The Daily Missoulian., 1913-01-31

left Ben Phillips with a stain on his :
political reputation which it was
thought would never be erased. But
the memories of the people |
OF Montana are thought to be short,
for they now have the spectacle of a
bunch of legislators actually naming a
county of the state after this same
Phillips.
The bill went through the senate
With rush, seven democrats voting
with the republican machine to put it
across. AS was to have been expected,
the three progressive senators, Taylor,
Boardman and Grande, voted against
this scheme to disgrace Montana, and
to lay burden of shame up against
the people who are to reside in the
proposed new county.
The Wibaux county bill introduced
by Edwards was simply an effort on
the part of the Rosebud county BIZ
partisanites to pay off a political debt
contracted when ]. c. Kinney, of the
town of Wibaux Dawson county, was
induced to accept the nomination for
lieutenant governor on the standpat
republican ticket last fall. Kinney, it
is understood, pungled up handsome
ly, and was to get this new county in
return. Edwards is trying to carry
out his part of the agreement, and has
the assistance of his eight democratic
friends in the undertaking."
Indorsed.
This is pretty strong stuff to come
from a democratic member of the
state senate, but it will be indorsed
by practically all of his fellow pro-
gressive democratic associates in that
body. Senator Asbridge has broadly
intimated that if the combine keeps
up it's gait there won't be a corporars
guard Of democrats elected to the leg
islature two years hence. Senator
O'Shea of Carbon, another one of the
new members, has suggested to his
colleagues that they had as we'll ask
to be excused for the rest of the ses-
sion, and return to their homes, as
neither their votes nor their protests
were of any avail to check the rapacity
of the corporation combine.
The writer of the stinging comment
heretofore given, might we'll have gone
a little farther into personal relations
with reference to j. c. Kinney. Last
spring Kinney was Roosevelt dele
gate to the Livingston convention. He
sat with his delegation while his name
was read as one of the Taft delegates
to the national convention and ut
tered no word of explanation nor of
protest. He subsequently attended the
ion air "a a
machine to steal the nomination from
Roosevelt. 1t did not surprise his
Dawson county friends therefore, that
he was found lined up with the repub-
lican corporation crowd in Montana.
Furthermore, it might have been re-
marked by the democratic senator
quoted that the Wibaux county
scheme, if Effected, will enable Kinney
and few of his friends practically to
control some very profitable boozeries
near the Montana line.
Another Deserter.
And there might also appropriately
have been some reference in the dis
cussion of the back pedaling of new
senators, to Senator sBrownlee of
Sweetgrass county Senator Brown
lee was elected as a progressive re-
publican. In fact, the outright pro-
gressves in that county captured the
republican organization and named
Brownlee as their candidate for the
state senate, upon the distinct under
standing that he would ac1 with the
straight-out progressives in the legis-
lature upon all measures intended to
be Of common benefit to the state.
Senator BroWnless is now openly
aligned with the Edwards Donlan
Muffly Gallwey Whiteside bunch of
gangsters, and is doing their bidding
with servile meekness
So far as the house is concerned, it
would be a waste of good space to
go into details of the bi-partisan-re-
dictionary arrangement in that BODY.
What has been said of the senate may
be as fairly said of the house. The
difference in attitude of these TWO
bodies toward decent legislation, how
ever, is quite marked But it is due
to the fact that the solid bunch of
progressives is standing shoulder to
shoulder with the house platform
democrats and together these wv"
row margin. Now that the lobby is
here in full force equipped with all
the boldness and persistence which
has characterized it to the scandal of
past legislative assemblies and pre-
pared also with sufficient rolls for
what they term "heroic treatment
just how long that slender margin of
majority will continue to exist is an
open question, with the odds strongly
favoring the lobby.
Upon future occasion this CORE