The people's voice. [volume], November 25, 1960, Image 1

About The people's voice. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1939-1969

Image provided by: Montana Historical Society; Helena, MT

                
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MONTANA'S ONtV STATEWIDE INDEPENDENT NEWSPAPER
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1958 Sidney Hillman Award Winner
Vol. XXI—No. 51
HELENA, MONTANA, NOVEMBER 25, l r
$3.00 Per Year
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Social Legislation's lr portance
Stressed At Annual istitute
By GRETCHEN G. BILLINGS
The 17th annual Farmer-Labor Institute in Missoula November 18, 19 and 20 stressed so
cial and economic problems of the labor and farm community and pointed up the homogenity
of people and their responsibility and dependency on each other. The need for understanding
and compassion among peoples carried through all of the presentations, and the responsibility
of liberalism to promote a new public philosophy was called for by all of the speakers.
Belly level" economics was de-*
plored as leading to irresponsible
solutions to our problems. The bul
wark to orderly social reform, being
an educated citizenry, the group
spent considerable time in discussing
the ways and means of getting a
broader education on their aims and
goals to the people.
Chairman of the Institute was
James Umber, president of the Mon
tana State AFL-CIO. Leonard Ken
field, president of the Montana Farm
ers Union, is secretary. Members of
the Institute executive committee are
Albert Root, AFL-CIO; Mary Mc
Nelis, Montana Federation of Teach
ers, and Ralph Cook, Montana Farm
ers Union.
. .
*
U
Vertical Integration
Hit By Farm Editor
Speaking on "Your'Stake In A
Sound Farm Program" George Bickel,
Denver, editor of the Rocky Moun
tain Union Farmer, said the people
must wake up to the fact that Amer
ica is being taken over by "giantism
as a result of the concentration of
economic power that has taken place
under the Eisenhower Administra
tion. This is proceeding "at a very
great accelerated rate" in the favor
able climate of the past eight years
in Washington.
The attitude of the administra
it
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At Highway Commission Meeting . .
Sanders County Group Urges
Action On Clark Fork Bridge
The lagging behind of contract
awards by the Highway Commission
in comparison to the money available
continues. With the fiscal year al
most half gone, less than $10,000,000
has been let of the $72,000,000 avail
able for the period.
At the letting Tuesday the com
mission awarded contracts for sec
ondary roads totaling $1,556,109.
A delegation from Sanders county
presented themselves to hear the de
cision of the Forest Service and Bu
reau of Public Roads concerning the
Paradise bridge over the Clark Fork
on the St. Regis cutoff. A county
ferry now serves the area and causes
a long haul to market the timber re
sources in the area. Jess Lee, Heron;
H. E. Smith and L, O. Thomas, Hot
Springs; Don Saint and Senator Eu
gene H. Mahoney, | Thompson Falls,
and Edwin L. Diehl, Stanton Diehl,
Alvin Amundson and B. B. Owens of
Plains made up the delegation.
They explained to Forest Service
representatives Orvil Anderson of
Missoula and Bureau of Public Roads
spokesman N. B. Wood of Portland,
Oregon, that the bridge should now
be constructed because the Corps of
Engineers 308 report to Congress
favors the Knowles site for the dam
instead of Paradise, The latter would
inundate the proposed bridge site.
The $500,000 bridge was okayed by
the commission, but the Forest Serv
ice's Washington office will be in
constant contact with Congress since
the Army's estimate of cost of the
Paradise dam may be "watered" by
100 million dollars.
*
Other Forest roads to win approval
.
tion, promoting the theory that cor
porate giantism is good for Amer
ica has contributed to breakdown
and abuses in this country, he said.
Bickel contended there has been a
breakdown in regulatory agencies,
and one of the very sad parts of the
record of the last eight years, in
terms of agriculture, is that the power
to determine the survival of small
business and the family farmer has
been vested in the hands of big busi
ness. "They have held back improve
ment of resources and kept us from
actually moving ahead", he said.
Vertical integration, which means
control over two or more of the steps
of producing, processing and market
ing of agricultural products results
in higher food costs to the consumer,
he said. "Packaging makes food at
tractive, but it is actually a form of
blackmail. Every time food is put in
a package it is wrapped for one rea
son—it is the cheapest way of mer
chandising—it forces, you to buy
more than you want, for instance you
can't buy one-half dozen of an item,
you must buy 12 in a package", he
said.
HITS TRADING
STAMP RACKET
Bickel pointed out that trading
stamps have added 4% to the cost
of food by injecting another middle
man between the merchant and the
were the Lolo pass project on Lewis
and Clark Highway. Half a million
dollars were set aside for widening
the pass four feet and blacktopping
the 32 miles from Lolo Hot Springs
through the pass.
The 27 miles from Niehart over
Kings Hill will be paved for $650,000,
and 5.7 miles of the Yellowstone
Canyon road will cost $1,100,000.
The spectacular scenic route from
Cooke City to Red Lodge which tour
ists use about four months of the
year will be refurbished for 15.4
miles at a cost of $500,000. The con
troversy between Wyoming and Mon
tana continues with Wyoming con
tinuing to refuse to maintain any
part of this road because they do not
want any of the Yellowstone Park
tourist trade to be drained into Mon
tana by this road. Montana agreed
to maintain the parts in Montana.
The park service will have to find
ways to keep the road open over
Wyoming territories.
Engineers represented by the State
County and Municipal Employees
Union received a surprise in the ne
gotiations with the Highway Commis
sion when Chairman Harry Burns
said he was shocked at the low wages
being paid and was in accord that
a percentage increase would work
a hardship on the lower paid group
of employees. The reverse position
was taken by Commissioner Stan
Halvorson. He thought that if the
low-paid employe is any good he
would soon be in a higher paid brack
et. The Engineers are using a 30
dollar-a-month increase as a talking
point in the negotiations.
FS
. ... . ———
customer, without the customer hav
ing any choice. "It is a 4% tribute
to another concern", he said.
Another added cost to the food
(Continued On Page Five)
ganization since it was founded 25
years ago in 1935. Pospisil has served
as secretary of the board during the
past year, —
The afternoon portion of the meet
ing was highlighted by the presenta
tion of $12,460 in dividend checks to
the 944 policyholders in the co-opera
tive. In making the presentation of
the checks, officials pointed out to
the group that the past ten years the
company has made cash retirements
to the stockholders in excess of $100,
Lewistown FU
Oil Observes
25th Birthday
Over 250 stockholders of the Lewis
town Farmers Union Oil co-operative
met Saturday at the Eagles Hall for
their 25th annual meeting.
Honored at the meeting was A1
Pospisil of Moore, who has served
on the board of directors of the or
000 .
Hugo Christiansen, Billings, west
ern area field manager, and Eddie
Felton, Central Exchange oil repre
sentative of Great Falls, were also
present at the meeting. Christiansen
reviewed the audit report of the local
co-op and Felton presented a demon
stration of the modem day miracles
made from petro-chemicals.
Also present at the meeting was
Edwin Johnson, first secretary of the
board of directors. Johnson appeared
before the group and gave a short
history of* the co-op and its progress
during the last 25 years.—LEWIS
TOWN DAILY NEWS.
At MSC, December 5-6 . . .
Lively Discussions Anticipated
At State Financing Symposium
From objections already raised against Montana State Col- #
lege's "vital issues" program by the Montana Taxpayers Asso
ciation, it is anticipated that MSC's second biennial financing
state services symposium will be an extremely interesting af
fair. The symposium will be held December 5 and 6 in the
Student Union Budding auditorium in Bozeman.
Earlier this fall, MSC and the
tension service sponsored a six-week
statewide program which had as its
aim the bringing together of people
to discuss various issues of import
ance to Montanans, particularly in
the field of state-provided services.
The program has been roundly criti
sized by the taxpayers' group which
contends that a. "careful reading" of
material put oiit by the college-exten
sion service to develop popular dis
cussion "will reveal that throughout
is cleverly woven thread calling for
additional public tax-supported meas
ures, additional government activity
and participation and the need for
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Gifted Speaker Tells Institate . .
More Emphasis Needed
On Public Investment
\
There will come a time when people can not stop doing
what they can do as long as there is a human need for it," Tod
Silvey of the research department of the AFL-CIO, Washing
ton, D. C., told the 17th Farmer-Labor Institute at its annual
banquet at the Palace Hotel in Missoula last Saturday evening.
i V
The gifted speaker held the un-#
divided attention of his audience for
an hour during his thought-provoking
presentation on the new concepts of
society we must consider in a world
advanced by science and technology.
He said Americans have reached a
high degree of control over their
environment in the struggle to over
come the things a beautiful but cruel
nature can do to people. He dis
cussed the changes that have taken
place as a result of technological and
mechanical advances of society, point
ing out that wealth-creating functions
have been overshadowed by the
wealth-consuming functions in our
society, and the imbalance must be
corrected by stimulating the wealth
producing activities.
MUST CHANGE CONCEPT
OF WORK
Silvey said we have to change our
concepts such as the ancient attitude
of working harder, because today the
harder you work the less work there
is to do.
Silvey said that society runs into
trouble when the dominant respect
is for only things that make a profit
and scorn for those that do not make
a profit.
The wealth-creating things we
need, he said, are education, health
and medical care, slum clearance,
public housing and resource preser
vation and development, which can
only come through taxes.
Private enterprise fights these
things because of taxes, but a tax
reduction by itself never produced
additional private investment, he
Institute Told State's Tax
Foundation 'Basically Right'
Opposing lines of thought on taxa
tion were clearly evident at the
Farmer-Labor Institute when the
topic "Challenges in Public Financing
in Montana'' was under discussion.
One panel participant contended that
Montana's tax foundation is "basic
ally right", while another insisted
that a general sales tax, while "re
gressive", merits consideration.
Members of this panel were P. J.
Gilfeather, Great Falls attorney; Eu
gene Tidball, Helena, executive di
rector of the Montana Legislative
Council, and John Cavan, Jr., Bil
lings attorney. Gilfeather and Cavan
were both members of the last Legis
lature and the Legislative Council.
Gilfeather is a Democrat and Cavan
a Republican.
Tidball served as moderator.
Both Gilfeather and Cavan agreed
on points such as the geographic and
population complications that con
tribute to certain tax problems in the
exf#
expansion and improvement of pub
lic services.
The taxpayers group, ever con
scious of its responsibility to its busi
ness and corporate membership to
seek curbs and cutbacks in public
services, also questions the right of
the sponsors to engage in such dis
cussion-provoking devices, as the
"vital issues" program.
There are many thousands of other
Montanans who believe there is a
need for greater "government . . .
participation" in providing better
schools, more adequate custodial in
-
said. The only time additional private
investment is ever made is when the
market potential is great or the spec
(Continued On Page Four)
Kentucky Citizens Vote
To Purchase Power Plants
From Utility Company
PADUCAH, Ky. — (NRECA) —,
Citizens of this western Kentucky
city voted overwhelmingly here No
vember 8 to purchase the Kentucky
Utilities power plant and operate it
as a municipal enterprise.
The vote was 8,9*64 to 2,807 for
municipal purchase of the KU prop
erty. The city will immediately start
purchasing power from the Tennessee
Valley Authority.
At nearby Glasgow, voters ap
proved a similar purchase from Ken
tucky Utilities by a 1,890 to 1,812
margin. The proposal had lost in an
election two years ago, Glasgow will
also purchase its power from TVA.
In Paducah, it is estimated that
electric bills will be cut in half
immediately as a result of the
voters' decision. Eventually, it is
believed the municipal operation
will enable a savings of more than
two thirds on the rates previously
paid Kentucky Utilities.
At the same time, the utility, under <*
operation by the Electric Plant Board,
will pay an estimated $35,000 more
in city and school taxes than were
paid by KU.
state, but there was a sharp differ
ence in how each one would handle it.
Gilfeather saw no need for a sales
tax if the basic tax structure is
properly administered and some of
the loopholes taken care of. He
said Montana people could afford
to pay more income tax.
Pat said if we want to live in Mon
tana we have to face up to our prob
lems and furnish more services and
pay more taxes.
STATE HAS A "PROPER
TAX FOUNDATION
He said, "I believe we have the
proper tax foundation and our taxes
are basically right. We pay property
taxes on what we own and incomes
taxes on what we make; if we do
not own anything or earn anything
we do not have to pay". He opposed
a sales tax and discounted any claim
that it would encourage new business
(Continued On Page Eight)
11
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stitution care, improved health stand
ards, etc. They welcome all possible
discussion of the issues of the day.
Representatives of both groups
will be in Bozeman for the two
day confab, and the backers of the
status quo versus the forces for
Montana progress should have a
field day outlining their respective
philosophies on the role which each
believe government should play In
an increasingly complex society.
RENNE TO OPEN CONFERENCE
MSC President R. R. Renne will ~
open the two-day symposium with a
general outline on the "plan and pur
pose of the conference". His short
talk will get underway at 9 o'clock
the morning of Monday, December 6.
Dr. Renne will be followed at 9:10'
by a 50-minute address on the role
(Continued On Page Five)
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