Daily inter mountain. [volume] (Butte, Mont.) 1881-1901, 1900-09-26
THE PEOPLE WILL DECIDE.

If Joseph Il. Toole expects to be elected
governor by going about the state telling
the people that some mining company is
depressing them and should be driven
out of business, he is going to have a
harder campaign than a man in his deli
cate health ought to undertake.
The people of Montana remember all
the details of the republican state con-
vention. They rave known David e.
Folsom of Meagher county for thirty
years and some of the other men. on the
ticket long enough to be well acquainted
with them.
If. therefore. Joseph X. Toole shall tell
the electors of this state that the repuo-
fican convention did the bidding of some
mining mpan and that it's nominees
are not perfectly independent men be-
yond suspicion of corporate dictation
under any circumstances, Their Mr..
Toole is going to be laughed off the
stump.
1t is no proof that a charge is true
because it is constantly repeated. We
have many times denounced as a base
and wicked lie the story hat the repub-
lican party or it's candidates for office
are in any way identified with one min
ing company more than another, or will
not if elected treat every company, every
interest and every section of the state
with absolute fairness and impartiality.
We have challenged proof to the con-
trary, but no proof has been forthcom-
ing. We have even ventured to suggest
that one company is as good as another
and that those who are shrieking about
attempted corporate dictation are prob
ably open to precisely the same charge
themselves, and that as a matter of fact
the republican party intends to play no
favorites, to treat them all as important,
beneficial. praiseworthy, industrial en-
terprises, giving them the equal benefit
and protection of the laws honestly and
impartially administered. That is the
position of the republican party, and if
Mr.. Joseph X. Toole shall tell the people
that mining companies are public enc
mics, either able or willing to control re-
publican politics, the people are very
likely to tell Mr.. Joseph K. Toole to go
and take the rest cure.
The republican party is neither the
champion nor defender nor the instru-
ment of any company as against any
other but it recognizes that the mining
companies altogether produce about $780,
000,0 0 a year, most of which remains
with the people, and that the particular
mining company which Mr.. Toole pro-
poses to drive GU of business is pro-
ducing a very large share of it, and is
the direct cause of much of the states
prosperity. 1T is working some of the
coal mines of Carbon, Sweet Grass and
Cascade counties, the saWunills Of Mis-
soula and Ravalli, a score of the mines
of Silver Bow, and the biggest smelter
in the world in Deer Lodge county.
Nearly 80 per cent Of it's output per an
mum is distributed among the labor and
business interests of the state; it pays
many hundreds of thousands of dollars
a year in taxes, and, like the other min
ing concerns, is conducted as a legiti-
mate enterprise.
If Mr.. Toole desires to single that COM
pany out for attack in the belief that
the people will elect him governor under
a promise to close it down or run it
out Of. the state or prevent other con-
Germs like it from investing in Montana,
let him so ahead and then watch the
election returns.
The people of Montana are not stark
mac They are not anarchists. They
are not opposed to the development of
the states resources. The republican
party is not a corporation party, but it
will protect corporations if legitimately