The Daily Missoulian., 1909-12-05
WASHINGTON NEWS
MtssoULIAN's SPECIAL SERVICE.

Washington. -. G. Dec. 4.-Repre-
sentative Pray and wife of Fort Ben
ton were the first Of the Montana dele
CATION To REACH Washington for the
coming session of congress. They will
make their residence here during the
winter at the knickrrbrck.r apart
,nent house, 1920 Mintwood place. on
Washington Heights. Having just
completed the trip down the Missis-
sippi on the various waterway meet
ings. Mr.. Pray expressed enthusiasm
over river and harbor Improvement,
and he is convinced that the senators
and congressman in the large party
were won over To the policy of sys-
tematic waterway improvement. He
thinks that waterways improvements
Will be pushed by the engineer corps
and aided by congress as the merits
of each project are proven.
one of Mr.. Prays first acts on
reaching here was to seek conference
with that much popular official. Sec
retary of Interior Ballinger. This he
found no trouble in doing. Mr.. Bal
linger expressing keen interest in the
matters affecting Montana before his
department. Mr.. Pray spoke particu
larly to Mr.. Ballinger of the lines Of
Il bill ne will introduce when congress
meets to establish a bureau Of mines
i'm the interior department. 4 similar
bill was introduced ut the extra session
last spring by Senator Dixon, and Mr..
Pray believes the prospects for the
passage of such "A measure were nevr
better.
"The recent disaster at Cherry. H.,
resulting in the loss of hundreds Of
lives. has awakened {: widespread in
terest in this most important subject"
said Mr.. Pray. The Investigations and
experiments conducted by corps Of
efficient men under such a bureau
would result IN incstimablc benefits
to mine workers throughout the
country: the causes of such disasters
would be- found out and removed. and
their occurrence and resulting loss OF
life greatly reduced Mr.. Pray is a
member of the house committee on
mines and mining and during the first
session of the Sixtieth congress took
part i'm securing the adoption of such
bill by his committee and spoke
in favor ~ it's passage on the floor
Of the house.
Mr.. Pray also discussed irrigation
matters. especially the demonstration
farms. with Mr.. Ballinger Both joined
in speaking enthusiastically Of The
good results attained by Mr. Robbins
on the Sims demonstration farm, on
the Sun river project. in Montana. In
view of the uncertainty over the irri-
cation question, Secretary Balling.r
told Mr.. Pray to take up the matter Of
conducting demonstration farms with
Secretary Wilson Of the agricultural
department. as that department had 4
fund for work Of this kind. This Mr.
Pray will do.
General Marshall chief Of engineers
of the war department. re, ommends
in his annual report on the Yellow
stone National park an appropriation
of $15o,00o to replace wooden bridges
In the park with stecls bridges, and
the resurfacing of the roads of the
park. and the purchase NJ a plant To
do this work. Although there Is IA
good single track road system in tn,
park. the traffic has increased far
beyond expectation, says General
Marshall, and much additional work is
required to insure comfort and safety.
The appropriations OF the last five
years have proven inadequate to main
tain the park. he continues, and II
steps are not taken To solve the road
problem, the roadbed will soon be in a
poor and worn out condition. Rock
crushing machinery should be pur-
chased" he continues. and there is
urgent necessity Of replacing certain
Worn out wooden bridges with steel
and of substituting walls of concrete
or laid in mortar for dry retaining
walls which have become dangerous -
General Marshall reports that the
following work was done by the ensi- :