Bismarck weekly tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, Dakota [N.D.]) 1884-1943, 1886-09-10

IS
tells me that the average attendance this
year at their encampment was 952 men
Our attendance last year at Fargo was about
9UO. Minnesota pays her officers and mer
$l.5O per day while attending encampment
not subsist them in camp and pays nothing
in addition for uniforms, while we are re.
quired to pay upwards of 81, 900 a year for
these two purposes. Their annual apprO.
priation is $4,000 a year, while ours is
$4,000. AS we get $1,000 less appropriation
and are required to pay $1,000 more for
about the same force do not think that
mark that the original draft OF the bill
presented by the military committee of our
legislature appropriated $25,OO0 for this
purpose, but on my advice it was reduced
to $4,000. Thought then and still think
that this sum ought to be sufficient. l am
opposed to increasing it, but to make it
answer the law must be amended. The
law should allow the governor to limit the
number OF men. Under our present statute
the number may be twenty men to COM
pany or one hundred and it is easy to see
that 1t is hard to make a correct estimate of
the expense when such latitude is given,
and when we don't know whether our force
10 " Dc OoU Of l,JUU men.
A word Or TWO more and am through.
Az our last encantpment number Of towns
offered a bonus for the gathering, and Far
20 obtained it by paying $4,000. directed
that this money be placed to the credit of
the adlutant general, and paid out only on
his order. Although there was no law gov
erning the expenditure Of this money, re-
garded the fund as. just as sacred as any
other and required voucher for every
cent expended. l should be glad to have
these vouchers examined. Suffice it to say
that all the expenses OF preparing the
camp, pitching tents, furnishing fuel,
printing, transporting cannon, insuring
tents, purchasing lumber, drayage, and a
hundred incidental expenses which cannot
be foreseen in preparing for an encamp-
ment OF this character. were paid out OF
this fund. Why, here is Col. Peck, who
spent two or three weeks of hard work in
preparation for the camp. In arrang
ing for transportation and for
tents he was compelled to travel
from his home to st. Paul and to Fargo,
back and forth, here and there. 1t was
hard enough to ask man to spend his
time without asking him to pay his ex-
penses. There was no way of paying such
an account except out Of this special fund.
So also with two or three other officers
whose duty called them to assist in this
work. Some of the saddle horses used at
the camp were paid for out of this fund,
but the whole amount paid for this pur-
pose was but $65, and this included the
horses for Colonel Townsend and his staff
OF the regular army, on the day Of re-
view. l hope you will pardon me for
making personal allusion here. Not one
cent OF that money was paid for q horse
for the governor or for his aid-de-camps. I
mention this because l have seen it stated
that it cost the taxpayers of the territory
a Tnyr fn1 hn 0q f@. %t,<N
governor and from $50 to $20 for each
horse the governors staff rode, which is
slight difference you see. Fellow citizens,
L think the editor who invented that story
ought to correct it; it is too big; he ought
to be reasonable. I believe if he had made
1t $50, would have said nothing about
1t, but $50 day for one horse is extrava-
was worse for the staff. For while the
gentlemen acting as aids paid for their own
horses, not one Of them ever drew a cent
as per diem as allowed, and yet here they
are berated for imposing on the territory.
Now, my friends, we have done the best
we could with this appropriation. We
have followed the law to the letter, and
have paid out the money just where and
when the legislature directed us to do 50.
The difficulty is: the estimate of the cost
fell below the actual expense. Some one
has talked OF making an issue about
paying the expenses OF this encampment.
Why. my friends, there is nc issue about
it. The law commands the governor to
call this encampment, and the law says he
snail pay each man present, in uniform,
$l.5O per day for the time he is absent
from home; and, gentlemen of the militia,
that is going to be done, and done just as
soon as the pay rolls can be made out and
forwarded to Bismarck. II there is any
issue to be made, it can be made with the
governor after the boys have got their
money, and he will accept that issue wher-
ever, whenever and by whomsoever it is
made.
In my experience of two years as gov
ernor, l believe this is the first time have
answered charge made against the terri
torial authorities, unjust and cruel as some
Of them have been. If charges are made
falsely but innocently, time is apt to set
them right. if they are made malici0usly,
they will be continued anyway; but 1
thought this explanation was due to you
and to myself
am glad to say that in spite of the fact
that the last legislature increased the in
terest bearing debt $4,000 and largely in
creased the regular appropriations, we
have been able to levy this year the smallest
tax ever known in the territory, being six
mills on the dollar below that Of last year,
which was the lowest UP to that time. We
are going to be prosperous here: the terri
tory is going to move on majestically as
the empire Of the northwest; and, in spite
of misfortunes here and there; in spite of
cavilling and duarrelling, and in spite of
various efforts to make ourselves misera-
BILE. we are bound to be happy-the place
toward which the Nation shall yet turn as
the land of promise and fuIfllment
thank you, gentlemen of the militia,
and you, citizens of Aberdeen. for the pa
tient hearing you have given me.
Sioux Falls Democrats.