Daily inter mountain. [volume] (Butte, Mont.) 1881-1901, 1899-09-01

ing tobacco growers these tremendous
advantages over those of Cuba. Luzon |
rice Will displace China rice. Many other
articles for which we are now indebted
to foreign countries we shall be able to
produce in GU own Philippines. and if
American capital does not control the
trade it will be because the American
citizen has lost his cunning. These facts
are so patent that bright and active
young men are daily leaving this port
for Manila. A couple of them who left
yesterday are ex-State Senators Thorn
ton and Mats. These two excellent and
useful citizens of Montana lave been
studying the Philippine situation. They
have a liberal and intelligent conception
of American destiny. They have faith
in American enterprise and pluck. They
are going to help fight for an American
share of oriental trade and oppor-
tunity. They have voluntarily left
one of the most prosperous, attrac-
tive and cheerful cities in the Union in +,
order to seek fresh fields and pastures
new. and to dispute the sovereignty Of
Aguinaldo for the sake of a little excite
ment and a chance to earn some spending
money in advance of the cause of civiliz-
alton. They have been good citizens of
Montana, except politically, and now
that they have gone to a town where
their consciences will hav a chance to
sprout it is fair to assume that they will
reform and Join the republican party.
One thing is sure-they are wide-open,
enthusiastic, patriotic, ~riproaring expan-
sionists, which fact shows that the week
ly Anaconda Recorder has not been pub
lished in vain for the past five years.
MONTANA POLITICAL HISTORY.
Messrs. Thornton and Mats nave fig
ured prominently in the political history
nf Montana Tho OrV,on yUnC q t,onr,1nYs I
of the state senate when the a legisla-
ture was in session, and when in order to
prevent ar organization the entire demo- |
cratic membership fled the country in
mid-winter. They crossed the British
line, it was reported, in the disguise of
Indians. Later it was supposed they es-
capped into northern California with no.
thing but a demijohn of bourbon in the
commissary, concealing themselves in
the lava beds. where the Modocs fought
their famous war with Scarfaced Charlie,
Captain Jack and Young-Man-No t
Afraid-to- Ta~ke-a-Drink. Senator Hen
messy represented Silver Bow county OF
that junket, and on his return told his
friends he had been to New York buying
goods. However, he sent a. good deal of
calico to the Modoc reservation after
that. AS a reward for loyalty to demo-
cratic principle and for herding the SEN
atorial back to the United
States, instead Of allowing them to settle
in Canada, Mr.. Thornton was appointed
mayor of Anaconda and made the best
official the city ever had. AS cashier of
the Anaconda bank he enjoyed the entire
confidence and respect of the peOple and
his departure doubtless was the occasion
of genuine regret from the highest to the
humblest citizen. He is related to one of
the finest families in California, and is
a nephew of Rear Admiral Watson, who
Sl1rnap6n6 DaNav at Manila He ic tha
worthy son of a worthy sire. OF Senator
Mats little is known except that he is
generally misunderstood. Notwithstand-
ing a general opinion to the contrary he
is a remarkably quiet and modest man..
He was believed to be an ofTice-seeker,
yet the truth is that he never wanted
but one office in his life, and he was de-
feated for that-it was a county office.
A fine public speaker is Mats, yet he has
made fewer speeches than any prominent
democrat in the state. Reported to ave
left Montana after a visit to Washington,
and an act of which his friends knew him
to be incapable. the truth is that he was
not in Washington at all, n could not
have committed the act. This upon the
testimony of others as we'll as himself.
Mr.. Mats was talked of for the federal
senate last winter, but Mr.. Conrad of
Great Falls, a gold standard man, proved
to be the Anaconda Standard man and
might nave DeeIl lie pSS!!AdIu vi HAL
according to the backing he had. Mats
most conspicuous act in Montana was his
speech in the legislature at Helena, which
| caused it to adjourn sine die without
electing a senator, thus probably defeat
ing a gentleman who, not satisfied with
the prominence he enjoyed as owner of
the Butte Miner, wanted to go to Wash
! ington and help make avs for the whole
United States, n deliver speeches in
| favor of making Richard Golden (de-
ceased) the patron saint of the American
| people. It was Mats who stopped the
! play. The friends of Mr.. Clark wished
| Mats was in Hades at the time he made
that speech. Soon after that he sure
| enough voluntarily went to Anaconda to
| reap the reward of his perfidy and has
| been living chiefly on smelter smoke ever
| since. which shows that the whirligig of
Mats, however, got even with Anaconda
by leaving his law library there, while
/ the Standard promptly retaliated by
printing a very eulogistic notice of him,
| which will everlastingly cook him every
| where except on the east coast of Luzon.
Thus is another chapter of Montana
| democratic history ~closed-the gentle
| men who nave h money remain: the
| gentlemen Who did the work, depart.
| The latter are going to get anothe start
in the world, and will probably remain
in Manila until some ~prOspectOr shall
strike copper I'M the archipelago. They
will, in that event, leave for Borneo.