The weekly tribune. [volume] (Great Falls, Mont.) 1891-1894, 1892-10-07
BUTTE'S MODESTy.

wants the capital bad and she ought tc
have it, provided the people desire that
location. Her clever advocates present
several reasons why the capital should
be situated on her mountain tops, and
among the leading ones is the moral
and spiritual excellence of the place.
This neat bit of Anglo-Saxon surely or.
iginated in the brain OF the Rev. John B,
Reed. editor of that pious republican
newspaper. the Butte Inter Mountain:
THE QUESTION.
1t may be urged that Butte is an i'm
moral place because the legislature in i s
wisdom, has not stopped gambling. But
what is true of Butte is true of every
other candidate in the Capital race.
Gambling tiourishes in all of them and it
will be stopped in all of them when the
the Legislature shall stop 1t. In other re-
spects Butte is conducted on as high a
moral plane as any other city of its size
in the United States, and higher than
some cities in Montana. That it has
vicious resorts is true. but no more in
proportion to its population than any
other town in the state. 1t Justly boasts
of more churches than any other COM
munity possesses, and a larger attend
ance at each of them. 1t boasts of thous-
ands of happy homes and noble wives
and mothers. 1t boasts of a social struc-
ture which is the intelligence, purity
and good deeds of its members is a credit
to modern Christianity, and a conspicu-
Gus object lesson to the rising genera
ton.
But as if these were not arguments
enough to induce the universal support
of the state. some other VAC or the same
one writes this on.
AND FLOWERS.
1t is urged against Butte in som
quarters that it should not be made the
capital because the grass crop in the
surrounding country is not good and be-
cause rose bushes do not adorn every
mans front yard; in other words that,
though Butte gives employment to
25,0OO men and supports 5000 women
and children. it must not aspire to be
the capital because it's people do not
busy themselves in raising tea roses.
anemones. morning glOries and daffo-
dis. and because the lands near the
smelter do not raise two tons of hay to
the acre. As the legislature only meets
IN mldWinter once every two years it is
rot apparent how the flowers would do
its members any good. because flowers
do not flourish in January even in Mon
ana. Nor has it ever before been sug-
gested that the average legislature is
made up Of donkeys that they should re-
quire hay as a brain food. The flower
and hay argument will not do. 1t is an
appeal to prejudice. However, now that
the smelter smoke has been disposed of
there is no doubt that flowers and grass
can be raised here as well as in any other
part of the state.
Never were grass and flowers more
uniquely disposed of. Never was argu-
ment more convincing. Butte may go
to the head of the class as enjoying the
best moral claims to support, but the
greater part of her citizens will probably
support Great Falls because it is not so
%puritanical, because it is on a lower
level in fact. and yet heightened enough
to keep out the Chinese. Butte can pre-
sent no argument to the workingmen of
Montana so potent as this, Rally, men
Of toll, to the support of the city that has
throttled your arch enemy, the heather
Chinese.