The producers news. [volume] (Plentywood, Mont.) 1918-1937, 1919-08-15
Not Measure Yet Passed and Every
Amendment Killed Which Would
Aid the Needy.

The extra session of the legislature
now celebrating at Helena, bids fair
to out-do any previous example of it's
kind ever staged in a state notorious
for its legislative crookedness.
Convened for the ostensible pur-
pose OF giving relief to drouth strick-
en- farmers, it has up to the present,
consistently opposed any efforts in
that direction and devoted it's time
to the passage of bill designed sole
ly to give aid and comfort to the plu-
tocratic privileged classes, while vot-
ing down with loud and jocular mega
tlves, all and every bill aimed in any
way at drouth relief.
AS a matter of fact when the spe-
clal session was mooted the wise ones
chuckled over the loudly advertised
reasons" for they. knew then, as
most people know now, that drouth
relief was as far from the minds of
those responsible for the gathering
together of the solons as the poles
are part, and they We're amused to
think that some $4,000 per day were
to be expended for the one and only
purpose of putting a stop to the de-
mocratlc activities of the people.
The Real Reasons
AS the drouth advanced in severity
and scope and people began to Won
der what was to become of the state
and its agricultural inhabitants the
politicians waited and wondered also.
buc not with the same kind of won
Germent that the rest of US shared.
They wee anxious to know if the
drouth situation would last long
enough to warrant the calling of a
special session so that some of the
things which had slipped from them
since the last session might be racov-
cred.
THE PRIMARY
For lntance, there was the matter
o. the Primary. 1t was we'll known
that the Nonpartisan league had
saved the Primary, that over $1,000
signatures in 80 counties had been Sc
cured and that from every point OF
law and policy The people of this
state had suspended the election and
all that was wanted was the Govern
or's signature and proclamation pro-
claiming the same.
The governor did not want to
do this. That the people of the
state should incoke the sreferen-
dunn when the gang had definitely
said that the Primary should be
abolished was seditiOus if not
reasonable. A way had to be
found to defeat the peoples will.
Plan to Defeat People
The extra session was that way.
The Primary clearly retained by
the people of this state through the
duly constituted machinery of refer
endum, had to be abolished in some
other way and the etxra session pro-
vided the means. The governor
through his hand-picked committee,
has introduced request for a new
law or a number of amendments to
the old one. If these are jammed
through the will of the people will
have been set aside and the state
made safe for autocracy, hence the
special session will have justified it.
self in the fifth floor of the Hennes-
Sey building.
ANOTHER IMPORTANT ONE
More important still, in the es-
timatiOn of the gang is increas-
ing of the number of supreme
court judges. THIS WAS THE
MAIN REASON FOR BRING
ING THE LEGISLATURE To-
GETHER.
The present status of the supreme
court is uncertain so far as the cop
per crowd are concerned. They can
not go to it with that feeling of Sc
curity which they desire in a supreme
court, sometimes even, thanks to a
judge elected with the endorsement
of the League, they are reversed and
they don't like the feeling.
Some Square Law-maker.
Besides the present legislature con