The Daily Missoulian. [volume] (Missoula, Mont.) 1904-1961, 1913-01-31
THE BREACH AT HELENA

This morning The Missoulian's staff correspondent at
Helena quotes a platform democrat, a member of the SEN
ate, in review of the situation at the capitol. The demo-
crat who is quoted is one of the best-known men of his
party in the state. He is classed as one of the sincere
men of his party. His entire public course gives warrant
for the confidence which the people of the state repose in
him. His statement of the situation at Helena is all the
more significant from the fact that he is, himself, a demo-
crat and that the men whom he blames for present condi-
lions are also listed as democrats. Further, it should be
borne in mind that the senate, according to its official reg
lister, is democratic,
This democrat declares that, though they are supposed
to be in the majority in the senate, the democrats do not
and have not controlled that branch of the legislature.
The old corporation bipartisan machine still furnishes the
motive power for the action of the senate. The man who
is quoted this morning in the Helena correspondence, gives
the lineup. Read it and you will have no difficulty in un-
Outstanding what is going on in the senate wing of the
capitol.
The statement of this platform democrat makes it al. the
clearer that the reactionary Influence prevails in the SEN
ate. The Big-Business organization is complete. The
democrats who fancied that the apparent triumph of their
party at the polls would put this organization out of bust
ness are beginning to 81 re pzfah how IN much tl. mistaken n they
as tightly as ever it was when the majority was republican.
The corporation knows no party lines. The Muscular
has made the assertion, ever since last spring, that the
A~malgamated controls both of the old parties; that it has
controlled them for years; that it makes no difference to
Big Business in Montana whether the count of ballots
shows a nominal democratic victory or an apparent triumph
for the republicans; either way, it is a winning tor Big
Business.
The review of the senate situation, to which we have re-
terred, makes 1t plain that this state OF affairs exists and
that the conditions have not been misrepresented. The
pledges of the democratic platform were definite and posi-
tive. They were plainly stated and Governor Stewart re-
newed them in his message to the legislature. There can
be no misunderstanding of them.
In these democratic pledges there were some which were
identical with those in the progressive platform and in the
republican promises. These important issues are not
partisan. They are for the good of the state and for the
protection of the rights of the people OF the state. But
the reactonary coalition of democrats and republicans dis
regards these pledges utterly. 1t laughs at the sincerity
of the men who insist that these pledges were made to be
performed; it mocks at the efforts of the men who seek to
fulfill these promises.
The pitiful feature about this situation is the presence
in the coalition of men who were elected upon their per-
sonal pledges to act with the progressives; these men are
ldoubly traitors. They have surrendered their own honor
with their partys honor. There are, i: is true, fewer of
these men than usual in the Thirteenth assembly, but there
are enough of them to make reactonary control sure and
that is all that Big Business wants. .
1t is to be expected that the men who are elected to do the
bidding Of the corporation, will carry out their promise to
the corporation rather than their pledge to the people. We
have learned to expect this. But we had not expected OF
them, hardened though they be, such an ~indignity as the
naming Of a Montana county after one OF the most notori-
Gus crooks that ever entered Montana politics.
How does Senator Gallwey, personal friend and protege
of Marcus DAILY, bring himself to vote for phillips"
county?