Great Falls tribune. [volume] (Great Falls, Mont.) 1921-current, 1922-08-07
STATE OFFICIAL N
STATE COAL
THE TRIBUNE is in receipt o

Choate, former state code commits
sioner, addressed to Governor Dix
on, and taking exception to certain
statements made by the governor,
or alleged to have been made by
him, in his speeches at Livingston
and Bozeman, and which by innu-
endo at least Mr.. Choate thinks
charges him with graft with rela-
ton to the states coal supply. Mr..
Choate says:
my dear Governor Dixon:
"In an address made by you at
Livingston on July u, you are
quoted by the press as saying:
".At the capitol / found about
seventy-five people drawing coal
out of the state coal supply-em-
ployes; I do not think it was done
dishonesty
ION your attention being directed
to a challenge of the truth of the
above assertion, made by a Helena
newspaper, you are again quoted by
the press as stating to an audience
at Bozeman on July 20. the follow
ing:
81 think in getting their coal out
of the state supply everybody got
a full two thousand pounds to the
ton, and the state got what was
left. The coal was paid for by
you, and paid by Understanding
warrants
I'm addition to the foregoing, the
New Era club, which is commonly
reputed to be a political organiza-
ton which supports your admins
tration and politics, issued some
time ago, the following statnent:
The year of 1920 shows nearly
200 per cent more coal used than
the succeeding year. for the reason
that coal is no longer furnished
gratis to some of the state en-
%ployes'.'
Mr.. Choate goes on to say that
he was one of the seventy-five peo-
pie who got state coal and that it
was obtained through the state au-
thorities in a perfectly open and
legitimate manner and finally paid
for by the persons who got it, and
the state did not lose a cent in the
transaction. 1t would appear from
Mr.. Choate's letter that the state
has been in the habit of permitting
a number of state employees to or
der coal for their private use under
the state contract, they paying for
it at the state contract price.
The practice is not uncommon.
though we do not think it good
business practice at that to mix up
individual and private business with
state business. Yet we believe that
some railroad companies do the
same thing, telling some of their
employees to buy coal for their pri-
vate use under the railroad contract
price. Other large businesses often
give their employees a char-ce to buy
goods at the wholesale cost price.
There is no graft necessarily con
nected with such transactions.
The governors statements, if
correctly reported in the press,
were altogether too vague. They
were calculated to create the sus-
picion that the state had been
cheated in some way. If he knows
of se%venty-five state officials who
have been grating in some way. in
this coal deal, he should name the
men and furnish the particulars in
stead Of speaking of the facts in
such a way as to arouse unjust sus-
picion. If there has been any coal
graft going on, let US hear all about
it and who the guilty parties are.
If the state employees have been
merely horning in on the state on
tract to get the advantage of the
state price in coal, and paying for
it, the governor should state plainly
that this is what he meant. We
agree with him that it is not good
business practice and should be
stopped, but we also agree that Mr..
Choate has a right to say to Gov
ernor Dixon:
Il am a republican in politics.
am not a candidate for public Of
flee, and I voted for you for COVER
nor of Montana.
my reason, and my only reason,
for addressing this letter to you and
seeking to have it given the same
publicity as was accorded to the
statements above quoted and at
tributed to you, is the fact that
your statements (if correctly quot
ed above) have been spread broad