Bismarck daily tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, Dakota [N.D.]) 1881-1916, 1908-07-19
(By j.. S. Knauss. J

+
We see by the papers that the city
council of Bismarck, by and with
the advice and consent, permission,
acquaiescence and concurrence of the
mayor, has revived, resuscitated and
put into more or less operation, an
ordinance, passed some time during
the reign of Frencis XIV, taxing dogs
at one bone percapita or twice per
capita in case of femme sole."|
This is exactly as it should be. You
can always count on an alderman do
ing the right thing at the right time.
If he didn't do it when you thought
he should you can feel sure that the
proper time had not yet arrived. The
supreme court might make mistakes
occasionally but aldermen never do.
If you expect to get ahead of an al
derman you will have to rise great
deal earlier in the morning than we
are in the habit of doing. y.
AS we understand it this dog tax
is for internal, or Internal revenue,
Gust as you like it,, and intended
to increase the funds of the city and
pay off our bonded indebtedness and
leave surplus and undivided profits
in the treasury. 1t is working
beautifully so far. In the two months
that the ordinance has been in active
operation, (the dogs have been in
active operation somewhat longer
than that), there has been sold some
sixty-five or seventy tags. Deducting
the cost of the tags and the fifty
cents per he'd due the poundmaster,
and any other expenses that might
accrue, there is now net profit to
the city of twenty-five cents. This
profit has already been banked and
part of it will be used to pave the
streets and build city hall. Any
balance remaining will be turned
over to the government to pay off the
| national debt or build more war
ships.
We are extremely pleased to see
our aldermen look after these i'm
portant matters so closely. Cows and
horses don't cut much figure, for all
they do is to destroy our gardens
. and break down our trees and fenc-
es. A dog never does anything but
bark and chase said cows and horses
| (Which he has no right to do), but
the dogs have evidently expressed a
| desire to be taxed and, of course,
/ should be accommodated.
| A friend told us that there were
only four hundred dogs in town, but
we counted fourteen hundred one
morning before breakfast, and there
were several that lodged around the
Tribune Office and refused to have
their census taken.
4 We believe that the ordinance is
i perfectly constitutional for we are in
formed that Fdances XIV and his al
dermen, who were accessories before
the fact, took constitutional just
before passing the ordinance. If this
wouldn't make it constitutional what
| would?
So far as we are personally con-
cerned we would like to see all the
dogs in town shot, hung or trans
ported to Siberia for life, but the
foresight of the city fathers in al
lowing those to live that pay the tax
will probably preserve the species
from becoming entirely extinct.
In our own case We endeavored to
the best of our ability to evade this
dog tax In fact we never really
owned a dog, but some time last fall
a very intelligent pup with a high
forehead and a healthy appetite
adopted us. We say he was intelli-
gent because he evidently recognized
how easy we were. When the cpl
demic of dog tax struck the town
this pup declared that he had lost all
his holdings in the Chicago fire of
1871 and was now without resources,
and with tears in his eyes and sew
en- pounds of beefstake in his mouth