The Billings gazette. [volume] (Billings, Mont.) 1896-1919, 1904-03-11

papers Of the state concluded that the
best way to serve their masters was to
attempt to curtail the influence of the
country press they little thought that
possibly they might be injuring the
very interests with which they are
so closely welded by boldly attacking
the only portion Of the list Of Mon
tana newspapers not conducted with
a string attachment.
There are from 80 to 40 newspapers
published in the state that are not
going to have their opinions nodded
by the millionaire owners of a half
dozen newspapers published at Butte,
Helena and Great Falls. And IL the
newspapers published in the towns
named think that they a accomplish
the object sought at the polls next
November by undertaking so daring a
project as that of suppressing the
Independent and untrammeled press
of the state, they will find in due time
that they have misjudged their iniu-
ence with the masses of the voters OF
Montana. The people of this state are
becoming fairly well informed on mat
tiers political, and in the districts
which no a or corporation can con-
troll the country press will aim to sup
ply any information which may be
lacking touching political conditions
in Montana.
The Butte Miner, a newspaper own
ed by Senator Clark for the purpose
of exploiting that gentleman's politi-
cal and other interests, as we'll as
the interests of corporate wealth OF
others, has been selected as the prin.
cipal ~mouthpiece to conduct the war
fare against the country publications
which decline to submit to the ruina,
ton policy adopted by the corporation
newspapers.
Along these lines the current issue
of the Bozeman Chronicle contains the
following pertinent remarks:
The Butte Miner rushes to the de-
Tense of %plutocratic ownership and
| subsidized competition on the part OF
the daily press of the state in the
country weekly field with an energy
and vim that makes one think it has
had a sore spot rudely touched. This
newspaper a few days ago undertook
to say that the invasion of the legiti-
mate local field of the country weekly
by the city dailies owned and support
ed by rich individuals or giant cor
porations. was neither relished by the
country press nor the country public.
We further mentioned the fact that
in our opinion the daily newspapers
owned by Senator w. A. Clark, the
Amalgamated Copper company, and
+. A. Heinze, were a mighty poor in
vestment, because they were totally
powerless to do their owners any good
and were potent to do them harm.
The Chronicle advised these parties
to get out of the newspaper business,
admitting that it's advice was unso-
licited and %gratuitous.
This has brought on the head of the
Chronicle the wrath OF the Butte
Miner, which in a ponderous double
column editorial leader undertakes to
show that the Chronicle is influenced
in it's views by it's own private inter-
est. The gist of that article is con-
tanned in it's tail. After lashing all
over the field the tail OF the editorial
curls up with this whip lash snap:
"In the light of the attitude of GER
tain weekly newspapers, respecting
their large daily contemporaries, it is
refreshing to note the confession of
the Bozeman Chronicle that the bitter
attacks made upon the latter by the
former are inspired alone by business
considerations of a questionable char
acter, and lot by a desire to tell the
truth or enlighten the public"
We don't see how the country press,
for whom the Chronicle speaks in a
measure, ever expected to conceal
their real motives from the penetrat-
ing calcium light gaze Of the Miner.
For our own part we admit that the
discovery made by the Miner is gen
uine. To paraphrase a recent fiction
writer in one of the current magazines
the Butte Miner has revealed a great
scientific truth, "as Max Nordan did
when he announced the fact of his
discovery that the abnormal was-as
a matter of fact-abnormal."
In u opinion the opposition of the
country press to the plan of multi-
millionaires and big corporations