Warren sheaf. [volume] (Warren, Marshall County, Minn.) 1880-current, 1902-09-11
LOOKS
SUSPICIOUS
Is Valentine the Great Northern
Railroad S Candidate?

claims that he prepared the frs.
Drainage bill that was enacted into
law, and that he has always been II.
strongand ardent advocate of drain
age in the Red River Valley. It
seems to me that it would not be
a difficult matter for any person in
tprested in the nomination of the
congressional candidate to deter.
mine the exact status Of these gentle
men on the Drainage question.
[ do noe think that anybody will
deny that Mr.. Valentine has done
considerable talking about drain
age. Nearly everybody knows that
he was a member of the State Drain
age Commission for several years
and that while a member of such
commission, Judging from his cam
paign statements, he was RESPONSE
BILE for and advocated all the work
that was performed by the said COM
mission. Now if there is anything
that Mr.. Valentine succeeded in do
ing while member OF that commits
sion that deserves special mention it
seems to me that it is the fact that
while acting as q member Of the
Commission he succeeded in doing
as much good for the Great North
.ern Railway company in draining as
much of their lands as it was pos
sible to drain by the construction of
such drainage.
1t appears that no ditch was loca-
ted or constructed under his direc-
lions unless It would benefit parttii:-
eulaslY lands owned by the G My.
Co, and in going right through tie
Red River Valley and picking out
the locations OF the several drainage
bitches constructed under Mr.. Valen-
tines commission, you will find that
they are constructed almost with
out a single exception where the
Railroad Co., owned the largest
tracts of land.
Mr.. Valentine tells the people that
be has made enormous sacrifices for
their welfare, and that he has dona-
ted his money for the promotion of
drainage, and never charged q single
dollar, or received any money what
soever for all this outlay.
Let us see Just how consistent this
statement is with the report of the
Commission.
If you look over the statements
of Disbursements made by the Com
mission, you will find that quite a
large sum consists of travelling and
incidental expenses OF the Commits
sion, Notwithstanding the fact that
the Commission all rode on free pas
ses, and enjoyed the hospitality of
the good people of the Red River
Valley wherever they happened to
have ditch work.
One OF the principal arguments ad-
vanced by Mr.. Valentine against the
present law under which the Drain
age Commission are constructing
bitches was that it would require the
whole appropriation for the expen-
ses of the Com mission for examining
the swamp lands and SO forth. As a
matter of fact lam informed that
not one tenth OF the amount expen-
ded by Valentines Commission for
'expenses has been expended by the
present Commission for the same
amount of work.
Again Mr.. Valentine tells the
people how generous he has been
and how much he has donated for
the expenses OF inspecting che bitches
incurred by the present board and
Drainage Commissioners created for
the purpose of inspecting bitches
and that he gave $1,000 for this pur.
pose out of his own pocket. Now
Just look over the statement Of how
this $1,000 has been expended which
is published in Mr.. Valentines cam
ipaign literature, and you will find
that Is per cent of it was expended
in making cuts, securing data, and
for publishing the campaign pamph.
let's which Mr. Valentine is distribut.
ing SO ingeniously all over dis.
trict, when you cut out the item o.