The searchlight., 1911-11-03
OBSTRUCTIONISTS
Medicine Lake u Endeavorlng q
tieodwink the People BY the
Richland County Petition

The Searchlight dares the editors
Of the Medicine Lake Wave and
the Fro,d Tribune to successfully
contradict the statement that "The
proposed Richland county division
petition Is for the purpose Of oh.
structing county division.
The demonstration Of the state.
ment is very simple. The Rich
land county petition proposes to
divide Valley county At a poin,
near Wolf Point, which the Wave
says will give US the necessary val
uation. but it ignores the fact that
the people in the western part OF
the proposed county will not sign
q petition for a new county on
those lines. Citizens OF Poplar
will not sign such a petition, neith-
er will they vote for any PROPOSE
ton for a new county which does
not include the northern part ol
Dawson county. Most OF the bust.
ness Of Poplar is drawn from the
South Side. The citizens south oi
Poplar and the citizens OF Poplar
both agree on the subject. They
OF the South Side want to come IN
and Poplar wants them in the new
county. Neither one or the other
will vote for county division or any
other lines
WITH BOTH POPLAR AND
THE SOUTH SIDE LEFT OUT
OF THE PROPOSED NEW
COUNTY THERE WILL NOT
BE ENOUGH VALUATION
LEFT IN THE PROPOSED
AREA TO FORM A NEW
COUNTY.
Following is an extract OF the
new county division law which was
passed q. the last session oi the
state Legislature:
On the final hearing said board Of county
commissioners must. upon petition oi not
less than fifty per cen, Of the qualified
electors Of any territory lying within said
proposed new county and contiguous TO the
boundary line Of th- said proposed new
county and Of the old county from which
such 'erritsry is proposed to be taken. and
lying entirely within single old county.
and described in said petition. asking that
said territory be not included within the
proposed new county. make such changes
in the proposed boundaries as will exclude
such territory from such new county. and
shall establish and define such boundaries.
provided. that II any change OF changes so
made shall result in reducing the valuation
- seS PsoR&D1o NV Soouty W sGo3 sA8u ~
assessed valuation otyour million dollars.
then such sew county shall not be created
Of Organized
From, the above il can be clearly
seen that Poplar controls the stu.
alton as far as that town is con.
ceIned as to whether she will come
into any new county or stay in the
old county. All the voters in the
western part Of the proposed new
county Of Richland are located in
Poplar as the balance OF that part
Of the county is an Indian reserva.
ton and has no voters. They will
neither sign the kichland petition
nor will they vote to come into the
new county. In place OF that not
only 50 pei cent Of them will sign
q petition to be lett in the old
county Of Valley, but we venture
to say that fully 90 per cent will
sign such a petition against being
included in any new county which
does not included the part OF Daw-
son county lying south OF Poplar.
On the other hand Poplar and
the South Side will both vote and
work for county division on the
lines laid down IN the proposed
Gateway county proposition.
The editor Of the Wave, as we'll
IS the bunch Of North Dakota pol
iticians who aie in control Of the
Richland proposition, know that
county division is impossible At
the present time with the bound
aries they propose.