The Bottineau courant., 1906-06-15
WHAT'S THE MATTER WITH
NORTH DAKOTA?

paign. There is fake issue-one
made for the occassion-without any
foundation in fact.
Everyone favors good government.
The idea that new party, or new
faction in the party. is necessary for
this result is false idea.
But there are many times when the
wnole truth is not necessary-when
there is more advantage is misrepre-
senting than in sticking to the truth.
It is no trouble at all to make the
mass of the people believe they are
being imposed upon. It only needs
one grain of distorted truth to set the
whole mass boiling.
The insurgents-the leaders-simply
want Offices. That is the beginning.
They get together and start out on a
campaign. They go into the high
ways and byways crying to the people
that they are being robbed and
swindled. Like the cly of fire,
everybody will stop and listen. These
insurgent leaders have put in whole
years work in this howl of calamity
and if the primary election which oc-
ours next Tuesday had been held the
first of April. they would have carried
the state two tv one. But since then
the republican organization has been
at work. Their work has been of that
sober, quiet and reasonable showing
that appeals to mems reason and SAN
ity. It has been shown to be a fact
that not state in the Union has had
a better state administration than
North Dakota has had since statehood
So far as has been shown--and we be-.
lieve it to be true-there has never
been dollar taken from the treasury.
In the. more than years time the in
surgents have been holding their re-
vial meetings over the state they
have done nothing more than howl
''suthin is wrong!" Well, for the
love of the flag and Mother Shipton s
old prophecy, wha: is it? It is sim.
me1ing down to just one point
this and nothing more-that the gang
as it is called has been able to con troll
more or less the nomination of canLi-
dates. There is not even the charge
made that the candidates selected
for the sake of the argument we will
admit they were selected by the gang
were not as honest. capable and COM
petent as those of any other state in
the Union.
1t is hard matter for anyone but
an experienced builder to put up
structure without making mistakes.
1t is very easy matter-after the
work is fnished-to show where it
might be improved where a wall
might have been Strengthened here;
where a few dollars might have been
saved in another direction. This
illustrates the fact that the so called
gang has built North Dakota, has To-
Gated, built and maintained its uni
versity, it's schools, colleges and other
institutions has framed its laws and
controlled the policy of the state in
public affairs. Now comes the in
surgent faction for the purpose of
pointing out the minor defects which
crept into the building, and which
could not have been foreseen. They
come before the people under the name
of the "Good Government League, -
and with no other reason for existence
than this:
"The gang has made some mistakes
they spent money on the penitentiary
when it should have been used on the
asylum. or the University or the nor
ami schools. They spent money for
hunting horse thieves that should have
spent draining the Red River Valley
They string out and multiply these
little errors that have crept in and
could not have been foreseen, and upon
this complaint they are trying what
Not to give us better state govern
ment-but to get into Office.
There is not state in the Union
that has better equipped state institu-
tions, considering the price paid, than
North Dakota, and none that are man.