The Helena independent. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1875-1943, 1893-04-02
SPECIAL TAX CARRIES.
The Voters of Helena Decide That
the Schools Shall Be Kept
Open.
One Of the Most Holly Contested
School Elections Seen in
tho City. .
II. NJ. Parohen and @. u. Greenfield
Elected AZ Trustees-Thc Result
In Detail.

Yesterday about !, 200 Helena people took
advantage OF the opportunity to exercise
the right of suffrage in the sele ction of two
school trustees and TO say whether the pub
lie schools should remain closed from May
TO January, or whether Helena children
should have ten months of school, begin
ming next September. They re- elected G. ID.
Greenfield. whose term had expired. ana
put in H. NJ. Parchen in the place OF DR..
G. b. Miller, who WAS not II candidate. The
polls were open from two to six p. m. and
during that time ], 248 tickets were put into
tho boxes. Az the polls were only open
four hours there WAS an average of
812 votes An hour, or about five n minute.
There. was never a cessation In the stream
of voters. 1t was a big vote for a school
election. only being exceeded but once be-
fore in tho history of city. TIL anti
special tax advocates, led by John Potter.
started their campaign early in the day.
and they kept it right up all day.
But the special tax champions were
just as active and the arguments
pro and con were sometimes very
heated. Sheriff G. d. Curtis was n Of
the hard workers. for the tax. arguing shat
II there had been extravaganza by the trus-
tees that was no reason the children should
be deprived of school facilities for four
months. and adding that a. for himself.
and speaking for Curtis Il Booker, he was
willing to pay not only q special tax. but
also an extra special school tax to keep tho
schools open, up to a high standard. and to
nav the teachers decent n just salaries.
A great many of the heaviest taxpayers in
the city took the same view OF 1t II suoh
men as W.. G. Bailey and 8. Q. Fitzpatrick
did yeoman service. There we're not to
exceed 100 votes cast by women on the tax
proposition, and about half of them were
against the tax. Lots of ladies wanted to
vote for the tax, but on giving a negative
reply az to whether they were owners of
real estate their ballots were not taken on
that proposition. One lady In reply to the
question said she thought she was q tax
payer-she had q baby. The judges decided
shat while that might be a tag y could not
entitle her to vote on the T35,OUO PROPOSE
tion. The vote on the tax WAS:
For the tax 10
Against the tax 395
Majority 32o
On the trustee question there was a great
counted the ballots there were hundreds OF
them changed with pencils. H. M. Pr
chen received the highest vote, getting 656;
the next largest vote was that given @. d.
Greenfield, 631, and these two were elected.
Home of the ballots showed that some voters
had drawn party lines. only the names Of
republicans or populists appearing on the
tickets, while others voted Greenfield. DEM
ocrat, and Carleton or Hamilton. %populist,
or Parchen and Hamilton, or Smith and
Hamilton. Others again voted for personal
friends simply for the sake of voting. The
contest, while heated. was carried on in a
fair spirit. and there was no attempt by the
friends Of any of the candidates to win by
INV INIT honorable means. Thu vote WAS aa