Dewey County advocate. [volume] (Timber Lake, S.D.) 1910-1913, 1910-12-02
THE MOBRlDGE NEWS LAND OF.
FICE ARGUMENT.

FICE ARGUMENT.
When town is in the race for
the honor OF being selected fer
county seat, land office site, the
location of state or government
school or some other very desirable
institution, it's people are generally
content to advance the arguments
which to them seem to be sound,
in favor of the designation of their
town for such honor. 1t is only
when town is after a thing like
this and has few good arguments
to offer in support of their town
that they adopt the tactics the Mo-
bridge News employed last week
and attempt to belittle the rights
of a competing town for the same
honor.
In it's double column, twelve
inch, front page, article, the News
proceeds to state it's case as fol
lows: "Mobridge, having a trans
continental railroad. has the best
mail service. 1t is we'll known,
after a land Office is fully estab-
lished, probably 90 per cent of the
business of the office is transacted
through correspondence. Even
under ordinary conditions, there
would be saving of from "a to
az hours in the delivery and return
of mail from the east if the office
is placed here instead of on the
reservation.
We agree with the News that it
takes matter of "a hours less
time for letter to go from Mo
bridge to Washington and back
than it does here. However if the
land office was to remain at Aber-
deem there would be another gain
Of "a hours over Mobridge and if
we could induce the department to
have our reservation business done
at St. Paul, there would be still
another "a hours saved. We who
are out here on the reservation
holding down claims, fail to see
the force of such argument if in
fact it was seriously intended as
such, much prefering to transact
our business at the land office To-
Gated here on the reservation and
wait day longer for the return
OF Our patents, than go to the ex-
pense and trouble of making
trip to Mobridge and back in Or
der that the office there, not the
homesteader, might get a reply
one day sooner.
TO quote again: Should those
on the south line wish to attend to
land office business, and the land
office were located at Timber Lake
they would have to come by rail
to Cheyenne Junction, and with
the uncertainty of connections,
have to wait for days to get to
Timber Lake.
Will the News kindly clucidate
a little? Will it inform lis by
what process of reasoning it's con-
cludes that passenger having ar
rived at Cheyenne Junction on the
south line" could possibly hope
to reach Mobridge-a distance of
80 miles any quicker than he could
reach Timber Lake, a distance of
IS miles? Do the trains run Of
tener, or make any better progress
when going to Mobridge than they
do when coming this way? And
in the event homesteadcr should
reach Mobridge wouldn't the mat
ter of his getting back be just as
important as getting there?
Again the News states: Mo
bridge occupies the position of a
human hand, the main line and
three branch lines being represent
ed by the four fingers
If Mobridge gets any satisfaction
out of the thought that it repre-
sents the human hand we beg to
inform them that it makes us feel
good to know we hold 4 full
hand
To quote further: "Mobridge is
destined to be the metropolis OF