The circle banner. [volume] (Circle, Mont.) 1914-1939, 1919-08-22
Vote on Business Regulation.

cascade, representing the cOmmitte,
of appropriations. which had the bill
under consideration and who assisted
in its redrafting with Higgins, pre-
sented a number of amendments upor
4 which the authors had agreed. TIL,
i first one adopted instead of making /
mandatory for merchants to repor
annually, makes it necessary to do 81
on request of the commission.
Mccormick of Missoula attempted t.
amend the bill to include farm. agri
cultural and mining products, saying
that the place to begin regulating bus
mess was at the source of production
Higgins and Muth opposed his amend
ment, which was lost.
Beiden Opens Bartle.
Belden opened the battle against the
measure. when section Is was reached
Meigs presented an amendment pro.
viding that the commission shall fix
prices only after hearing, and Belden
taking the floor declared the whole
section should be stricken from the
measure. Muth 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
any authority to enforce findings.
Higgins ended the debate on the sec
ton, claiming the bill was constitu-
tional, had teeth in it 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 drouth relief when the up-
per chamber took up consideration of
H. b. 20. providing for one years sus-
pension of taxes for drouth victims
and cancellation of the penalty
1t was expected that the clash would
come upon consideration of the senate
judiciary committees substitute bill
for II. b. II. the Higgins measure pro-
viding S5.000.000 bond issue. The
merits of drouth relief suddenly were
brought into question, and speeches,
apparently carefully prepared. were
delivered with great spirit The taxa
tion suspension measure was voted
down, but not until several senators
had declared themselves in favor of
drouth relief by bond issue hut not in
favor of changing taxation legislation.
Anderson Quotes Figures.
Assertion that eleven twelfths of the
wheat produced in Montana comes
from the dry farms in normal years
formed feature of Andersons speech
in support OF drouth relief In debat-
ing the measure under consideration.
which he said was attacked on con-
stitutional grounds. he declared these
expert constitutional lawyers should
have tofd the governor of these legal
before he called this legis-
lature in special session to afford
drouth relief-it might have saved the
state the expense o. the session"
DRY land farmers are asking no
which has not been
shown to other Industries" Senator
Anderson said. when the labor trou-
bles occurred in Butte the state troops
were sent there to protect the mining
industry. and the bill--S2OO. OOO-was
paid by the state, and the dry landers
lid their part.
Comparisons Made.
Fright now a great mining COM |
)any in this state is asking the fed |
,ral government for s550O0O which it
says it lost in efforts to produce man
yanese for war purposes. The dry land
farmers lost great deal more than
hat in their efforts to produce food
or war purposes, but they are not
lsking for reimbursement. They want
assistance to remain on the farm and
produce more food and will repay
very cent of aid given Them. None
# us ask for charity"
Senator Anderson quoted figures
rom the secretary of agriculture's re-
,ort showing that grain crops In Mon
ana had increased from a value OF
2. 700. 600 In 1900 to $4,000 900 in 1915,
fhich he attributed largely to the de-
eIopment of the dry farming Industry.
White retorted by quoting figures to
how that the assessed valuation in
tx big counties was more than In &c
ounties In which dry farming is a
,ading industry.