The Rathdrum tribune. (Rathdrum, Idaho) 1903-1963, 1908-06-26
A St. Maries Girl who is for
Rathdrum.

the nknt Tor the county seat 10
1t reflects badly on the
two newspapers In Occur d'Alene and
the adults population. County re-
moval questions are supposed to be
for grown people, not school girls and
toys. And yet one cannot blame the
older people for giving over the fight
to their girls and boys. The older
generation after struggling for months
to lind good, sensible reason to
gobble up the county buildings failed
utterly. 1t was therefore not I'm.
natural that In their dependency
and desperation they should get rid
OF IT In this easy way by an appeal to
children. l suppose II the children
can't give a plausible reason, a reason
that will satisfy the ranchers, the
taxpayers, the heavily burdened
mortgagors, the workman, the payer
Of interest, the merchant and mill
men, the Occur d'Alene people will
call the fight off.
Now, would not dabble in this
matter at all as / am only a school
girl, but as / read the silly letters
from other school children / may be
excused for doing ttat which sensible
mothers and fathers ought to con-
denim. l do not reside In Occur d.
Alene and do not reside In Rathdrum.
The people OF Occur d'Alene are nice
to me and so are the people Of Rath-
drum. Mr.. Blackwell has made the
former what 1t Is. II he should
withdraw his interests that would, in
commercial way, settle Occur d.
Alene. The bottom would fall out
Of the town forthwith and most OF
the people would have to 20 back to
Spokane from whence they came.
Occur d'Alene Is only an off shoot
and a mighty unpromising one--of
Spokane. The Occur d'Alene people
do most OF their business Ia Spokane
and have no sympathy or fellow-feel-
ing for the people of Kootenai county
only what they can get out of them
Nearly all the people Of Occur d'Alene
are ashamed that they live 10 Idaho
They are anxious TO be considered d
part OF Washington. So say to the
people Of Kootenai county everywhere,
that Occur d'Alene Is not a typical
Kootenai county town.
Do my girl and boy playmates who
are wasting time writing letters
about this matter, instead OF helping
their mammas and papas In the
kitchen and on the farm, know that
to take the county seat to Occur d..
Alene means loss to the people of
Kootenai county of many thousands
OF dollars, which loss, OF course.
would mostly have to be borne by the
working people? 1t would mean the
abandonment OF $25, 900 Jail build.
ing and the courthouse and its extern
sive and expensive vaults In which
the court records are all kept. It
would mean the loss of the poor farm,
and plunging the county into debt to
rebuild these various buildings and
huy new sites for them. That is
what 1t would mean. Who would be
the only gamer? The few real estate
spectators of Occur d'Alene! Those
are the people who are at the bottom
OF the aggitation and not the people
generally OF the county. To get the
county seat would form the basis for
great real estate boom. Do the
Occur d'Alene boys and girls not
know that their rents would then 90
up, interest would be higher and
living, even in that city would double
in cost? 1t would mean less food on
the table, less clothes for the little
ones and no ribbons at all for US girls.
Why? Because the poorer people
would have to foot the bills. These
earnings would go to build and keep
up the new county buildings.
As to Rathdrum, 1t makes no
difference to the balance of the people
whether it Is town of 1900 or Is, 900
people. In fact it is best for the
balance OF the people that our county
seat Is conservative and economical
city without frills and tucks. I'm
like Occur d'Alene, Rathdrum is not
selfish and always on the make. Had
it been otherwise long, long ago it
would have had just such court
house as Occur d'Alene wants to help
raise property values, and the people
of Kootenai county would be paying
heavy interest and taxes to meet the
expenses Of having and maintaining
SO fine a county seat. As it is the