The Sauk Centre herald. (Sauk Centre, Stearns County, Minn.) 1886-current, 1917-05-17

oils Journal a scathing review editor
ial was published scoring unmerclful-
ly editorials that had appeared in the
Sank Centre Herald and the Dawson
Sentinel.
We are not defending either of the
editorials in the Herald or the Sen
tinel We did not write either. The
Herald is in different situation than
most country papers. Some don't even
have one editor. None that we are
aware of has more than one, except
the Herald, and that has two-and
there is no mutually of responsibility
between them. The editorial was writ
ten by the Irregular" editor; he owns
the paper, pays the bills and insists,
once in while of putting something
of his own in the paper. He is little
cuss, but has established reputation
of being able to take care of himself
in either a written, verbal or physical
scrap, and as for the Sentinel, Theo-
dore Christensen has not only been
able to take care of his own, but by
his virile aggressiveness he has put
the fear of the Lord into the hearts
of some of the city chaps lest he reach
forth his Viking hands and grab some
of the soft snaps which they have
held for 10 these many years, not by
virtue of merit or ability, but by rea-
son of nerve and combination. He
does not need any aid from us.
AS for ourselves, o one knows bet
ter than ourselves that we are coun-
try jake, unlettered, unimaginative,
unvocabularious and unartistic in word
painting. We sleep nights, eat our
dinner at noon and think, talk
write and act along bubolic,
bourgeois lies, but it does make
us red behind the ears to be
patronized and we are not yet
ready to get down on our marrow
bones and apologize to metropolitans
for living.
The Journal editorial referred to
fairly reeked with patronization, load
ed to the guards with silent suggestion
that the country did not know what
was good for it when it came to
the matter of spending public funds
and that the cities should have their
say in the matter of appropriate
and their disposal because they pay
into the state treasury more funds.
than are returned back to them. 1t
vaingloriously asserted that, for in
stance, Minneapolis paid one seventh
of the High School fund and received
back a considerably less percentage
than that amount. There is no doubt
that these statements are true, and
why? Under our American system of
government it is supposed that the
property of the country pays the ex-
pense of government and not the cit
liens, and if Minneapolis pays one
seventh of the taxes, it is because
within her corporate limits she has
one-seventh of the wealth. AS mat
ter of cold fact, under fair valuation,
she has much more than that but much
of her wealth never appears on the
assessment rolls because it is invisible
wealth. Why and how did she become
such a possessor? Because the state
at large every day, and every hour of
the day is pouring a golden stream in
to her Golfers. 1t is true much of this
is returned to the country in various
forms but enough has been halted in
transit to make Minneapolis the mar
vel of modern American common
wealths. Minneapolis would eat her.
self up in thirty days if she had to de-
pend on herself for sustenance. Her
mighty mills would close if the golden
stream of country grain that flows
like river into. their hoppers were to
be damned up for a single day; her
splendid street car system would go
into bankruptcy if it had to depend
entirely on city patronage; her great
department stores, the pride of the
entire northwest, would soon go out
of business if they had to depend on
local trade alone. The city pays more
into the high school fund than it gets
out of it? Do the residents of the
city remember that our State Univer-
sity is located there? The benefits
of this great institution radiate over
the entire state, but the Twin Cities
furnish nearly half of the students
and they receive practically all the fl
nancial benefits that accrue from sal
aries of the professors and the expen-
ses of the students. The University
is really great clearing house for
the high schools of the Twin Cities.
Take St. Paul, for instance, it has
the state capitol. This also belongs
to the state, but the Twin Cities reap
all the financial benefits of it's loca-
ton. The two cities reap a greater
money value from these two institu-
lions than all their taxes, state and
local. The country representatives
are mighty liberal in their appropria-
tions, yet like Oliver Twist, the Twins
are always asking for more.
In the matter of state patronage,
which surely belongs to the state.