The Powder River County examiner and the Broadus independent. [volume] (Broadus, Mont.) 1919-1935, 1919-08-15
Vote on Business Regulation.


which the authors had agreed. The
first on" adopted instead of making it
| mandatory for merchants to report
| annually. makes it necessary to do SO
| on request OF the commission.
Mccormick of Mi>>oula attempted to
amend the bill to include farm. agri-
cultural and mining products. saying
that the place t" begin regulating bus
mess was at the source of production
Higgins and Muth opposed his amend
ment. which was lost.
seIden Opens Battle.
Belden opened the battle against the
measure. when section L., was reached.
Meig> presented an amendment pro-
viding that the commission shall fix
prices only after II hearing. and Reldpn
| taking the floor declared the whole
section should be stricken from the
measure. Mnth took the position that
the elimination Of the section would
give only an Investigating commits
sion and that the state had enough
| commissions for investigation without
amy authority I" enforce findings.
Higgins ended The debate ON the seq
| tion. claiming the bill was conSti,u-
| ti"nal. had teeth in ii and would serve
| the purpose for which it was intended.
Taxes Not Suspended.
An unexpected and sharp battle was
| precipitated in the senate over the
question of drnuth relief when the up
per chamber took up consideration 1T
II. Il. 20. providing for one years S,,S
pension of taxes for drouth victims
and cancellation of the penalty.
1t was expected that the lash would
| come upon consideration of the senate
| Judiciary committees substitute bill
| for IL. +. II. the Higgins measure pro-
wiling Il So.MNOOO bond issue. The
| merits of ,lrOulh relief suddenly Were,
brought int" question. and speeches,
apparently carefully prepared. were
delivered with great spirit. The taxa-
! ti"n suspension measure was voted
down. but not until several senators
| had declared themselves in favor of
| dr"u1h relief by bond issue but not in
favor of changing taxation legislation.
Anderson Quotes Figures.
Assertion that eleven-twelflhS of the
| wheat produced in Montana comes
from the dry farms in normal years.
| formed Il feature of AnlerSon'~ speecl,
| in support of drOuth relief. In iehat-
| ing the measure under consideration
which he said was attacked on con-
| Stituti0ral grounds. he declared '.theSe
expert constitutional lawyers should
limitations before he called this legi~-
| lature in special session to afford
| drouth relief--i, might have saved the
state the expense of the session."
| "Dry land farmers are asking M
consideration which has not been
| shown I" other industries" Senator
| Anderson said. when the labor tro,,.
hle> occurred in Butte the state troops
were sent there to protect the minin:
| industry. and the hill-S.OO OND-was
| paid by the state and the dry lander>
| did their part.
Comparisons Made.
Right now II great mining com
pany in this state is asking the fed
| eral government for $iJO.ON which il
| says it lost in efforts IL produce man.
ganeSe for war purposes. The dry land
| farmers lost 4 great deal more thai,
! that in their efforts to produce food
for war purposes. hut they are moi
asking for reimbursement They wan,
assistance L" remain on the farm AM,
produce more food and will repay
every cent of aid given them. Non.
of us ask for charity
| Senator Anderson quoted figure.
| from the secretary of ayrcullureS re.
p"r, showing that grain crops in Mon,
thn; had Increased from Il value nt
S:.T"|NM in 1900 to S775,MM 900 in 1916;
which he attributed largely Ia the de,
velopment of the dry farming industry
| White ret"rted by quoting figures tn
| show that the assessed valuation il,
six big counties WAS more than in ii
counties in which dry farmin. is :,
leading industry.