The Mellette County pioneer. [volume] (Wood, Mellette County, S.D.) 19??-1971, 1922-10-27
STUDY THE AMENDMENTS
AND REFERRED LAWS

Dakota will n0t only be called upon
to select congressional, state and ju-
dicial and county officers but they will
also be called upon to give their APP
proval or disapproval to four pro-
posed constitutional amendments and
five initiated and referred laws. The
approval or disapproval of some Of
these measures cannot help but af
feet the people Of the state quite ma
terially, and in order that the voters
may cast an intelligent vote on these
measures they should study the meas
urcs between now and election day
and let their own conscience be their
guide in arriving at a decision as to
how they should vote for the best
interests 2f the state.
We are this week publishing in full
these proposed amendments to our
constitution and also the referred
and initiated laws. Read them,
and then hunt up the sample ballots
that were mailed to You by the county
auditor and study the explanation OF
each of these measures as given by
the attorney general and the effect
their adoption or rejection will have,
and If all the voters will do this,
there is no question but what your
intelligence will tell you what will be
the best for the state in general.
Amendment A. the first to appear
on the amendment ballot, proposes to
give the legislature power to fix the
salaries of the various officers, where
these salaries at the present time are
fixed and limited by the constitution,
and they cannot be changed by the
legislature. Several attempts have
been made IN the past to boost the
pay of the legislators in this state
but the proposition has always been
defeated. In order to get around
this the last legislature voted itself
5000 expense money in addition to the
prescribed salary fixed by the consti-
tuition. We believe that the legisla-
ture is. entitled to more pay, as no
man can afford to attend the sessions
for the paltry sum now paid. Ii the
amendment carries it does not fix any
limit on the amount of salaries that
may be paid state officials and this
feature weakens the amendment. to
our mind, and the voters may defeat
it on that ground.
Amendment B. This amendment
proposes that it will be necessary to
secure the signatures OF at least tlf-
teen per cent of the voters OF the
state to any petition initiating or re-
ferring any law to be voted on by the
people of the stae. The present con-
stitutional provision requires only a
petition signed by five per cent OF the
voters Of the state to initiate or refer
a law. We believe that this constr
tutional amendment should be carried.
A vote "ycs' is in favor of the pro-
posed amendment.
Amendment G. The present con-
stitutional provision is that no new
counties may be organized in this
state with Tess than "a congressional
townships and prohibits the reducing
of anv organized county to less than
that number of townships by change
in boundary lines. There are great
number of west river counties in this
state that are entirely too large in
area and better development and bet
ter results might be obtained by elm
inatinc this iron clad constitutional
provision. A eyes" vote on Amend
ment c is in favor of its adoption.
Amendment D. Under the existing
constitution the levying of special tax
es against abutting or contiguous
property for local improvements are
reserved for corporate authorities OF
cities. towns and villages. The
amendment would extend this author
ity to state, county and other taxing
districts. There may be parts OF this
state where there is need cf such
authority but it does not affect us
here, and there is no real need OF
making such change that we can see.
We would advise studying this matter
closely before casting your vote to-
make the change.
The first initiated measure on the
ballot is No. L.. and it authorizes the
construction of state owned and op-
Grated hydro-electric plant at what Is
known as the Mobridge site on the
Missouri river in the northern part OF
the state, and for the erection OF
mower and transmission lines. We are
greatly in favor of developing our n.y.
dro-electric projects in this state at
+bo earliest possible moment, but at