The Kimball graphic. (Kimball, Brule County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1905, 1889-12-06
MUCH ano ABOUT sornIae


and the mystification of a great many
others, the Kimba!l papers We're
catching sheol on the street Saturday
from certain quarters. The GRArH1c
came in for a generous share of the
abuse. One man went 30 far as to
state that any man who wouid allow
either one of the papers in his house
ought to be hanged. Wow! but
that's tough, isn't 1t? Tho damning
tina, the papers received grew out of
this cheap coal business, but just how
they can consistently he connected
with the matter n way or the
other is something not quite so clear.
The Milwaukee company having
been informed by Gov. Mellette and
others that aid in the way Of cheap
fuel was needed by settlers in South
Dakota, made two propositions. One
was to contribute so much coal and
the transportation thereon and de-
liver it to such persons as a relief
committee should indicate. The
other propositionwas to provide free
transportation to a certain extent for
coal procured by the various county
commissioners. A relief committee
At Huron, of which Mr.. j. l.. Spald-
ing is chairman, accepted the first
proposition. In the meantime as the
offer of the railroad company was
not generally known, Erule county
failed to act in the matter until too
late. When the report submitted by
this county reached Mr.. spalaiug at
Huron he had already sen in his re.
port to the railroad company, compris-
ing a list OF fifteen counties, and for
which he received a donation of
$500 tons from the Milwaukee DOM
pany outright. Several other uoun-
ties did not get their report to Huron
III time, and they also, with Brule,
were left out of the deal. These
facts as stated here have heen ex-
planned by Mr.. Spalding and a. c
Bird, freight traffic manager Of the
Milwaukee, through letters to Capt.
w. HI. Curtiss, acting for tive county
commissioners, who in turn LAID the
correspondence before some of thea
and others interested, Saturday. In
his letter Mr.. Bird wrote; awe have
not undertaken to carry the whole
burden, and did not understand the
people expected it. We haze been
tolathat the people Of South Dah,ota
could tate care ef their o'on desti-
tute. Our contribution was a volun,
tary matter"
The italics are ours, and the sen
tence italicized was the whole cause
Of the profanity Saturday. When
Mr.. Birds letter was made public the
first question asked was, "Who said
that South Dakota could care for her
own destitute?" SWELL" says a.,
there's tho damn newspapers, tor
one thing; they + everlss!ingly
cracking up the country and blowing
about what a hi of a fine place it is,
and all that" Then 3, chagrined
and disappointed at not being able to
sc. in a supply of cheap coal, went
and told G that the cussed newspa-
pers were working against them and
were determined to cheat them out
of their cheap coal just for the sake
Of booming the blankety blank coun-
try. Then D also tells G, in sub
stance, that he heard that Tom Jones
told Sam Fox that John Doe said
that a petition or remonstrance had
been circulated in Kimball, Pukwana,
and Chamberlain and sem to the Mil
YANKEE company asking that no free
coal be sent into the county as 1t
would check immigration and rctard
the sale of real estate. Cwas getting
pretty wild by this time and in his
blind rage he figured 1t out that the
newspapers must have had a hand in
this business also, as a matter of
course, so be- carried the news to D.,
button-holed d, stopped +, and in
fact succeeded IN making a blamed
fool of himself generally. One ex-
cited individual became 80 impressed
With the various street rumors that he
came into this office and made the
statement that the editor of the
GRAPHIC was not only opposed to
having any cheap coal shipped in but
that he had been corresponding with
the railroad company to that effect
a statement SO utterly absurd as to
need no denial.
Well, to make matters worse for
the GRAPHIC personally, there APP
peared in it on the day previous an
article headed "Somo Dakota Facts"
which, through a blunder on the
part of the compositor and equal care
~lessness Of the proof reader, was not
credited to the St. Paul Pioneer Press
as it should have been. The article
was one that has appeared in a great
many South Dakota papers. 1t set
out to show that the deficient rain
fall of the past two years was not q
permanent climatic characteristic of
the two Dakotas, and that the Da-
kotas had no more need of artificial
irrigation than Minnesota, Nebraska
or Kansas. 1t was not an argument
against irrigation or the sinking Of
artcsian wells, but, instead, it took
the ground, that while irrigation
would be a grand thing to fall back
on in dry seasons, it was not necessary
to insure the prosperous agricultural
development Of the two Dakotas or
the permancY of the position they
have achieved as the granary of the
world. AS such we have neither re.
grets or apologies to express for its
appearance i'll these colunns-except
that the article was not credited to
the proper source.
We think we know as well as any
one man what should appear in the
columns of the GRAPHIC and what
should be excluded for the benefit of
this community. When this opinion
is not shared by the majority of our
people its editor is wiling to give
way to n more acceptable to the
public as a whole. On all matters of
this kind the GRApH1c has enjoyed
the reputation of q clear head and