The Bozeman courier. (Bozeman, Mont.) 1919-1954, 1924-03-05
PORTER'S PANACEA

Any old nostrum for the cure of state ills will get a hot hand
in Butte just so long as it does not run counter to the sacrosanctI
slogans of the copper crowd, Get little business and the farmers
pay the taxes" don't talk tax equalization"
So when State Auditor George P. Porter recently returned
from a three-day visit to the mining town it was plain to those
about the statehouse that he had gone out in quest of something
and had returned with a vision-a vision like that of Sir Launfal
when he Jared forth in search for the Holy Grail.
The other day he transmitted to the strte board of examiners
a letter setting forth his pet panacea of very recent origin and then
released" a story to the wondering and applaudng Big Cinch
press, which found a place on top page. right alongside the warm
est Teapot Dome and other pure reading matter" The Helena
Independent was tiched pink over Mr.. POrters profound economic
genius and scored the administration for not seeing the vision long
days ago. The Butte Miner approved with the usual line of solemn
banaites, and others of the brethren were more or less ~laudatory
and more or less critical of the governor, as usual.
And what is the remedy, reduced to a brief paragraph? A
slash ranging from 5 to so per cent in the maintenance expenses
of various departments of the state government, the biggest cut
being in the departments or institutions having the most vital con-
tact with the states leading industry: agriculture. The Porter
pruning knife sank deeply into the state agricultural college, the
experiment station, the farmers extension work and state live
stock commission, a pairing of 80 per cent being recommended for
the first, So per cent for the two following, and 20 per cent for the
last named. The next largest slash is directed at the educational
and eemoSeynary institutions, 80 per cent or S96,947, for the State
college, at BOzeman, 35 per cent for the normal college, 25 per cent
for the insane asylum, 20 per cent for the tuberculosis sanitarium,
and 20 per cent for the vocational training school for girls.
The question that logically comes to the lay mind is this:
Why was not the Porter plan popped to the public during the rec
ent special session of the legislature? That body was certainly
in the market for genuine economy programs and the Honorable
George could easily have sold" his plan, provided it would stand
the acid test, cutting down the expenditures of any of the depart
ments or institutions without seriously Gripping them and impair
ing their usefulness. The state auditor spent most of the time
during the extraordinary session in h%Obnobbing with the repre-
sentatives and senators. More than a week was spent in seeking
the solution of this one problem, they sought enlightment and
counsel from all departments and it is understood that they made
more than one pilgrimage to the office of the auditor. The final
outcome was that by their action they indicated wholly the wis
dom of the allotment made by Civ. Dixon, when he vetoed the APP
preparation made by the regular assembly.
The Porter program is a rather beated inspiraton-and we
are inclined to think with studied design. The auditor and those
newspapers that have accorded his plan such fulsome praise know
full well that to slash any of the institutions another So or even
80 per cent would almost amount to a paralysis of their norma
functions. It's just another political gesture by those who are
willing to try anything once" to distract public attention from the
fundamental issue of tax equalization. That's all.