The Bozeman courier. (Bozeman, Mont.) 1919-1954, 1924-08-13
BOHEMIAN COURIER ANSWERS QUESTION THAT
+ THANKSGIVING SAM" PRETENDS TO IGNORE

In a spirit of absolute fairness and impartiality, and with a
real desire to avoid the taking of any undue editorial advantage
of Handshaking Sham Hampton of the Belgrade Journal, who still
says he is running for governor, The Bozeman Courier, in all
seriousness, and with no relish for disgusting personalities, re-
Gently propOunded two questions to our distinguished contemp-
torary from Belgrade, which we asked him to answer through
the columns of his paper.
Incidentally, we might ask him another one: How does he
stand on the Metal Mines Tax bill, which happens to be the most
fair an equitable piece of Peoples initiative legislation ever
attempted in Montana?
One question which we propounded to him was: Just where
are these mills located that do a mIingin-bond business; how
much wheat they miled in 1921, 1922 and 1928; and exactly how
their operations affected the price of wheat in this country? ?"
THAT QUESTION REMAINS
The second, and the most important, question had to do with
Handshaking Sham's stand on the McNary-Haugen grain export
bill, which he openly professed to advocate, but which he was
secretly and covertly denunciating. We asked him, while the
farm organizations were straining every nerve for the McNary-
Haugen bill, where was Handshaking Sam? Specifically, the
Courier suggests that he tell his readers if he wrote any letters
to the Montana senators or representatives in Congress concerning
the McNary-Haugenb bill; and if ne did, was his position one of
support for, or opposition to, the measured" THAT QUESTION
ALSO REMAINS UNANSWERED.
That's all there was to it. There was no mud-singing; no
personalities; no threats; nothing that any sef-respecting and
honestlyedited newspaper need be ashamed of; nor any question
that any publication, honestly and seriously having the very best
interests of the farmers at heart, has not a perfect right to ask.
The Courier gave Hampton plenty of time to answer, and
repeated the questions in several recent issues, so as to positively
preclude the possibility of the Belgrade man hiding behind the
excuse that he had been away on a political speaking tour. We
even allowed the last issue to pass by without appearing to umdulv
crowd him for an answer; as we'll as to permit the members of
the farm organizations to become certain of the fact that The
O"Ni 10 !" n~iy GU WIFI CWer principles IN opposing any
attempt OF any newspaper-not even excepting the Belgrade
JOurnal-tO draw them into any political controversy, or to use
the name OF their organizations over any political propaganda,
Democratic, Republican, Socialist, FarmLabor, Independent, or
what not.
This purely economic matter has never been considered bv
The Courier as being at all political in nature. We are not on
posing Hampton's candidacy for governor per Sc; in fact we
would not oppose him for any political reasons whatsoever, for
we realize he would be, by far, the easiest democratic guber-
material candidate for Governor Dixon to defeat in the general
election. His recent disgusting editorial in the Belgrade Journal,
for which even his misguided friends plainly showed their dis
gust, not only proves his unfitness for any public office, but
bids fair to cause him to lose his own very precinct in the coming
primary election.
Another evidence of the political fairness of this paper may
be seen in the fact that we are publishing in this issue what we
know him to have done, thus giving him plenty of time during
the next two weeks before the election to deny, or TRY TO
EXPLAIN AWAY THE NDUBITABLE PROOF OF HIS DUP
LICFTY.