The weekly miner. [volume] (Butte, Mont.) 1878-1881, 1879-10-28
THE GREAT WANT OF MONTANA.

In our issue of yesterday we called atten-
ton to some of the advantages that would re-
suit if this Territory was clothed with the
right of local government, OF, in other words.
if she was admitted into the Union Oh an
equal footing with the States composing the
Union. The more the subject is considered,
the more various and cogent the reasons ap-
pear why this justice should be done us as a
prople. We have been now in swaddling
clothes for nearly sixteen years. During this
long pupilage we have been loyal, submissive
and entirely obedient to the Government and
such agents as it has set over us, without our
having any voice in their selection, or any
power to gain their removal, when, from any
cause, they became Objectionable. And Mon
tana% certainly has had her share of objection
able Federal Office holders. Our object is not
to assail these, and the fault has perhaps been
rather that of the system than of the men
appointed under it. The whole system is, in
short, a travesty on free institutions. Men
are appointed as Governors and Judges over
a people without being familiar with their
laws, their habits, their needs or aspirations,
without, in short, that community of feeling
which should always exist between a people,
and those who expound or administer their
laws. 1t is not surprising in such a case that
there should be mistakes OH our side and dis
satisfaction on the other. The surprise rather
is that such a system could exist so long
without more serious ills than have actually
resulted. But the ills are great enough to
make every one who really has the future
welfare of the country in view desire a change.
Montana is just entering on a period of re-
newed prosperity heretofore she has been in
a great degree isolated from the States of the
East as well as the West access to her has
been tedious and expensive, nj her magni6-
cent resources have for this reason lain dor
nan and unappreciated. Now railroads are
approaching her from the east and the south,
and it will be only a short time until her
mountains will echo the scream of the loco
motive as it wends its way through her luxu-
RANT valleys.
With the coming of the locomotive will
come a new era. Population will be attracted
hither as never before. Men of capital, men
of enterprise, will first see, and then appreci-
ate our resources. Investments will follow.
Our mineral resources, as yet scarcely known,
will then undergo development. Thousands
will find remunerative employment where
silence now reigns supreme. The develop
ment of our mines will stimulate all other
industries. The farmer will realize better
prices and find reader market for his produce,
our magnificent pastures will all be utilized
and made to render increased wealth by the
increased number of their herds-and so on
through all our yet undeveloped resources.
This is not g. fancy picture however ~extrava-
CANT it may appear. When these changes
take place it will create the necessity of new
legislation to meet the new conditions which
will exist. And then it will be most desirable
that in all branches of our local government
we should have men who have sprung directly
from the. body of the people and who are
Unidentified with them in every respect-men
who feel a direct responsibility to the people
and who know that the vigilant eyes and
jealous watchfulness which surrounds them
will surely overtake and punish any delin-
quency or malversation in office. Now this
sense OF accountability can never exist when
the office holder is entirely Independent of
the people, as in the case Of federal appoin-
tees in the Territories. Such office holders.
instead of a sense Of responsibility, often an
tagonize the people, resembling more the
agent of a foreign, than the representative of
a home government. This is at least some
times the case, and a system must be judged
by what is permitted under it.
In addition to all the advantages which
would result from a local government of our
choice, the people of our Territory feel as &C
tive a devotion to the Union as if they were
admitted TO all the rights which belong to a
State. Why then should they be deprived
longer from a participation in what affects
them as deeply as it does any of the older
political communities into which our Union
is divided? A vast majority of our people
are not only willing, but ANXIOUS to assume
the full powers of a State government. And
this desire of itself is one of the strongest
reasons that can be urged why the right
should be accorded them. 1t dulls the spirit
of patriotism to stand in the relation of a
province when a people are anxious to assume
a nearer and closer relation to the government
under which they live. And it certainly is
contrary to the genius of our institutions to
hold a community in a species of guardian
ship when they are fitted to assume and fulfill
all the duties of a State government.