Wessington Springs herald. (Wessington Springs, Aurora County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1891, 1885-04-10
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South Dakota'S CAPITAL,

South Dakota's Capital.
Whenever the capital shall be locat-
ed in South Dakota it must be in the
interest of the people instead of specu-
lators and politicians, The most cen
trail and proper place for such location,
in order to accommodate the greater
number would seem to be not to exceed
fifty miles from Huron, perhaps near
the crossing of the Chicago & North
western and Chicago, Milwaukee & st.
Paul railways west of Huron. a half
a million or more of dollars will be adj
ded to the land On which the capital
shall be located, and the state-not
scheming politicians-should get the
benefit Of the proceeds being used to
construct public buildings and beahtify
the public grounds. Such a determina-
tion by the people would prevent all
the rascality and bribery carried on at
Iankton and Bismarck in the two last
legislatures. Had the united south
acted on such a basis in the last legis-
lature and provided, in case of division
of the territory, that the capital of Da-
kota should be at Yankton until adj
mitted as a state, it it is doubtful if the
governor wotld have vetoed such a
bill. In case no division Of the territo-
ry was made within the next two years
then the next Legislature should be
held at Yankton. In such an emergen-
cy the opposition to division would
have been very small. Now 1t is hard
to foresee what the result Will be. The
greed Of the leaders Of the southern
members to feather their Own nests
regardless Of the rights Of the people,
has been the causeof placing the whole
south portion of the territory in a very
humiliating position. = Sioux Falls
Leader.
The computation Of failure statistics
and the drawing Of differences there
from has almost become a science. In
view Of the hopeful anxiety that per-
y oNtCS III SltISSCo "1Ull 1C1tlt1lCC W Glt
business future, there is an especial in
terest in the conclusions reached by
Bradstreet's from the failure reports
for the first quarter of the year 1885.
The three months are now so nearly at
an end that an approximately correct
calculation can be made. Of course
there has been no decrease in business
mortality. The dead leaves continue
to fall after the wind has ceased to blow,
and the number of failures from the LIST
of January to the 3lst Of March is larg-
er than ever before since failures were
made matter of record. From Jan. l
to March IA there were 1897 failures in
the United States in 1882; 1851 in 1888;
2,7S7 in 1884; and 3,349 in 1885. "For
the period Of seyenty-three days COW.
ered," says Bradstreet's, @just one-fifth
OF the year, the aggregate in 1885 is
twenty-nine in excess of the total for
the whole of the first quarter of 1884,
the year in which the. grand total Of
failures was 11,620, the heaviest on rec
ord" #, a. is estimated on the basis
of the seventy-three days past, there
shall be 500 additional failures reported
by April l, it will raise the total for the
quarter to 3,849; or 500 more than for
the same period in 1884, csc. more than
in 1883, and LOB more than in 1882.
The average number Of failures daily
in January was 5619, in February 404,
and in March 31115. If it We're to be as
sumed that failures would occur in un-
diminished frequency for theremainder
Of the year, the total OF 1885 would be
over $1,000, a far higher number than
ever before. That this will not happen
is made probability two circumstances;
first, that the first three months, after
such ayear of depression as last, always
bring an aftermath Of failures. These
are not indications of the future, but
Wreckage OF the past. In the second
place, both the general feeling and the
actual business of most communities
at present is such as to warrant a be-
lief that q turn Of the tide is near at
hand. So conservative an authority as
Bradstreet's does not hesitate to express
a similar conviction in the following
Well-weighed terms: "The number of
heavy failures has comparatively speak,
ing, shown conspicuous decline. The
forces which lie behind, and which have
been working out the destruction Of so
many commercial ventures, appear to
have proceeded far on their way from
the center to the surface; and the rec
ords of failures show it in an increas-
ing number of minor, often petty, COM
mercial disasters. This appears to in
dictate the probable approach of a de-
cline in the late heavy failure rate."-
Pioneer Press.