The Anaconda standard., 1895-02-04

yet developed men in authority who
show us that they know how to give
1t a feasible solution. In Montana we
surely ought TO raise what we eat.
We can furnish ourselves with meat
and -four to spare, we ought 10 get
beyond the canned-goods era in the
states history. We do gain little
every year in the consumption of
home flour and vegetables and fruits
and dairy products But in the face
Of the irrigation question, 1t is not
we'll to stimulate a migration of far
mers into Montana; the state must
first do something in regard to irriga-
ton.
Then there is the question of trans
portation. 1t is one of slow solution,
yet, year after year, there is little
gain-this year will witness a good
deal of important railroad work which
will be immensely helpful. Take ac-
count of last years magnificent har-
vest in Flathead county. There wasn't
a dollar in it; the market was too far
away. That obstacle will soon exist
no longer, as far as the Flathead is
concerned, and 50, one at time, the
sections of the state will be opened to
prosperous conditions, and we believe
that the people TO match these condl-
tions will come to us in a way that
will make prosperity permanent.
There is the empire in northwestern
Montana, traversed by the Great
Northern railroad Those who are
good authority, say that its agricul-
tural resources, which seem limltless,
can easily be made available regard
less even of irrigation. Time will un-
doubted find that vast region one
widespread, waving field of thrifty
harvests, and thousands and tens of
thousands of homes will prosper there.
But we doubt If it is wise to populate
the place ahead of time.
We are prepared to believe that the
STANDARD has many readers who will
not share what is said this morning
in comment on the bill introduced by
Senator Eygleston; ne vertheless, we
believe that for the state to spend
money to entice immI grafton is bad
business for those who are here and
worse, probably, for those we may try
to attract. Let us not coax farmers to
Montana to-day through appropria-
tions of public funds, only to have,
ten years from now, the melancholy
group of empty shacks and idle shops
which, in a great stretch of country
from Mandan to Medora, make North
Dakota a desolation. These are the
monuments of expedited population.
O,her features of the bill under re-
view provide for added expense and
enlarged duties for one of the commits
sions of the state. There is question
in the minds of many citizens whether
this comm ssion should be continued
However that may be, it seems to us
in any event not well that the func-
tion or the cost of the commission
should be increased at this time.
BY and by Montana will pass out of
its stationary period. The state, we
repeat, can honestly clam that, all in
all, it has held its own during the re-
cent years of trial That is a distinct
advantage; without exception, Mon
tana's sister states will have good
deal of lost ground to cover when the
next prosperous impulse comes Those
whom the state would prefer to at
tract are people intelligent enough to
find out that fact We shall get better
people If those come who are able to
select on their own account. And it
is best that they come in the fullness
of time We do not approve Senator
Eggleston's bill.