The Lemmon herald. (Lemmon, Perkins County, S.D.) 1912-1917, 1912-05-24
Doc Smith Wants
His Ten Plunks, Tom !

AisSAASAis NJ ~. Au0 TX, 1Jl q.
10 lne Editor OF Lennon Herald
Dear Sir:
In the Issue OF May 1st Of the
Perkins 20. Signal l notice the
following: Inc tact Railroad
commissioner Smith is tayorlng
FRANK LeCocq for membership
III his board is reaon enough why
the voters OF the state should not
support him. SInlIn, himself,
is the railroad representative on
the board and ne is probably
looking for Company" He has
been sadly alone with Commits
sloners Rice and Robinson on the
board.
| would not signify this abso-
lutte falsehood by noticing it were
1t not tor the fact that feel that
my friends are entitled to the
following information and anu
milton in case they are questioned
on the subject and for the futher
reason that | do not desire my
friends to be injured by any such
unklnd and unWarranted attacks.
refer particularly to Smith,
himself, is the railroad represent
ative on the board" challenge
the proof of the above assertion.
The record of the railroad COM
mission is an open book to the
public. The board has been un-
animous in most of it's decisions.
In the White Butte case | dis
sented.
In the earlier stages of that
case | assisted all | could but
when the board called upon Mr..
?. w. Dougherty. special attor-
ney general in charge of all rail
road litigation, for an opinion and
when he filed an opinion that the
board of railroad commissioners
had no jurisdiction, then and not
until then, did | refuse to spend
the money OF the state to prose-
cute the case. Even after the
opinion, as the records at the Of
tlce will show, | did arrange a
conference with MIR. +. ID. Sc
wall, Vice Pres. OF e.. M, q T.
). Ry., to meet him IN Chicago
and see ii we could not secure
hv diplomacy what the Special
Attorney General was OF the O.
plnlon we could not force by law.
The decision of the court su
stained the opinion OF M r.
Dougherty and myself. | will
say that instead of being Sadly
alone" prepared assisted by
Mr., C. c. Witt, engineer for the
board and moved the adoption OF
the freight tariff schedule which
was unanimously adopted and is
now being held up by injunction
in the federal court. | selected
the lowest schedule of express
rates in the state then reduced it
80 per cent and offered it at the
board meeting for adoption and
it was unanimously adopted and
is now in effect. Had Commits.
sioner George Rice decided to be
come a candidate for re- election,
Honor able Frank LeCocq would
not have become candidate and
did not announce himself until
advised that Mr. Rice would not
be a candidate. lalso state here
puhlicaly that had Commissioner
Rice decided to make the race
for nomination he would have
had no more loyal supporter than
myself for the reason that know
him to be an honest. able and
contentious man. For the same
reason | pledged my support to
Honorable Frank LeCocq. SER
we'd with him six years on the
board. He was honest. able and
contentious. The records show
that during his administration
the passenger fare east of the
Missouri river was reduced from
four to three cents per mile that
west of the river the passenger
fare was reduced first from five
TO four cents per mile and later
from four to three cents Der
mile, their present basis and that
the freight rates were reduced.
| want to say that the Attorney
Generals office has fought the
two cent passenger fare as hot
and concientious as it was pos
sible to do. They employed the
best obtainable accountant. those
| employed by Minnesota and nine
other states in rate cases and who
are now employed by the Inte"-
State Commerce Commission in
vestigating the Express COM
panies. fully showing that they
,.oro com nntnnt and had them at