The Daily Missoulian. [volume] (Missoula, Mont.) 1904-1961, 1913-01-13
THEIR FALSE PLEA

The most important vote Of last week at Helena was that
ballot in the house which resulted in the decision to en-
ploy an official stenographer. The margin by which the
decision was reached was close, but the stenoerapher was
engaged. That's the main thing.
The purpose of the move to have an official record of
the proceedings of the Montana house of representatives
was stated plainly. 1t is necessary that the record be
accurate; it is essential that the report be exact. Under
the method which has prevailed in sessions past, it was
possible for alterations to be made without any possibility
of detecting them in the ordinary course of events.
1t is a matter which is / known to a good many Of those
who were in touch with the proceedings of the Twelfth as
sembly that there we're radical changes made in amend
ments which were offered, affecting important legislative
measures. 1t is also a fact that attempts were made to
change others, but these we're frustrated by the vigilance
of a house clerk who thereby incurred the enmny of the
Invisible Government.
There are men who were connected with the Twelfth as
sembly who can testify to the correctness of these state
ments and some of them will do SO if necessary.
In the face of these deplorable conditions, there we're
men in the house last week who opposed the proposition
to employ a stenographer. Their false plea, urged in
argument against the plan, was that the interests of econ
omy demanded the elimination of all such expense as is
entailed in securing a stenographic report of the house
proceedings.
The expense of securing this accurate report can be
saved by the exercise of ordinary business Judgment in the
of committee clerks. For years, the Montana
legislature has made itself a laughing stock by its course
regarding committee clerks; there have been many more OF
these employees than necessary; in some sessions, their EN-
ployment has had its scandalous features.
All these facts are known to all who know anything at
all of the details of legislative sessions of the past. For
years there has been protest made against the employment
of so many needless clerks about the house and senate. If
the house is really of an economical turn, there is a chance
for it to exercise it in the employment of committee clerks.
There can be more than enough saved here to pay for the
stenographer and his work.
The opposition to the stenographic report is not
by a desire to economize; it comes from the
earnest wish to perpetuate the old method of fraud and
chicanery in connection with important measures. There
been many bills defeated in their purpose, after they
received majority approval, by the alteration of a para
graph in engrossing, by the change of a word or two in an
one of dozens Of short cuts to fraud which the legislative
agents of Big Business have at their command.
1t is the desire to retain the command of these means to
fraud which prompts opposition to an accurate report OF
1t is not "economy.' The opposition crys
ECONOMY merely as a backfire. The plea is false-as
false as the hearts of these constituencies jobbers who
have for years defrauded the people of Montana of their
rinhtS