Custer weekly chronicle. [volume] (Custer City, S.D.) 1890-1931, 1907-02-16
SENATE BILL NO. lSl.

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scribing the manner of distributing the
funds received by the State of South Da.
kota from the Forest Service Of the
United States, TO counties in whiCh For
est Reserves are situated.
Be it Enacted by the Legislature of the
State of South Dakota:
Section l. That all moneys now in
the hands Of the Treasurer of the State
in the Special Forest Reserve Fund, re-
ceived from the Forest Service of the
United States under the Agricultural
Appropriation Act, approved June 80,
1906, which moneys are percentage of
the gross receipts from the Black Hills
Forest Reserve for the fiscal year end
ing June 30, 1906, together with all sub
sequent receipts from said Black Hills
Forest Reserve, shall be distributed an
nually to the counties of Lawrence,
Meade, Pennington and Custer, for the
benefit Of the public roads and public
schools Of said counties, in proportion
to the area of the said Black Hills For.
est Reserve in each county and all mon.
eys hereafter received by said state
treasurer as n percentage of the gross
receipts from the Cave Hills, Short Pine
and Slim Butte Forest Reserves shall be
annually turned over to Butte county
for the benefit of the public roads and
public schools Of said county. Provided
that there shall not be paid to any coun-
ty an amount equal to more than forty
percentum of the total income of such
county, from all sources.
Section 2. The State Auditor shall
annually, after the receipt of said funds,
determine the amount due each county
and forward a warrant for the same to
the Treasurer of each county entitled to
its proportion of said fund, which annu-
al amount is to be used, nine tenths for
the improvement of public roads and
one tenth for the public schools.
Section 3. There being no law on this
subject, an emergency is hereby declared
to exist and this Act shal be in effect
from and after its passage and approval.
In our issue Of two weeks ago we pub
lished "House Bill No. 49," which we
regarded as so palpably unjust to Custer
county that we felt called upon to object
to it in the most strenuous terms. Our
objection was based upon that portion of
the bill wherein the apportionment of
the funds was made in proportion to the
amount Of revenue received by each
county from all sources. If that bill
were enacted into law it would give
Lawrence county the lions share PEN
nington county would come in for more
than would be her just due, and Custer
county, which furnishes more timber
and grazing than either of the other
counties would receive so small a por-
ton as hardly to be worth mentioning.
OF course we raised roar and whether
any attention was paid to it or not we
do not know, but it seems that the bill
was Withdrawn or voted down and an
other bill has been introduced as a sub
stitute.
This latter bill entitled Senate Bill
No. ISL" is a little better but still far
from being right or just. 1t will be OBJ
served that from the reading of this
Senate Bill No. lSl which we have copi-
ed above entire, that it is now proposed
to divide the money according to the
area of the land embraced in the forest
reserve. OF course each Of the counties
of Lawrence and Pennington contain
larger area inside of the forest reserve
than Custer, but the difference would
not call for any particular objection if
there was any sense in it. We confess
upon inability to understand wherein
the area cuts any figure, or what bearing
it has upon the question. As we are
compelled to look at the matter, il seems
part of some man or set of men to cheat
Custer county out of that which is her
rightful due. 1t seems to us that if our
law makers had a desire to be fair
they would render to Ceazar the things
that are Ceazar's" and not be beating
around the bush trying to get an undue
advantage. 1t seems to us that it must
be plain to every fair minded man that
there is but one way to make the distri-
button, and that is to pay each county in
proportion to the amount of timber they
take from each county. There can be
nothing wrong in such proposition and
there can be nothing right or just in any
proposition Of law that falls short OF this
We want what belongs to us and no
more, and nothing else will be satisfac-
tory. II our law makers want to be fair
the change to be made in the bill is very
simple and easy, erase the word "area"
and insert in its stead the words, "the
amount of timber cut aud sold" This
will cure the defect and make the bill
conform to the demands of a square
deal.