The Ward County independent. [volume] (Minot, Ward County, N.D.) 1902-1965, 1918-01-17
COMMUNICATION.

Minot, n. d., Jan. 16, 1918
Editor Independent:
notice by the newspapers that the
board of county commissioners at
their January session named the Mes
senger and the Kcnmare News as Of
fetal papers for the coming year and
the delinquent tax list last fall was
published in the Kenmare News, pa
per with a very limited circulation.
The delinquent tax list and the county
commissioners proceedings are pub
lie property and should be published
in a newspaper with the widest circu-
lation, in order to give as many of the
people as possible chance to read it.
That is why we have the law to pub
lish those things. The county COM
missioners have taken an oath Of Of
flee to serve the people impartially,
which means that they should have
no favorites. The commissioners are
there to look after the affairs of the
people. The delinquent tax list and
the commissioners proceedings are of
vital interest to the people, hence these
matters should be given the widest
publicity possible. Can it be possible
that the county commissioners select
ed The Messenger and the Kenmare
News, two of the rankest opponents
to the farmers movement the nonpar-
tisan league, in order to stop the
farmers movement? I hope that is
not the case, but it looks suspicious.
Well, perhaps it does not matter
which with the board. It is certainly
not only bad business move, but al
so a rank injustice to the farmers to
select papers with the smallest cir
culation in which to publish the do
ings of the board The board of COM
missioners may be alright otherwise
for all l know, but in this matter they
must have been influenced and led
astray. If not, they have certainly
displayed very poor judgment.
J. E. Christensen,
R. R. No. 3, Minot.
EDITORS NOTE: The county
commissioners for years have allowed
each commissioner to name the offic-
ial paper in his district, as matter
of courtesy, but as there are five dis
tricts and only three papers to be Sc
lected each year, there are always two
districts without an official paper each
year. This year, it became the turn
Of Commissioners Hennessy, Vanden-
oever and Robe to select their pa
pers. As the county seat has had
paper each year, it falls to Mr.. Van
denoever to come in for a selection
each year. Mr.. Robe selected the
Kenmare News, Mr.. Hennessy the
Des Laos Observer and Mr.. Vanden-
oever the Messenger. The Indepen-
dent was the official paper for the past
year and the Daily News the year be-
fore and the Messenger had not been
made an official paper for five years.
There is disposition among the COM
missioners to pass the work around
in as fair a manner as possible and
the Independent is perfectly satisfied
to come in at it's turn. This paper
realizes that the publication Of the Of
fetal proceedings is of vital import
ance to it's readers and we will fol-
low our custom of former years and
publish the proceedings this year just
as tho this paper had been made one
of the official publications. We don't
believe that the commissioners con-
sidered politics at all when selecting
the official papers this year. The In
dependent believes that we have an
excellent board of county commission
ers who are trying to do the right
thing at every stage Of the game.