IN these figures-nothing
hat can deter our citizens and all those in
his portion of the county from using their
in perfectlng this much desired
proposition, When we take into considera-
ion the loss of msney and of time and the
ggravating annoyance to which we are SUBJ
IN transacting our necessary county
usiness at a distant county seat, the above
AIMED amount for the erection of county
at this place loses its magnitude. 1t
really Insignificant. The cost of maintain
Is a county organization in the proposed
w county would not be much greater than
e now pay in the form of taxes to meet the
incurred for transporting prisoners
ON here to Deer Lodge, for mileage to jur-
rs and witnesses from this place, for mileage
sherff's fees for serving summonses,
'rits of attachment, ETC., upon parties resid-
ng here and for other expenses necessarily
by our county officers in the dis
of duties which bring them to this
.ity, for which the county is chargeable.
These taxes, we say, would go far towards
the expenses attached to the admin
of county affairs at home.
Much smaller communities than ours, stu
ated at a long distance from their county
seat, have chat1ed under the Inconvenience
from their isolation and have repeat
edly besought our legislative assemblies for
authority to form a separate county organiza-
At the session of the legislative assem-,
bly, of II and ~ a petition from the citi-
zens of Sun River valley was presented pray
ing for tie formation of a new county that
would include their own section, urging
among other reasons their distance from their
county seat and the extra cost incurred in at
to their county affairs. Their taxa
BILE property at that time did not exceed
S140 GOO, and does not at the present time
reach over $250,0O0; yet these people con-
and do still contend, thet it would
be cheaper for them in the long run, to erect
county buildings and maintain a county o.
ganization for themselves, than to be put 10
the expense and inconvenience of going to
Helena to do their county business. A miner
it much more convenient for him to
work a claim within a hundred yards of his
cabin than one situated two or three miles
from his home. 1t is thus in all the ordinary
pursuits of life. We want to be close TO our
some and all uncalled for expenditure OF
This whole division question resolves it.
self into a matter of business. There is no