The Mitchell capital. (Mitchell, Dakota [S.D.]) 1879-1918, 1904-06-03
raE MICHEL CAPITAL
D JUNE 8. 1904.
WHERE IT is THE HANOlesT

there is u i}CCle sentiment mlNeQ
up in the average man. When he
has business to attend to he wants
to expedite it in the quickest pos
sible manner. There is no greater
loss of time to the business men and
attorneys Of the state of South Da-
kota than that of trying 10 reach
the capital of the state under the
present conditions. Pierre is en-
deavoring to retain the seat of gov
crnment no sentimental reasons-the
principal n being that of %geograph-
ical location. The subject OF geo.
graphical location has been worn so
%fhreadbare and it is so far removed
from the thoughts of the people with
reference to the ..capltal that it is
hardly worth consideration, but it
is the only argument left for Pierre
to stand N. In the early day the peo-
pie of the state thought that to have
the capital in the center would be a
fine thing, that it could be reached
by all the people OF the state with
the same ease. But fourteen years
it has been tried and its failure has
been demonstrated at every session
of the legislature. Legislators have
CROPPED their way to the state capital,
hung out there much against their
will and they finally got the strength
away from the Pierre lobbyists to
secure a vote on removal. There
is little wonder that it carried so
overwhelmingly. From tie fact that
Pierre has never been able to. secure
an appropriation for a capitol build
ing is abundant s.eyidence that peo-
pie did not place any confidence in
the permanent location Of the state
capital at Pierre. 1t has been man.
Tested in many ways that a change
was desirable and it is bound to
come.
Take the whole country east of the
Northwestern and Milwaukee rail-
way systems and you have eighty
per cent Of the population of the
state within IN easy distance of
Mitchell. Practically every person
residing within the territory north
OF Wolsey must necessarily go to VOL
sey to reach Pierre. AT that point
they are within Jos miles of Pierre
and so miles of Mitchell. They can
not reach Pierre until late at
night and are forced to remain there
all the next day and leave at unholy
hour in the morning to reach home.
After reaching Wolsey these same
people in the north part Of the state
can come straight to Mitchell, reach
here at ii O'Clock in the morning and
have four hours and a half to trans
act their business and get home the
same day. Which of the two places
is preferable from a business and an
economical standpoint. To say no.
thing of the additional railroad fare
a mans time is worth considerable
and this should be taken into ac-
count in the matter of location Of
the state capital. With the entire
southern part of the state there is
not the slightest comparison as every
person from that part will have to
travel l56 miles after they reach
Mitchell to get to the capital. Is it
not a matter Of economy in time and
expense to these people to have the
capital within easy range? How
many people there are who would
make a personal visit to the capital
of the state were it located within
easy access.
Within a radius of 100 miles Of
Mitchell are located 248, 1865 people.
Within the same radius Of Pierre
there are As, 1854 people. Is there any
reason to believe that the proportion
of population will be changed in the
next fifty years? There certainly is
not any Justification for changing
ones belief on that proposition. The
southern, central and northern part
of the state will continue to develop
in ::the same proportion that amy
other part Of the state will grow and
the bulk of the people will continue
u IeLudlIl III Uuc SdluC GeTTlGOIy.
With that point beyond controver-
sion is it not the best policy to place
the capital where the greater share
of the people can reach it-where its
location will reduce the expense OF
conducting the states business
where its location will make the tax
es less to every person in the state
where people can reach it without
spending three or four days in max
Ing the trip-where a permanent
building car be erected at a much
less cost than at Pierre-where the
railroad facilities are 500 per cent
tetJer than at the present seat OF
government?