The Anaconda standard. [volume] (Anaconda, Mont.) 1889-1970, 1898-01-23
ONLY TWO DAYS ARE LEFT
Everybody Should Work for the
Court House Bonds.
THE CROWDED CITY HALL
A Few Questions Propounded as to
Where the County Officers Will
Go When the City Needs
All of the Room.

only Two days remain before the
people of Deer Lodge county will be
called upon to decide whether they
want court house or not. There need
be no guessing what that decision will
be-the court house will be built. Dur
ing the two days that still remain
every man should pitch in and do what
he can to roll up majority that will
be overwhelmingly in favor of the
proposition.
Many people in Anaconda are so con-
fident that the bonds will carry that
they will probably not go near the
polls. This is a mistake. 1t is a ques-
ton of too much Importance to the citi-
zens of this community not to bestir
themselves. That the bonds will carry
by large majority there is no ques-
ton; yet, to make that majority as
near unanimous as possible is what
wants to be done. The larger the ma
Jority for the bonds the more eager will
the bond buyers be to secure them and
the larger will be the premium they
Will offer therefor If the expression of
the sentiment of the people in favor of
the bonds it but faint the capitalists
will be chary. This fact was illustrated
in the matter of bonding the school
district not long ago. So little interest
was taken in the matter that only a
few votes were cast, and the result was
that the trustees had a hard time in
placing them. Let the verdict of the
people on the court house proposition
be unanimous, and let it be given with
decision that can leave no shadow of
doubt as to the real sentiment that
prevails.
Deer Lodge county is in a remarkably
healthy financial condition. Its as
sessed valuation is so great that but
few counties equal it. viii any good
piTjyGn Iaf III he said that Deer .plpa
county is too poor to own a court
house? The count on Tuesday night
Will show that the county is not too
poor to own court house.
The plea is made by a scant few in
far-off districts that the county officers
have "commodious quarters" at the
city hall. Have these people ever seen
the crowded condition of the city hall?
Have they ever seen the office of the
county treasurer, where hundreds of
thousands of dollars are each year
handled; where a great number of vol
luminous books are kept, and where
force of three or four and sometimes
more clerks are worked in a room that
is no larger than bedroom? Have
they ever seen the office of the county
clerk and recorder, where the records
of the county are kept and where, for
want of room, two men must intrude
themselves into the room of the county
commissioners and pile their books and
stack their papers in every nook and
Granny? Do they realize that the judi
cial business of this district Will soon
become so great that it will require the
presence of a judge here continuously
and then where will the enormous bust
ness of the district court clerk be trans
acted?
In the two years that it will take to
build the proposed court house the bust
ness of the city of Anaconda will have
al. 4fasaf hn
city will say to the county, We re-
quire all the room the city hall affords,
and you will have to move out" Then
where will the county officers go, if the
court house is not built? They will be
stuck into different buildings in all parts
of town and the records and papers will
be strewn from one end of the town to
the other As it is, the city needs nearly
all the room in the city hall right now.
More than half the city officers have no
office at the city hall at all. The city
treasurer is fortunate i'll being the proud
possessor of an ante room off the police
court and one is compelled to go
through the court room to find it. The
chief of police has no office; the police
court room is the only place where he
can keep his papers and he consults
with his men on the street. The mayor
and city clerk have no rooms and the
street commissioner carries his office
There was a time, and it was not SO
very long ago, when the space that was
available at the city hall, was considered
to be more than ample for the needs of
both county and city officers. But the
increase in city business has kept
crowding and crowding and the volume
of county business has also kept crowd
ing and crowdng and soon there will be
a collision The papers, books and rec
ords that Will accumulate from the
transaction of county business will in
two years alone make a big houseful.
1t is not right that the two sets of Off
Gals should be crowded together. 1t is
no more right for the city to do it than
for the county to do it.
Therefore it is that Deer Lodge county
needs a court house, and when the insig-
nificant increase in taxation that will
result is taken into consideration, ii is
hard to understand why people should
show a lack of interest in this import
ant matter.
The form of the ballot that will be
used at next Tuesdays election is this: