Hot Springs weekly star. (Hot Springs, S.D.) 1892-1917, 1904-10-28
VIEWS OF AN oNLooKER.
An Edgemont Citizen Observes a Few
Pertinent Facts.

A letter to the editor of the STAR
from friend in the west end of the
county makes the following sugges-
tions:
"a few ideas have occurred to me
anent the Craven controversy. In his
circular entitled "A Newspaper Graft. >
he did not question the justice or le-
gallty of the bills allowed, and as it
has no bearing on the question at issue
the only thing see in it is this: That
former treasurer published tax list
amounting to 81 l,O49, and published it
on time, according to law, while Mr..
Craven could not publish one amount
ing to S6S according to the law. The
Sl,O49 tax list was more than fifteen
times greater than the S68 ole; hence
former republican treasurer could
give Mr.. Craven a week the start and
still be fifteen times better official.
by comparison, then. these former re-
publlcan treasurers must either appear
as Official giants or Mr.. Craven must
appear grossly incompetent. 1t is the
hrst time L ever knew candidate for
re- election to SO widely advertise his
own incompetence. While this cam.
paign! document impugns Stanley's
motive in throwing the searchlight of
publicity on the official shortcomings
OF treasurer Craven, it makes no de-
NAL OF the charges, nor any attempt to
oondone the offense. The condition
appears to me to be that the voters
made the mistake two years ago of at
tempting to bore.a two-inch official
augur hole with a gimlet, and the re.
suits have been disastrous, as might
naturally have been expected"
That is the way disinterested citi-
zen sizes up the situation. We had
been told that some 'yellow dodgers"
were being circulated by Mr.. Craven
which voiced the vaporings of the
Times-Herald in trying to shift the
eyes of the taxpayers from Mr.. Craven
to the STAR. Let him explain first his
own official acts and then he may be
able to interest people in something
else. 1t is the candidates who are be-
ing considered in this election and
their official actions are up for consid-
eration-for approval or rejection.
Let him stand up and explain some
things of his own doing-and not doing
before circulating "yellow dodgers"
about GA Newspaper Graft" We
haven't seen a copy of the dodger, as
they have not been circulated in this
portion of the county yet, but we want
to say to Mr.. Craven, or anybody else
who is disposed to question any of the
bills that the STAR ever presented for
publishing delinquent tax lists, that
they were legal charges and were reg
ularly allowed by the county commits
sioners and lawfully drawn by the
county auditor. The advertising fees
for tax lists are charged against the
property advertised, and the STAR used
to get paid in warrants at 40 and so
cents on the dollar. The large tax lists
and cheap warrants we're the result of
democratic, Grover Cleveland, panic.
Times have changed and those long
delinquent tax lists will probably never
occur again-unless we should get an.
other such democratic administration.
If anybody has an idea that they can
distract the attention of the voters and
taxpayers from their own shortcom-
ings by bowling about the STAR they
have mighty poor opinion of the in
telligence and good sense of the people
of the county. 1t doesn't make cents
difference to the people who does the
printing of the taxi list. The Times
Herald charges all the law allows.
Nobody doubts that for moment.
The Times-Herald supports Mr.. Craven
probably because he is democrat.
That paper gets the tax list because
it is democratic newspaper. That is
all right and legitimate. The Times
Herald is entitled to it SO long as the
party it represents has charge of the
treasurer's office, and the STAR will not
adopt the tactics of the Times-Herald
and offer to do the printing at half
price just because democrat has the
printing in his charge. The law regu-
lates the price and it is none too much.
The people whose property is adver
tised have to pay the costs. Therefore
the effort of Wood Craven and his
political organ to distract the atten-
tion of the people from the real issue
from the conduct of public officers
is pretty thin whitewash.
The STAR needs no excuse for oppos-
ing the election of Mr.. Craven. He is
democrat. That is reason enough
for any republican to oppose him, even
though he had not neglected to com.
ply with the law, and any candidate
must expect the opposing party to
scrutinize their official acts. This is
one good feature of having contendine
political parties. It often proves ben.
edcial to the taxpayers. The Times.
Herald always opposed the republican
candidates for county treasurer who
were making faithful and capable Of