Kingsbury County independent. (DeSmet, Kingsbury County, S.D.) 1894-1929, 1907-01-11

which attacks the very foundation Of rep-
resentative government. When assess
ments are made and money collected for
the purpose of carrying on political cam
paigns, the public welfare is involved in
Its expenditure.
If it is used to buy votes. make bets upon
results, pay for whisky and treats, and de-
bauch the morals of men. it sows the
seeds of a rottening cancer. III no re-
sponsibility to account Is placed upon the
men who receive and disburse 1t. they may
collect 1t for one purpose and spend it for
another; hey may embezzle 1t with i'm
punity. or use 1t against the very men who
paid 1T. To assert that no legal checks or
of money in political campaigns and cleo
tons, is to take a position that Is little less
than monstrous.
Connecting Tracks.
As the law stands it is impossible to
compel intersect.ng railways TO put In con-
Meeting tracks. A car load of lumber can
be hauled from the Pacific coast to Water
town or Huron over the Great Northern
for 40 cents per hundred. To get 1t from
Huron to Highmore, it must be unloaded
and transferred by dray and reloaded into
a Chicago and Northwestern car or an
additional local rate of II cents per hun
dred must be paid for hauling It from Wa
tertown to Highmore. A car load of po-
tatoes loaded in a Great Northern car at
Putney or Claremont, a few miles north OF
Aberdeen, and destined to any point in the
SN%sN "a VI u, Ah1ol cO ofhiSo0So oN
Aberdeen, transferred by dray and re-
loaded. The rate for a car load of flour
from Huron TO Chicago is 10 cents per
hundred While the rate from Huron to
Orient over in Faux county is BIZ cents
per hundred, because the Milwaukee and
Northwestern roads have no connecting
track at Faulkton. This is an obstruction
TO commerce that the public demands shall
be removed by an adequate amendment to
the law which will enable the commission
TO compel the intersccting roads TO so
IInJfn their - nc 10 nnrvnft fhn ~ nc
fer from one to the other of loaded cars,
and making the haul over both a continu-
Gus haul, and the rate q continuous
through rate.
Assessments Laws.
Every one concedes that our revenue
laws are crude and inadequate. The re-
firing governor two years ago at the close
of an administration of four years, de-
voted a large portion of his address to the
legislature to this one subject. In his,
opening address TO the Legislature, my
predecessor referred to it. 1t seems to me
that the time for action has come.
The franchises of public service corpora
tons organized IN this state and the priv
ilegeS to do business and hold property in
this state granted by it's laws to non-resi-
dent public service corporations are of
very great value, and the law prescribing
a rule for assessing the property Of these
corporations whose property Is a kind
possessed Of marvellous earning power,
omits all reference to the value of the
franchises, and IN fixing values, no refer
ence is made TO increased value of that
part of the property of these companies ly-
ing within towns and cities, where they,
have depots, machine shops, enlarged
grounds, sidetracks, general offices and
personal property of great value. The ter
minal grounds and depot buildings of tho
Burlington and Missouri River Railroad
company and Of the Chicago and North
western Railroad company with rights Of
way in the city of Deadwod and Lead,
worth thousands of dollars, are valued un-
der the law at the same rate per mile as
one mile of single track over the open
spaces of land in Custer or Fall River or
Pennington counties.
With one of the richest gold mines in the
world in its midst, the average value of
mineral lands in Lawrence count is only
$9l sc per acre; the total number of acres
of mineral lands in the county is 4i,70 and
the total assessed valuation thereof, $3,-
90S, 255.
With 2,734 miles of Western Union tele-
graph lines in the state assessed by the
state board at $4,000, and 70, 723 miles OF
the same board at $50 sS, and the prop
erty of the express companies assessed at
$139, 298, and the Pullman company as
sessed at $22, 800, We find all this property
going entirely free of road tax, because the
tax levy is made upon it by the state
board exclusively and no equivalent to
the road tax is levied at all.
1t should be made the duty of the board
of railroad commissioners to employ eX-
perts for the purpose and to collect au-
thentic and reliable Information concern
tAO oSNac'i oio VI lAC lIFo plOR-
critics in the state, not only for the pur-
pose of making the same a basis for rate
schedules, but for the purpose also OF CIV
ing the state board of assessment some
independent and reliable information of
the real value of these properties. The
law enacted two years ago, giving the
state board of assessment authority to
take such means and measures as may be
to ascertain, discover and place
upon the assessment rolls taxable prop
erty omitted therefrom or concealed,
should he made effective nv maxine N ~
appropriation which would enable this
board TO employ an agent to go out over
the state and make a personal investiga-
ton of such cases and report the same to
the board. | earnestly recommend this
subject to you as one of the greatest I'm
portance, demanding effective legislation
at your hands.
1t is my wish that you may have a pleas
and profitable session and that YOU
will make a record for yourselves and for
the state which you serve that will always
hereafter bring TO you that solace and
qualification which comes from the faith
full performance of duty. =