Press and daily Dakotaian. (Yankton, Dakota Territory [S.D.]) 1880-1889, 1883-03-29
KEBRAskA's EXPERIENCE.
The Dakota Capital Plan Reviewed b, Ou
Neighbors.


The Dakota Capital Plan Reviewed by Our
Neighbors.
Lincoln Journal.
The legislature of Dakota was COM
posed of business lot of statesmen, and
if they do not get away with some filthy
lucre as the result of their efforts at law
making. it will not be for lack of inten-
tion. It tried the Nebraska plan of To-
eating capital, with the difference that
instead of making it speculation for
the state, it endeavored to fix things so
that the members of the legislature that
voted for the bill would be the chief |
benefciaries. According to the Nebras-
ka plan the capital should be located |
and the city laid out on site not less |
than mile square belonging to the
state, and after the plat was made and |
the site surveyed, each alternate block |
was to be offered at public sale, after due
advertisement, to the highest bidder, un-
til sufficient sum was realized to pay
expenses of location, survey, etc., and
$4,000 was on hand for the erection of
the capitol building. This was done and
good deal less than one-half of the lots
were sold when the capitol building was
ready for occupancy. The state Of Ne
braska finally realized about 100000
from the sale OF the lots of the original
site of Lincoln, which covered about 900
acres of prairie, all OF which was invested
in public buildings.
But the Dakota legislators knew
trick worth two of that. They appoint
ed q commission Of nine persons to Sc.
lect site for territorial capital, and
required only sixty acres to be set apart
for public building sites. This gives
the commission virtual proprietorship
of the city lots and enables them to dis.
pose of them all for their own benefit.
But the commission is bound to divide
with the members of the legislature who
passed the bill. Every member who
voted for it was first given $3.50 in
stock in the corporation known as the
'capltal site company" This company
will assume the responsibility of raising
the S150,000 that is Ito be collected from
the locality OF the location under the
provisions ct the bill. OF course they
will make the outlying landholders pay
that. Then the lots and blocks of the
city will be divided up among the stock
holders and commissioners.
In describing this job some Of the cor
respondents of the eastern papers say
that all the commissioners that located
tuo CdplSAl VI NcUidSha Icl1ltu Will lOE-
tunes. This is 30 far from being true
that the remark sounds quite funny in
this latitude. 1t Is true that at the pub.
lie sale of lots from time to time, the
commissioners frequently led the bid
ding when it became dull, and conse.
quently had more or less property knock,
ed off to them, which had they sold ju'
diciously, might have yielded them
considerable profit. As matter Of fact,
none of them came out with anything
ahead worth mentioning, and one or two
of the three lost heavily in real estate
speculations in the city they so much
helped to create.
It is an even chance that the Dakota
scheme will be an utter failure. The
men engaged in it will realize that tht
course OF q law-made city never did rul
> smooth, and that the smell of lobber.
, that attaches to the scheme will greatly
embarrass them when the business o
getting bona fide investments in thei
new town actually commences.