The Anaconda standard. [volume] (Anaconda, Mont.) 1889-1970, 1899-04-14
FRIDAY, APRIL "A, 1899.
TWELVE PAGES.


i IT'S a pleasure to announce this
morning that the silence in the
shafts of the Boston and Montana
mines in Butte has been broken and
that the cloud which hung for a weary
hour over Great Falls has been lifted.
Before daybreak this morning business
had resumed its accustomed routine at
the companys Butte properties and the
plant at Great Falls was made ready
to run.
That happens because, by order of
the supreme court, these properties
have been restored to the people to
whom they belong. You can prove by
mathematics or by any other exact
science that the tail can't wag the
dog-not forSlong. Nor could the tail
enders in the recent row run the Bos-
ton and Montana's affairs under a
Clancy recevership-it wouldn't work
Those who objected to this receivership
own 900 of the 100000 shares
of Boston and Montana stock, repre-
senting property worth $4,000, 000 a
solvent concern paying good dividends,
with round million in cash in it's
treasury. These are not financial con-
ditions that make a receivership nor
NAL or that warrant any local court
in taking upon itself the control and
management of a property.
More than once the Standards sug-
gestion has been that the public await
in patience the time when this conten-
ton over the Boston and Montana
properties should reach the supreme
court of Montana on it's merits. That
invocation to patience was the more
, timely because the mass and maze of
court proceedings, the suspension of
work, the tangle in litigation the
threats Of violence over possession
all these things naturally quickened a
feeling of anxiety and led large pub
lic to wonder what was going to hap
pen next.
The counsel thus given by the Stand
ard, at one time or another was, of
course, predicated on the proposition
that in all this wrangling the case was
not before the court Of final appeal on
its merits. And that remark compels
the Standard to add that, as it seems
to us, the Boston and Montana peo-
pile really "got off on the wrong foot
An a good deal of the recent litigation
that has helped to make the situation
distressing. This is, of course, merely
a lay view of the stuation-the Stand
ard is no lawyer. But it is a view
which, at any rate, can take its appeal
I to the practical sense of an intelligent
public. Thus, as it seems to this news
paper, all that recently has happened
is not in eXempification of the laws
proverbial delays; rather, it is in at
restation, as we believe, of the wisdom,
the good discretion, the fidelity to duty
and the intelligence of Montana's SUI
preme bench.
When these Boston and Montana GEN
tlemen got on their feet and headed
the right way they came up with a
case on its merits The first appear
ance of their side of the controversy
in that shape, in the supreme court
was in the motion upon which the SUI
preme court passed yesterday. In a
statement which presents the whole
subject admirably, the court announces
as its opinion that there is no sufIi-
cient reason why the property of the
Boston and Montana company should
he kept out of the hands of its owners
and that the case as presented fur
nishes strong prima facie showing for
suspending the authority of the re-
eeiver. This action is preliminary The
stay runs until the supreme court fin
ally passes on the appeal for the per-
ananent removal of the receiver. 1T
may be- the court says, that upon
final hearing the decision will be
against this prima facie showing"-if
it is, no possible harm can come to
those whom the decision rendered yes
terday removes from the present con-
troll. at least, of the properties.
The sum and substance of it all is
sbat this whole matter is finally be-