Bismarck daily tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, Dakota [N.D.]) 1881-1916, 1905-11-21

of an Indian school, with $4,000
appropriation, while Wahpeton re-
ceives hundred thousand dollars for
similar institution and the govern
ment, not the citizens. pay for the
site,
This city has been called upon to
pay, for every public enterprise and
every public institution We have had
located. We are not complaining
particularly about this, but it is men
toned simply to show the conditions
of Bismarck as compared with other
communities.
And as for grafting-there has been
none of it in Bismarck-there could
not have been had the capitol COM
mission been allowed to proceed I'M
der the act of the last legislature. In
the erection of the university build
| ings at Grand Forks, does anyone &C
cuse Mr.. Bulge of the capitol COM
mission of grating? Some of his
political enemies have intimated that
in this capitol proposition Hon. Alex
ander McKenzie's interest was per-
sonal and mercenary rather than
philanthropic. AS political leader
boss if you choose to call him-Mr.
Mr.. McKenzie's makeup that is better
from constant newspaper criticism
and abuse but there is one feature of
Mr.. McGenzie's makeup that is better
known by his intimate friends, his
fellow townsmen, than by strangers.
| There is one characteristic in this
mans nature, without which he could
not have succeeded, could not have
been a leader of men or command
their confidence. Mr.. Mckenzie is
loyal to his friends and to his COM
munity. He is not a CRATER. This
is the most unjust and cruel accusa-
ton that can be made against this
remarkable man. He has never
made a dollar out of the location OF
public institutions in Bismarck, ex-
cept as a property owner and every
Bismarck property owner has paid,
during the struggle of the last twenty
years, more in taxes than his prop
erty is worth. Mr.. Mckenzie has
been a contributor not CRATER.
When the capitol was removed from
Yankton back in territorial days,
other members of the capitol COM
mission-and Mr.. Spalding was one
of that commission-know very
we'll the temptations offered by other
communities. Every member of that
commission could have received a
snug fortune, had he been untrue to
his trust. Did Mr.. Mckenzie sell out
Bismarck and North Dakota? There
wasn't money enough then and there
isn't money enough now in existence
to cause this man to desert this city.
No one who knows the man has ever
accused him of selling OUT He
has been accused of buying" but
not of selling. Such a charge, if true,
disputes the charge of "grafter." One
must be "seller' to be a CRATER.
In the building of a capitol it is
the sole desire of Mr.. Mckenzie and
every other citizen of Bismarck-and
the state for that matter-to obtain
the best building for the money to
be obtained from the land grant for
capitol purposes. The Tribune does
not believe that the grating side of
human nature is so abnormally de-
veloped as some self-constituted
critics intimate. Methods may be
open to Criticism and leaders in
politics must expect unjust criticism
but those who have devoted a third
of a century or more to the develop
ment of this state and to the up.
building of her institutions, while
they may make mistakes, are moi