The Kimball graphic. (Kimball, Brule County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1905, 1903-10-16
THE KIMBALLG GRAPHIC
cLATE THAN
Official Papsl Of to CITY and count)
Plerre,s baAy Act


Pis9re,s Baby Act
Howard Spirit: The role OF injured
innocence donned by Unique Pierre
Isl palpable mistit. Posing as the outs
ragged victimof 4 sssknocker campaign,
she excites much sympathy in the half
dozen counties to which she Is acces-
sible, andin the half dozen newspaper
Offices where tier thirty pieces Of silver
look. bigger than the interests Of their
readers. But outside OF these she gets
the hors. laugh. Men who remember
her rauce0us, bargain and sale, SO
much cash for SO many votes, methods
Of 1890, are poorly prepared for her
assumption of unsophistocated virtue.
The whole state knows that there is
not, nor has there been, on the part Of
Mttchell's supporters; any ssknocking''
OF any portion OF the state.
The contention has been, and is,
and will be, that not an acre OF
South Dakota is worthless-all good
for either farming, mining, or grazing:
That the state contains three great
subdivisions, one specially adapted to
|eachOf those standard industries. We
whose lots + cast In the farming
section are just as proudof our erich
est 100 square miles on earth,n known
asst the Hills countless" and our In
comparable grazing range in the
Northwest. as Of the unrivaled yields
of our .splow counties" The one is
the complement Of the other: The
range to grow the stock, the "plow
counties" to fatten 1t and the min
ing counties to eat 1.-THE three con-
tanning all the elements Of state
wealth, acombination without q rival.
These are the facts, and Mitchell
cannot be blamed for applying the
logic OF fact to her benefit as a capital
aspirant. a. rich mining region will
sustain a denser population than any
other except a manufacturing center,
and a section adapted to grain grow
ing and mixed farming ranks next,
while q grazing country-though
equally rich and desirable-must, from
the nature OF the business, be more
sparselY populated.
IL is simply Mitchell's good fortune
in this contest to be located contigu-
GUS to territory that is and must be
9 close second in density of popula-
ton to any In the state, and to be
more convenient to access TO the min
ing section than her rivals is. In
deed It Is the application OF the poll
tical axiom-'..the greatest good to the
greatest number'-which made her
Pierre's competitor when the blunder
of the first capital location became In
tolerable. It Is not .sknocking''
Pierre nor any portion Of the state
for Mitchell to call attention Of voters
to her advantageous location and the
conditions which make these advanta-
ges permanent.
It would, however, he tsknocking''
OF the worst variety for Mitchell to
set up as q mining rival Of the Black
Hills and induce men. by false repre-
sensations, to invest their money in
impossible mines, or to send her en-
issaries and literature into Florida to
induce orange growers to swarm IN
and plant Dawson and adjacent count
les to orange groves. She might hold
them till after eIection-and get their
yotes---but5 the end would be failure
and disappOintment-an army of,bank-
rupts scattered broadcast cursing Da-
kota. hesSante Fe r.. r. company
worked an agricultural bunco game
in Southwestern Kansas, dealing the
state a blow 1t took years to recover
from and cost hundreds Of .deluded
homesteaders their last dollar. The
land finally drifted into large holdings
for grazing and that portion OF the
state became prosperous.
The writer was somewhat familiar
with the trans-Missouri countrysfrom
Sidney to Deadwood before there was
any Deadwood) and thence to Forts
Yates and Lincoln, thirty-three years
ago. He is not wholly a t%enderfoot,
nor as ignorant OF his subject as some
of the Pierre boomers affect to be. In
the southern reservation counties,
Gregory, Lyman and Presho, and ii
the smaller valleys Of Stanley there
is some good agricultural land, hui
north and west OF these, to the irri-
gated valleys OF Montana and the
British line, it is a natural grazing
region-as fine acne as the country
affords.
The settlement going on there will
result In temporary inconvenience tx
the cattlemen but no permanent In
jury, as the land will, most Of it, quick
" pass into their hands and be use6
for the purpose to which it is best
nlo -%na& S&4 3a&EE aEp&&H IN