The Montana nonpartisan. [volume], March 15, 1919, Image 1

About The Montana nonpartisan. [volume] (Great Falls, Mont.) 1918-192?

Image provided by: Montana Historical Society; Helena, MT

                
Official Publicajtion oi the National Nonpartisan League in the State of Montana
THE MONTANA NONPARTISAN
VOLUME 3 GREAT FALLS, MONTANA, SATURDAY, MARCH 15, 1919 NUMBER 10
N. West Millers Control State
____ (Set People's Will at Naught
... . .. -. ., . ... . .. . . . . .
HIGH COST OF LIVING PRObL
PLOT TO ELIMINATE SMALL Ib,..
LOWER PRICE GRAIN AND LABOR
Booth's Bill Mere Blind
The high cost of living probe
has petered out. It was in fact 1
what we charged it with being,
nothing but an attempt on the
part of the Copper Crowd to ac- l
complish several rather unpleas- 1
ant things. Senator Booth's bill
would show this to any one who
cared to investigate for it was
drawn and designed to afflict the
small man with the continual lia
bility of going out of business or
breaking the law.
The Investigation Committee
The investigation committee
went up and down the state gath
ering the evidence, and a good
deal of valuable matter they got 1
together, most of which will be I
smothered, it seems, but still
enough survives to show that the
profiteers were gouging the pub
lic to the limit. This part of the
work was good, but the real de
'sign was quite different than what
appears on the surface.
The Price of Wheat;
It is well known that the sale
price of goods rests at bottom
upon the cost of production and it
was known to the investigators
or at least to the instigators, that
this also applies to labor. The
farmers were demanding that the
government fixed price upon
wheat should remain until after
next harvest, and this did not
meet with the approval of the
millers, just as the present price
of wages galls the big employers
throughout the state. Now it was
planned that if a few reductions
in various articles such as gaso
line, which is extensively used by
farmers could be accomplished, an
excuse would be manufactured to
make an attack upon the price of
wheat, and a demand would be
started that it come down, be
cause the price of raw materials
in the production of grain were
reduced.
Then as to Labor.
Labor, of course, would meet
the same fate. Reduce the price
of butter even, or let the hens re
spond to their age-old habit of
laying plenty when it does not
cost much to feed them, and the
employers are out with the cry
that the cost of living is going
down, therefore so must wages.
Senator Booth's bill was design
ed to that end, an& many people
fell for it, some going so far as
to wire the senator their congrat
ulations. His friends were not so
jubilent, hords of petty merchants
Business men of Great Falls and
vicinity have been greatly stirred
over the action of their represen
tatives at Helena in voting against
the mill-elevator. This construc
tion work would have meant
nearly a million dollars spent in
wages and construction and at
this time when business is slack
would have been a god-send to
them.
This should wake them up to
the rea lmeaning of the various or
ganizations to which they sub
scribed so generously and let us
hope that that will learn a les
son bought is such a costly man
ner. It is said that they subscrib
ed $20,000 to the campaign funds
of the Loyalty League and cer
tainly they fought most bitterly
to defeat the Nonpartisan League
nominees at the last election,
who's election would have meant
so much to the industry of Great
Falls.
descended upon Helena and we
had the misfortune to hear one of
them declare in a heated manner,
so that most of the people in the
lobby could understand that "he
hoped Booth would choke with his
bill."
Small Business.
It was a sad day for the small
merchant who had spent his mon
ey to defeat the Nonpartisan lea
gue, because he feared that it
would take his business away
from him, when he realized that
this was just the design hidden
behind the Booth bill, so far as
he was concerned. He could
stand the reduction on the price
of wheat, or did he mind the beat
down of wages, he rather liked
both, but when it came to putting
him out of business, his cup of
misery was full.
Hard on the Business Man.
This was gust what would have
happened. Those who instigated
the move were thinking of Big
Biz and they knew that great in
stitutions could do business on a
comparatively small margin of
profit, where the small man could
not. The fine for breaking the
law was $300 or a month's suspen
sion from business. How many
times the small man, compelled to
sell at a higher rate than Big Biz,
could stand such a course of treat
ment only he knows. But then he
works hard against the League so
must expect such treatment from
those whose pawn he is.
_AA_ -
Healthy Sort Anywhere
Healthy Sport Anywhere
Home Protective Association
Latest Device to Fight League
Look out for him. He wears a beaver hat and a fur-lined coat.
He is a tall man with a good presence. He goes about selling admis
sion to the "Home Protective Association," which is another name
for the Montana Loyalty League, the National Security League, and
other organizations of a like stripe. i
He charges 15 dollars admission; and you get several acres of lit
erature mostly devoted to romantic and untruthful accounts of Rus
sia. He visits merchants in the small towns and tells them a tale of
terror about the Nonpartisan League and what it did in North Da
kota.
S
t
r
-.......Some merchants have donated their 15 dollars to this person's or- a
ganisation, and if they get no more out of it than the deal handed the t
merchants of Great Falls and the state by way of the elevator and
mill bills and the Hight Cost of Living Bill, we wish they joy of it.
It must be a great life to be forever digging up to some bunch a
who peddle bugaboos to extract coin from credulous persons.
i 1
Of course the organisation'"protects no homes," save perhaps
those of its manipulators. - But~ t does that matter? Its against
I the Nonpartisan League, so pay lp gentlemen, for the A. C. M. is out
to destroy the Nonpartisans and you must foot the bill. The A. C.. .I
will not succeed, the Home Protective Association will land where 1
other affairs of that stripe have finished ,and progress will go on.
Look out for a gentleman in a beaver hat and fur-lined coat. He
is hooking suckers.
ELEVATOR DEAL STARTS ROW
MILLING TRUST GAINS CONTROL
PRACTICALLY KILL BOTH BILLS
Nearly $1,000,000 Lost in Great Fails
The closing hours of the Leg
islature left the Mill Bill in doubt
but rumor has it that the govern
or has it before him, for signature
and is being deluged with tele
grams asking that he do not sign
it.
The whole Milling Trust is
working on the job and the small
merchants and business men who
so confidingly contributed to the
expenses of fighting the Nonpar
tisan League are beginning to
realise that they have been used
as mere pawns in a game of which
they are not the benefactors.
The Mill bill, it will be remem
bered, was introduced by the Lea
gue in order to make the State
Elevator a paying proposition and
to avoid having the elevator
stand as a monument to the "in
i efficiency" of management by the
state. Needless to say the Mill
ing interests who are forever
fighting any move which will
benefit the people exerted every
pressure possible to kill both
propositions. Their agents camp
It ed at Helena and eracked- the
it whip over the heads of the dele
L gation from Great Falls, and al
e though the building of such a pro
position as a mill-elevator would
have in itself meant a great in
crease in the business of the city,
as well as the circulation of much
cash incidental to the construc
* tion, totalling in all nearly a mil
lion dollars, they voted against it
almost to a man.
The elevator bill was in the na
ture of a referendum calling for
the sale of $250,000 dollars worth
of bonds, which have already
been floated and it was therefore
almost impossible for the politici
ans to refuse point blank to pro
ceed with the business of mak
ing arrangements for the erec
tion, but after a bitter struggle
a joker was inserted in the bill,
by the creation of a board of man
agers who shall proceed with the
project in 60 days IF they have
evolved a workable plan for the
successful operation of the eleva
tor. The managers are to receive
a salary of $10 per day until they
have worked the thing out. By
this plan the erection of the eleva
tor may be postponed forever if
the powers that be are prepared
to go so far. The storm already
stirred up may however, compel
them to find a "workable plan."
The Mill Deal.
This they have tried to guard
against by arranging the man
agement of the mill-should they
decide to build it-on a political
basis and as a separat -affair
- from the elevator which is to be
conducted by farmers and the
bonds floated upon the agricul
I tural lands of the state while the
mill is to be managed by political
pull and is to be directly classi
fied as taxable property of the
- state.
The League is alive to this how
ever, and will not lay down until
the complete mill-elevator is
erected at Great Falls and wher
ever else such an institution is
needed in the state. The milling
trust has shown great power, but
the farmers and wage workers
have a greater, and it is being or
ganized rapidly for the conquests
of the houses of legislature in
1920.
McKAY OUSTER
FALLS DOWN
Amongst the futile and child
ish things done at a session
where such activities were the
normal order of the day, perhaps
the persecution of Senator Mc
Kay stands out in bold promi
nonce.
McKay earned the hatred of
the gang by his unflinching at
tacks upon the exploiters and
they banded themselves together
to vote against everything he in
troduced; good, bad and indiffer
ent, on general principals. The
senator out-generaled them sever
al times, in one case calling upon
them to appoint a committee to
have a United States flag hung
in the senate chamber as at the
time there was not one there.
They did not vote against his
proposal that time.
The worst deal they tried to
hand him however, was calling
for an investigation into this war
record, so that they might find
something upon which to pin an
excuse for his expulsion from
the senate. The investigation
committee found what everybody
knew already, that the charges
brought against the senator were
unfounded, as all such political
"Disloyal" allegations are. The
instigators of the charge, accom
plished nothing beyond raising
McKay in the estimation of the
public and lowering themselves.