Daily press and Dakotaian. [volume] (Yankton, Dakota Territory [S.D.]) 1875-1880, 1880-02-21
the RAILROAD A,,sssnEnr.
An Explanation OF the Matter BY the Col.
lecter for the Committee.

sWs8sSVNO 0O060OW6Wvs
An Explanation OF the Matter BY The Col.
lecter for the Committee.
To Ms Press and Ddkotaian.
Permit me q little space in your columns
to say Y few words concerning the railroad
assessment. In my eGorts to collect the
assessment made BY the committee, many
expres' Or effect . great deal ofsurprise that
they are called upon to pay any thing, now
that the bonds have been voted. To en-
tighten them l desire to call their attention
TO Inc fact that as soon rs the Milwaukee
company had entered into the contract to
build its road to Yankton the committee
vent zealously at work to perform the obi.
cations on the part Of Yankton.N Those
consisted in procuring the subscription for
the bonus, procuring the right of way aud
Obtaining ground for depot purposes. While
part of the committee attended to the sub
scriptions another part attended TO getting
the right of way aud another to getting the
dcpos grounds. Thus all the business went
simultaneously forward but, during the
progress of their work, that part of the
committee who had the subscriptions
IN charge found that it would
be more expedient to bond the city than to
get sufficient subscriptions for the purpose
and it was accordingly proposed and the
proposition adopted by the city.
Now up to this time a great part of the
work on the right Of way branch of the bus.
iness had been begun and was we'll under
way. Proceedings had been commenced in
court, legal advertisements started in the
newspapers, that had, by order Of court, a
given time to run, notices served on resi-.
dents in remote parts of the territory and,
in fact, very many things done not necessa-
ry now to enumerate. What was to be done
with these matters? Were they all to be
dropped like hot cakes, because the city had
voted bonds, only to be gone all over again
at a loss of both money and time? The
committee thought not. Yet it was necessa-
ry either to drop them or make the assess-
ment, for they could not be carried to COM
pletion without money.
Under the Law, as construed by the dis
trict court, it takes two months time,
in some cases, to condemn the right of
way so that a railroad company can build
the road. Now supposing all this work
had been abandoned by the committee
when the bonds were voted and the rail-
road company should then have come on
with their engineers, and men and horses
aud spades and plows and pickaxes and
acrapers, all ready to put the road through
as soon as spring opened. go as to have the
cars running BY the first Of July, and we
should then have been compelled to say to
them We had done nothing towards getting
the right of way, and it would be two
months before we would be ready for them.
How we should have added to our reputa.
ton for enterprise by such a course I? Yet,
this would have been just the position the
company would have found thing, in if the
committee had done what very many of the
subscribers say they expected would have
been done on the vote carrying for the
bonds.
Considering that the assessment is only
in the nature of a temporary loan and will
be refunded to the subscribers when the
bonds are issued, and that the terms of the
subscription. in the printed headings pro-
vide for the payment Of the money for right
Of way whenever the committee called fer
it, the assessment would not, in itself seem
a very great hardship. 90,
That "times' are very close just now is a
fact patent to all, and if the subscribers
will pay their subscriptions, or cay they
can't pay them, it will be very much
pleasanter for II. E. DEWEY,
Collector for the Committee,
rE.n