New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1884-01-07
c0UyTT.u4KIyG As 4 BUSINESS.


CONTEMPLATING As 4 BUSINESS.
Governor Ordway in his annual report to the
Secretary of the Interior, gives rather start
ling account of the methods of swindlers ana
adventures in organizing counties ana selling
bonds.fOr their own benefit in the new and IVely
country of Dakota. 1t has already beenseen that
the Territory has an unusually large share oil
politics in proportion to her population. The
quarrel over the division of the Territory is as
lively as ever, and will, of course, continue I'M
til Congress settles the matter ofadmission, which
this Congress will not do. All the politics OF
the Territory, including the location OF the
capital, centre around this dispute, in which
Governor Ordway has taken hand at every
opportunity. Possibly as a result OF the
hostility he has thus excited a charge has Just
been made against the Governor OF selling an
appointment rs one of the commissioners 10 or
ganize q new county. IT is to be said in the
Governors behalf, that in his report, written
more than two months before the charge was
brought he made a sharp attack upon the pres
ent system of organizing new counties, ana the
scoundrels who try to profit by it, Tins SNOW
ing proves that there are new things under the
sun, for this method of making money Is to be
seen only in the boundless West.
Under the law passed by the Dakota Legisla-
tive Assembly, the Governor is required, WHEN
ever fifty legal voters in an unorganzed county
petition for an organization, to appoint three
Commissioners. These Commissioners have
great powers. They appoint the other county
officers, fix the county seat cannOtbe suspended
or removed by the Governor, and hold Office, as
their appointces do, until the next general cleo
ton. This usually gives them time enough to
roll IN a good debt against the county and or
canizc the Offices in the hands of themselves
and friends. There has been such a rush OF mn
migration to Dakota that from three to i've
counties have been ClamOrlng Tor adj
mission at once, and the Governor has
been fairly bombaIded with rival petitions and
a(lidavits. He alleges the existence OF "a set
"of professional county seat manipuatorS who
ego from one county to another for tho sole
"purpose of grabbing county seat or spccula-
cling in the purchase of county records, or
"lcasing or building county buildings not
"actually required for the transaction OF the
county business" The tricks that are
practscd would not discredit municipal mig
If there are fifty voters in the county, there VIII
probably be three or Competitions, each hearing
more than that number Of names, aud each
favoring a certain set of commissioners who II
is known. will select certain quarter-sectlon'
in which the chief petitioners mcintcrcsted for
a county seat. Public meetings, conslstmgot haIt
4 dozen persons, pass resolutions ana Srnu tH'Ih
to the Governor. Alidavits and conntrr-ain-
dlvits pour in, chyging all hands with former
h0rse-stCaliugs and other crimes IN the States
In one case the Governor appointed, on what
were found to be forged papers, Que man who
did not reside in the county, and It was dis
covered that fraudulent county warrants to the
amount of $4,000 and school bonds 10 the
amount Of 81, 500 had bccnput upon the market.
II Was claimed by some that the total amount Of
both issued would nearly reach 100000.
Over =, 900 had been given ont in warrants to
nrwspapcrs for stationery for the county, III
which there was notten times that amount OF
taxable property. One Of the older counties
was loaded with Il debt Of over 5000
coo; another Of 100000, and Others
have debts varying from $4,000 to T75,oOO.
1t is claimed, however, that, through special
care taken in the selection OF commissioners,
only three or four of the twenty-five counties
Organized IN the past three or four years have
any considerable debt.
Thrpo,.ibilty of throwing greater safeguards
around the organization Of these early commu-
mites deserves scIious consideration. \ not IN
frequent consequence Of such frauds is the re-
pudiation of the debts, with all the dcmoFaliza-
ton that flows from it, or where the people bear
their burden OF debt they feel that they have
little to show for it.