The Dickinson press., 1897-12-18
inside. One reading would seem
to be all they would bear.


isiSloS. Ouc IcduluS WOulO SSSm
to be all they would bear.
Inst Tex Matasr.
1tis precious little that the Recorder
man knows about the delinquent tax
publication under the Woods bill. He
wanted to make howl, but was too lazy
to look the matter up thoroughly and SO
made a few statements at random, try
ing to make it appear that the PRESS
had received too much for its work and
that certain officials hal made it posi-
bic for us to get gigantic steal from
the county.
In the first place the attorney general
has stated over his own signature that
the evident intent of the trainers of the
Woods bill was not as he found the law,
or in other words, the authors of the law
intended that IS cents should be paid for
each year; but the attorney general, be,
cause of the wording, punctuation, or
something, concluded that all years
should be counted as one-no matter if
there were 10 years for one piece of
land-and the publisher must publish
all for IS cents.
Now the law does not presume to COM
pei a person to do unreasonable things
and usually the "intent" is sought for
and made the basis of action in all
courts.
Before settling with the publisher of
this paper the commissioners looked into
the matter very carefully. They took
the pains, through the various auditors,
to find out what action, if any, had been
taken by each county board in the state.
1t was found that the best lawyers in
the state held that IS cents for each year
was the only proper legal construction
that could be put upon the law, and that
IS cents per year could be collected in
the courts. Attorney Robinson of Fargo
conceded to be the best tax title lawyer
in the state, so held; an ex chief justice
of the state was another.
From the correspondence with the
county auditors, it was found that Foster
county had paid IS cents for each year;
Cass county, with list twice as large as
ours, paid IL cents; in Nelson county the
publisher said that he would have IS
cents or nothing, and after looking the
matter up carefully, the board came to
the conclusion that the publisher was
right in his demand, and that any court
would grant it, and they paid the IS
cents for each year; Bottineau county
paid IS cents for each year; Cavalier
county did the same; in La Moure county
the publishers refused to put up bond,
or do anything until the board signified
their willingness to pay the full rate; in
Emmons county the board compromised
with the publisher, paying between 2 and
8 cents for each year; in fact, a majority
of the counties of the state have compro.
missed, paying from ? to IL cents per
year; many counties published late and
had not settled when Stark settled
some have not at this date-Morton and
Burleigh being among the late ones. A
few counties, to be sure, settled accord.
ing to the opinion of the attorney general
but in the most of those cases it will be
found that the taxes had been delinquen,
for only short period in comparison
with other lists, which in reality made
the settlement about the same as those
effected in the compromise counties.
In view of all the foregoing facts, with
desire to do the fair thing between the
publisher and the county, the Stark
county board compromised on basis of
~ cents per year, or 50 per cent Of
what the trainers of the law had intend
ed that the publisher should get for do
ing the work. This gave US only fair
profit for doing the work, and we asked
for nothing more. 1t must be remem-
bered too that the Northern Pacific, in
addition to their 50 per cent payment to
this county, paid into the general fund of
the county $3.50 to help defray the ex-
pense of this publication which actually
left the county's part at 5 as cents per
year.
The tax list under the Woods bill was
made responsible piece of work and
the publisher was obliged to put up a
heavy bond and forfeit one-half of each
amount where an error was found. Such
responsible work and such heavy penal.
tiles always command higher prices than
job with little or no penalty.