Bismarck daily tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, Dakota [N.D.]) 1881-1916, 1908-04-01
aEMRER OF ASSOCIATED PRESS
BLUFF, BLUSTER AND BUN
COMBE,

AS We nave naQ occasion To observe
within the past few days, there is a
great deal of buster and buncombe
in politics. The dissemination of
campaign buncombe has already be-
gun and will probably continue more
or less buisly till the primaries and
the election have been held. The
stock arguments of the reform po-
1itical speakers, democratic and in
surgent, up-to-date, have been that
the railroads have not been taxed
enough; that the railroad commission
has failed to make low rates, that
the republicans have not enforced the
prohibition law, and that, while the
democrats and insurgents have no
particular records to show along the
line of actual reforms, it is all due
to the fact that the republicans hold
ing Office have stood in the way. This
is all patent bosh, intended solely
to prejudice voters and help elect
the s.outs" as against the Gins" We
have insurgent candidates for con-
gress declaring that the railroads
have not been taxed enough, that the
present valuations are far below the
real value of their property, and that
the way to cure it all is to elect in
surgent candidates.
We have had the same argument
on the part of the democrats at the
time the campaign etaoi'fseetaoidl
time Of the campaign in 1906 but we
do not find any change in the COM
parative assessment of railroads 1t
is a simple matter to get on the
stump, in fine frenzy, and declare
that railroads should be boosted four
or five hundred per cent and that
this will follow Immediately on the
election of reform candidate The
same candidate occupies an entirely
different position when he is. elected
an confronted with the law that all
classes Of property must be taxed on
a proportionate and equitable basis
and that it is not possible to as
;sess railroads at their full value if
Farm lands and goods and merchan-
disc are not assessed at the same
rate. Such an assessment will not
equal assessment would be only tc
plunge the state into lawsuit. AS.
sessment must be fair and equitable
however loudly campaign orators
may shout and whatever they ma!
declaim. Sensible people know thi!
and know that until all classes O.
property are assessed at their trut
value, no single class of property cal
be assessed at it's true value, how
ever popular such course might b.
with reform" politicians or thought
less people. This talk is purely bluff
buster and buncombe. The Tribun
still insists that an average valuatiol
of less than SIS an acre, for Red rive
valley farm lands is about on pa
with assessment of railroads at SO
600 a mile, unless we have som
figures to show that farm lands hay
decreased nj value and that railroad
have increased.
With respect to the enforcement
OF the prohibition law, we have a
era of marches and conference.-the
attacks, sorties, flank movements an
the like on the pigs in nQmbe
of the counties in the western PAL
of the state, and one of the feature
of these movements has been as t
how much political advertising coul
be gained from them and upon who's
shoulders any declarations could /
placed. Indeed, it would seem to /
the principal object of some of OF
campaign orators to make use
these pig cases for purposes of Sc
advertisement. We have long he
to the belief that knowledge of dur
wen done should be sufficient r