The Philipsburg mail. [volume] (Philipsburg, Mont.) 1887-current, 1896-10-23
ABOUT SENATE BILL NO. I
A Crime Against the People of the
County of Granite.
SLIGH FATHERS THE MEASURE
He Wants to Have Our County Robbed
Out Of Thousands Ct DJllars
by Its Passage.
SL1GH FATHERS THE MEASURE

Hosstiline: My Lord, My Lord !.
You do not do me justice Have not |
since first | run my sheet rallied at
everything in Philipsburg: Scolded
the good. upheld the bad. ana even
went SO low as to uphold senate bill,
twas number seven? Has there been
one single reformation l have not
secuted: One single ring, no matter
how corrupt, I have not stood in with :?
Have | not made my sheet 50 dirty,
vile aud filthy that decent men would
not attempt to answer ali my diatribes
less touching it like they who have
touched pitch become defiled? Have
not [ stood behind my printing press
and mixed mud and oose and slime
and filth and dirt and slung it at the
passers-by when ere they run athwart
thy wishes: Am I not lick spittIe :?
corporation toady? and do l not
when 'er the powers that be in town
are come order new sets of padding
for my knees and grovel in the dirt
before them:
Mr.. Editor: 1t is we'll understood by
all students of American history that
the stability, freedom, and very exis-
tence Of our form of government de-
pend Oil the right of free speech and
an honest ballot that expresses only the
uninfluonced, unbiased VIII Of the SOW
ereign elector. Free speech is rrinci-
pally insured by the many publications
OF all shades and opinions that flood
our fatherland the integrity Of the
ballot is principally insured by tha,
system OF voting called the Australian.
1t IS concerning free speech and nor
voting that | wish TO comment on in
this article
OF all the engines Of civilization that
lift to higher plane American man
hood. newspapers have been unuues-
tlOnably the most powerful, and to
their cedit it may be said they have on
the whole existed III an atm osphere
sufficiently high above the mass of IL Q
people to raise them to higher and
not drag them to lower moral atnos-
Dherc. L acre are. of course, excep-
t ons to the above rule (Which only O
to more conclusively prove the gener-
all sometimes nnprincipled, unscru-
pulous men, ignorant and careless alike
OF the laws Of man and of God. with
out one spark of honor or fair plav il,
their whole worthless carcass, will
gain control of one of these God giyel,
lights of civilization and utilize 1T as
an engine of obstruction, an assassin of
character. a viOlatOr Of the civil ana
criminal libal laws of the state. and
by reason of their existence become =
curse and "a plague to the good citizens
OF the community in which they reside
instead of a blessing.
Now, Mr.. Editor, notice the heading
OF this article, take in it's full sicnifi.
canoe, and see if any fair minded man
would not say Oh the whole that the
quotation is in substance true and ap-
plicable to ''Sligh's' official organ.
Let us travel over the same dreary,
serpentine road this paper has tray-
eled from its first landing here as a
tramp to the present day: At first and
before its so-called editor became nc
quainted with the decent people of the
community it brought its petty Deer
Lodge feuds and grudges wlth it. and
dished up to an Indifferent public
weekly doses of spiteful chickering's for
eign to our county. It's feeble barking
and wailing was time and again raised
in anguish against that large mastiff.
the Anaconda Standard, who brushed
it aside "unwept, unhOnored and uu.
sung even by one word of acknowl-
edgement Tiring of this, it then
(having become better acquainted with
our local institutions) opened its mud
batteries on The PhilipsDurg Mail. ID
paper that had for many years been a
decent, respectable, lusty journal, had
grown strong with a merited pros
perity, and had fully satisfied al the
needs OF valuable constituency. To
the everlasting credit Of The Mail it
also in the main treated its vaporings
with silent contempt Such pdblica-
tions cannot, however, exist without
the assistance OF sensational nOtOriety ::
for them silence is more deadly than
the poison OF the upas tree is to life ::
so we next find it advocating the offic-
cial acts of corrupt county officers, lust
lflyng them in defying the law, justi-
tying them in treating with contempt
the judgments of the district court in
again passing accounts and issuing war
rants for the same bills that had time
and again been pronounced fraudulent
and illegal by the highest court in their
county, justifying them in disobeying
thesslaw OF the state in not paying a
county officer his salary as they were
required because this officer ha6 the
audacity to question their illegal acts,
justifying them in requiring this
officer to mandamus them time and
time again for this earned salary, JUS
tifying them in the legislative halls OF
Montana in their frantic endeavors to
get by legislation what the courts of
law had absolutely refused them, JUS
tlfylng them in renting to the county
for $3, 900 per year an empty shell of a
building-a building that later (and
after they had ceased to be officers of
this county, this same paper published
an offer from the owners of the build
ing addressed to the present county
commissioners in which they offered to