The Bozeman courier. (Bozeman, Mont.) 1919-1954, 1922-08-02
GOVERNOR DIXON DISCUSSED AFFAIRS
Of MONTANA At GALLATIN DAY PICNIC
Without Talking Politics He Told of Conditions al He Found Them When
Taking Office and Methods For Equaliing the Cost
of State Government

said about cooperative marketing,
and of the work of the Farm Bureau,
and the extension work of the State
Agricultural College. After seeing
and being in better than half Of the
counties of the state this year, and
knowing the work that is really be-
ing done by the county agents in this
state, and the extension work radi-
ating out of this institution here, ]
want to a to you that I believe the
people Of this state r getting more
real returns from the investment
that they are making in county agents
and farm bureau work and extension
work than any other investment the
State Of Montana is making at this
time. If you do not get these farm
ers to see through some of their diff
ficulties through their county agent,
the problem is pretty nearly hopeless
in this state.
around Montana, l was a candidate
for governor. This afternoon l am a
candidate for nothing on earth. l
think I can afford to tell you the
truth this afternoon, if / know it,, and
/ am going to try to do it. Believing
the whole future of this state depends
almost exclusively on the development
of the agriculture of Montana, and
knowing the futile efforts we have
made in the past, I said to the people
of this state two years ago that If
they selected me as their governor,
the first thing on the program / did
if / knew how to do it-would be
to establish in this state a department
Of agriculture.
'"The legislature responded to my
suggestion, and we abolished nine of
the old boards and commissions and
created a department of agriculture.
l said to the people in the campaign
that if that thing happened, / intend
ed to pick the biggest man l could
find to put at the head of the depart
ment, regardless of his politics, re-
ligion, or the color of his hair. After
going to every corner of this state to
find the most efficient man that I
believed l could find, 1 finally select
ed Chester Davis formerly a Gala
tin boy, Their IT, editor of The Mon
tana Farmer. Under his leadership,
more real constructive work has been
done in the last fifteen months than
in the thirt- years Of the cd boards
and commissions we had together.
Talking atoat cooper alton, l re-
member about a year ago the royal
commissioner of agriculture of Nor
way came into my office. He hac
been in this country for four or five
months, a very intelligent man. II
discussing agricultural problems, he
spoke quite easily and understanding
", though il was pretty hard to un'
derstand each other. He told me will
establishment the difference in this
country he had seen in the market
ing of farm products as compared
with what they had worked out II
the old country. / remember espe
cially of talking about the marketing
Of milk. He said he had stopped a
Copenhagen on mis- way over, and h
told me of the great work the Dane
have done in cooperative marketing
Of farm products in Denmark.
"He said that in Denmark aroun,
Copenhagen, a city of six hundre
thousand, it cost the Danish farmer
one cent a quart to market thel
milk from their diaries and farms t
the consumer in the city. In Wash
ington, where he had investigate
marketing conditions, he told me t
his great establishment the cost G
marketing milk from the dairy farm
around that city was eight cents
quart. They were getting elgf
cents a quart for their milk on tn
farms, and it was selling at sixtee
cents a quart in the city of Washing
ton-one hundred per cent increa:
in cost to the consumer as again
the man who produced, and only OF
cent a quart under the co operatT'
plan the Danes had worked out
the city Of Copenhagen.
"I came down here, men and wom'
Of Gallatin county, primarily to ia
to you about your community aftaIl
I am not going to talk politics or an
thing akin to it this afternoon.
want % taik@Eith yeu about your ov
state affairs.
when l went over to Helena MI
teen months ago to take up the pre-
ent job that / am now on, l think
had some conception Of the job W
lertaking. 1 thing the glamor a
gls-e that sometimes surround pc
tons in public life had largely disa
peared, so far as | was individual
concerned. / knew that no man c
undertake an executive position a
rot give offense to some So long
YOU are in agreement with everyboS
everybody's your friend. But VIII
you do the things you think have
be done, somebody's going to
their feelings hurt, whether you