The Bottineau courant., 1906-01-26

tion in any matter. We also dare
and defy "a Republican or anyone
else to point out single word.
phrase or clause in any issue Of The
Conrant, under it's present manage
ment, which has been directly or in
directly influenced by Mr.. Noble.
Now IA Republican is put to the
test Where are his ''dozens Of
witnesses % Can he make good his
boast? Will he attempt to prove
his sincerity or will he sink furth-
er into his hiding place and make
fuither idle boasts that have no
foundation in truth? Is there enough
manhood in the entire aggregation
back Of the articles aimed at The
Courant to accept our challenge?
In spite of the fact that the Gall
important questioner takes it as a
joke or as sarcasm we say again that
The Courant does. and purposes to
continue to do. it's own thinking and
as to whether our 'think tank is
empty we will leave to our readers
to judge. IA Republican" Is will
ing to lei. us down easy. He says,
"All we look for The Courant to do,
is to make an honest confession of
their misdoings and ask the peoples
forgiveness and promise to do better
in the future" But Notwithstanding
the leniency so graciously shown by
this autocratic howler, who loves dark
ness better than light, we have moth
ing to confess and no forgiveness to
ask of anyone, but, in common with
all those in whom conceit is not the
predominating faculty we will en-
deavor to do better in all of our fu-
ture efforts along the lines we have
marked out as our policy-independ-
ence, fairness and the peoples inter
ests above all considerations of party.
Our critic, who hides in the shadow
and is therefore unused to viewing
things in the honest light of day, says
there ''seems to be contradiction of
terms when the writer of the so-called
explanation says I'VE stand for the
people in struggle for better govern
ment' and in the next breath saws that
he cares absolutely nothing for the
political success or failure of either
MI. Noble or MI Spaulding. By
some wonderful mental gymnastics
this republican (2) reaches the con-
clusion that The Courant has thus de-
clared itself against the good sovern-
ment movement. It seems to us that
we can be for or against great move
ment without cariLg anything for the
personal success or failure of an indi-
vidual who may or may not take a
part in such movement We will say
again that we do not care particle
whether Mr.. Spaulding or Mr.. Noble,
or any other person. when considered
in their individual capacity, should
succeed or fail in any of their poll
tical aspirations We believe we are
consistent in this and that it is barely
possible that the country may yet be
saved from gang domination even
though they are left out of the ques-
tion. We raise no quarrel with "a
lepublican's'' appreciation of Mr..
Spaulding but we by no means be-
lieve that he is the keystone of the
arch of reform. If he dropped out of
sight today the refolm movement
would still continue to gather strength
for the final struggle with the gang.
Again we quote from "a Republican"
"a man, knowing the conditions that
exist today in the Republican party
in this state, and is not prepared to
take a stand on either side. is not a
fit man to try to mould public opinion
and will bear watching This, in
the imagination of it's author, was to
have hit us. But it doesn t. We
have taken an honest stand with the
movement for better political condi-
tions and have expressed ourselves as
unalterably opposed to the old gang
and no one has yet dared to come out
in the open and question our SINGER
ity.