The Idaho Republican. [volume] (Blackfoot, Idaho) 1904-1932, 1920-10-08

every man looked the future squarely
in the face, recognizing facts as facts.
Where 10000 men with their TO-
| 900 wheelbarrcw loads of bedding
and supplies had camped in the
spring, was a storm-swept coast piled
with the wreckage of the September
equinox Where these big monoplis-
tic trading and transportation COM
panies had unloaded their ships and
made mountains of goods, these
goods had been moved back on top
of the tundra and safely stored away
in vast warehouses that had a store
| front built on at the southern end.
| The country was flooded with men
| who were busted and trying to get
out of the country or trying to find
a way to subsist thru the winter.
There were thousands of other men
who had money enough to buy food
and clothing for the winter, if they
could find somebody who had it to
sell.
There were thousands who wanted
to prospect or operate something all
winter and they must have supplies.
The 10000 wheelbarrow loads that
had been there in the spring were
no good to them now. 1t was the
big warehouses with the store fronts
hot f,r 70 IN he
1t was the goods brought in by the
big monopolistic trading and trans
portation companies that saved
mems lives during the fall and
winter. These men who had plan
ned the big operations and sent out
their lieutenants, backed by the
authority of the bayonets, and made
us get off our camping spot whether
it suited us or not, men who made
us get off of our camping spots at 2
o'clock in the morning because they
wanted to unload vessel there at 3;
it was the operations of these men
that put the country in condition
to subsist thru the winter. It was
the operations Of these big monopol-
istic fellows we had condemned that
made it possible for commercial OPP
erations to 60 on and profitable min
ing to continue during the next
summer. The best thing that hap
pened there in the spring was for
those master minds to make the
common herd get out Of the way,
making room for .shipload after ship
load Of supplies to be dumped on the
sands Of the shore where there was
no storm progressing. Day and
night they worked to land their
goods and afterwards some Of the
same vessels were picked up by the
storm and tossed on the beach, where
after the storm was over, guests
could step back and forth from the
deck Of steamer to the veranda of
a hotel. II there had been no master
minds at work, no greater foresight
operated than we little fellows mani
'ested, people would have starved in
great numbers in the fall and winter.
AS it was the kindly hand of the
government that had supplied the
bayonets to drive men out of their
camps in the spring sent the govern
ment transports up in the fall to
7]ring the fellows home who were alb
,olutely busted and could not pay
their fare. Men in great numbers
took advantage Of, this generous Of
fer of the government and were
carried free Of charge to Seattle. I
have seen hundreds of them get off
Of the steamers at Seattle and walk
straight to the saloons and there en-
gage in drinking and gambling and
have great spree now that they had
beaten the government out Of the
price of transportation from the
Arctic regions. So they were no bet
ter of than If they had paid their
fare and stayed sober. ts
Bring the Lesson Home /
II the people OF the Snake river
valley engaged in agricultural pur-
suits will work as c0urageously to
meet their problems as did the pro-
spectors and miners on the tundra.
where they had no water for mining, |
work as patiently and get rid Of the
no-account element among them, II
they will march on in their purposes |
as did the travellers steering for the
road houses, il they will work along |
while the willy-nillies get |
out of the country as did the
gamblers and booze guzzlers on the
government transports, they can
solve all the problems that come up |
and make themselves masters Of the |
millions that will arise in profits.