The Anaconda standard. [volume] (Anaconda, Mont.) 1889-1970, 1897-01-30

county. II would appear from this that
1 Il Is high time that some one raised
his voice in behalf OF Meagher county,
said Mr.. Penwell To say that Mr..
Whipple was a representative OF
Meagher county would be a misnomer.
His zeal for his measure had so COM
| pletely ran away with him that he did
not profess to represent anything but
Broadwater county.
| After first commenting upon the fact
that the report Of the committee on
towns and counties should not be taken
into consideration in this connection,
/ for the reason that there was on that
/ committee every man In the house who
had county division scheme To foster.
on account Of the makeup OF the COM
mittee. u was not at all surprising that
II should report favorably on any prop
osition that came up to create any new
county. He then stated that there
ought 10 he three considerations In
volved when a legislative assembly was
celebrating on a question as 10 wheth-
er or not they should form new eoun-
ty: The first, Do they want II? Second,
! What will be the effect on the old
county or countiess Third. What will
be the future OF the new cuunty1
Taking up the question as 10 whether
the people in the proposed section real
| ly want IL or not. he went into the
question as To who II was that were
really competent To express themselves
on me question, and insisted that Office
seekers, taxpayers who had real estate
In the proposed county seat tO foster,
and non taxpayers We're not competent
witnesses before this body, That the
chief thing that this legislature wanted
to find out was, What do the uninter-
1 bat
during the last election, although these
Meagher county representatives We're
elected upon issue Of county division, a
majority OF the voters of the old
Meagher county were opposed to the
measure. The average p0pulist vote
for representatives being 100, while the
total number Of votes cast for president
in old Meagher county was 1868. so
that Notwithstanding. Mr.. Whipple and
Mr.. sandford were elected on the issue
Of county division, a majority of the
taxpayers Of the county were opposed
TO II. The only ones who had been
lobbying for the bill were real estate
owners of Townsend and office seekers.
| and that the only ones who had been
lobbying against the bill were uninter-
csted. rural taxpayers. who had pro-
tested against having their already
heavy taxes increased by the dismem-
berment Of their county.
Then taking up the question as To
what would he the effect on the old
county, he showed from a verified
statement of the county treasurer of
Meagher county that the new county
would take from Meagher county as
sessable property Of the value of only
s,f3, 3,235.00 instead Of sl.0io. 10000. as
stated by the Broadwater people: and
then showed that In case all of the
schemes went through, which looked to
the cutting up of Meagher county. it
would reduce its assessable valuation
from 81. $50, 900 to s2.65b.0GO
Referring 10 the future of the new
county. he commented upon what he
termed the battle cry OF the Broad
water boomers" which was that "the
smaller the unit OF government, the
better the result" and read the follow
ing statement. compiled from the re-
ports of the state examiner and the re-
port of the state auditor. which go tn
show that the smaller the county the
smaller the expense Of running II per
capita. The figures showed that II cost
SILVER Bow county To run 1t for the
year ending Nov. 80 1896 per vote me
sum OF s2S.lS. Mssoula, Sgi.6i: Jeffer-
son. s23.li; Ravalli. s23.ii: Meagher,
s2s.il; Lewis and Clarke. s2si6 Cas-
cade, $30,0i: Carbon. s37.22: Custer
sil.6S; Park. $i6.S1; Sweet Grass. So. 40:
valley. 1854. He also showed that the
Indebtedness per capita of Sweet Grass
| county, one of the recently created
counties, was greater than any other
county Of the state except Missoula.
He showed that the levy in that por-
tion OF Sweet Grass county which for
merly belonged To Meagher county had
been increased. after the creation of
Sweet Grass county, from l6 mills Ia
H's mills also that there was now
resting upon the county Of Broadwater
a real estate and chattel private in
debtedness amounting to $3.50. 900. co.
stanton Of Cascade followed Pen
well. He said that the proposition was
meritorious: that the proposed houn-
daries were natural. that the last coun-
! ~ election had shown what the people
OF the county wanted. lie was heartily
In favor OF the hill
Hart of Carbon took exceptions Ia
Penwelfs remarks concerning the lobby
and denied that the new counties were
extravagant Woods Of Rayalli said
there was never a juster cause than the
Broadwater. Mr.. Hewett made final
protest against the passage of the bill
Cochran Of BeaVerhead wished To go on
I ~
Silver Bow thought that as the people
of the county couldn't agree they had
better be separated. McCabe of Lewis
and Clarke favored the bill. Mr.
Whipplc made the closing argument
for Broadwater.
The vote on the bill was made with
out division. only one voice being
raised against It's favorable recommen-
dation.
I
The committee then took up the con.
sideration of II. n. %. prohibiting sta
tionary engineers from being employed
TO work more than eight hours of "a
Upon motion of Dee. chairman Of the
committee on mines and mining. the
committee voted. without division. to
recommend favorable passage Of the
bill
House bill ~ was then taken up The
bill provides that one party to con.
tract Is not competent to testify to its
provisions when the other party 70 tn,
contract is dead.
stephens Of Mssoula addressed tbs
committee In favor of amendments re-,
stricting the application OF the pro,
posed Jaw. particularly in its applica-
tion to book accounts.
Stanton Of Cascade objected to tn,
amendment. saying that IL would lei
down the bars 10 the grosacst frauds
Upon a division the amendment wa,
lost and the hill was favOrably recon
mended for passage.
] Memorials to congress We're thcf
taken under consideration. They wsr,
those introduced by Carroll OF Cascade
| prOviding for n government posta