Press and daily Dakotaian. (Yankton, Dakota Territory [S.D.]) 1880-1889, 1883-05-15

The capital commission. having COM
pleted its tour of inspection. has to-day
assembled at Canton to go through the
formality OF Opening the bids" That
its decision will not be made upon this
date has been announced in advance.
The commission has performed the easy
and delightful part of its work and now
stands face to face with an alleged con-
stitutional bar to it's further progress.
There is no law which prohibits body
Of men from riding over the country at
the expense of railroad corporations,
eating and sleeping at the expense of
municipalities and viewing prairie plains
and elevations which covet the buildings
OF Dakota's seat ofgovernment. This is
all harmless. pleasant recreation. But
when body of men, constituted in de.
fiance of provision Of the fundamental
law, receive into their possession funds
and deeds to property, under promise
that they will perform an act about the
constitutionality Of which there are we'll
founded doubts, they take upon them.
selves personal responsibility which
might without any great stretch of i'm.
agination be denominated receiving
property under false rretenses. The
ablest lawyers in Dakota have declared
in emphatic terms that the capital com.
mission act contemplates the execution
OF a trust which the organic act specif.
cally says shall not be performed by any
such body OF men as this commission.
The commission itself has an eminent
legal gentleman from the east in
it's employ and it is reasonable to pre-
eume that he himself has doubts as To
the legality of that organization for the
purposes named. Otherwise his clients
would have accepted the invitation to
bring the case into the courts without
the delay granted under the statutes to
defendants in actions. It ID the desire
OF the plaintiffs to reach an early settle.
ment, so that the people may
know, before an overt act is committed.
whether or not the commission possesses
the powers it assumes. 1t would have
been vastly more satisfactory for the
commission to have consented to this ar
rangenent and settled the question .,
once in the supreme court of Dakota, OF
an agreed case. It must eventually : react
that tribunal, and in th,
meantime the matter will remair
in an unsettled state and will be produc
tive OF numerous minor issues in tn,
courts, as an outgrowth of the theory thai
the commission is an unconstitutiona
body. Apparently, the commission fear,
the decision of the courts and has adopt
ed the dilatory policy with the expecta
ton of postponing the final mandat,
until the capitol buildings have beel
completed and the speculation of th
syndicate accomplished. 1t will thel
rely on the next legislature to perforn
the act which it is about to undertake {,
perform. The chief motive which, ap
parantly, actuates the commission
hostility to Yaukton, more than tn,
good of the public. It may in itsel
have cause for this hostility. Its mem
bers may not be convinced that their o,
ganization is the creation of corruption
and not knowing this may imagine this
they have cause for deep seated antae
onism against the community which
fully coguizant of the iniquitous prt
ceedings from their inception to the az
complishment of the deed. The ran
and file of the commission is made up
weak men and they are. controlled by
few adventurous spirits who indue
them to belive that the charges preferre
by Yankton are the outgrowth of disa]
pointment and the prospective loss
the seat of government. In the futu
these men will realize the error of th
position, will become convinced th
there is truth in all that has been charge
and will regret that they declined
permit the case to be fairly tested
fore entering upon the consummation
Il