Evening star., 1925-07-24
MONTANA SWINGS
TO CONSERVATISM
Prosperity on Rise and State
Has Turned Its Back on
RadicaIiSm.
BY FREDERIC WILLIAM VILE.
CtaH of

STAFF Correspondent of The Star.
HELENA, Mont, July 24.-Mon-
tana, perhaps more than any other
State in the Northwest, is typical of
the complete preoccupation with its
own affairs which is characteristic
of the region at this time. Ask the
average Montanan what is most on
his mind nowadays and the al
most invariable answer is: Getting
out of debt" He says it with a smile
and the explanation that Montana
faces a year of unparalleled good
times. He tells you that wheat,
copper. oil, wool, mutton, timber,
cattle. sugar and peas are going to
bring into the State during the next
twelvemonth 5000. 900 900 in red gold.
Divide that treasure among 100000
people" he jubilates, land you can
figure out what prosperity means for
assured, that Montana has come
back" following a distressing and
almost disastrous period. Her cour-
age and inherent solidity between
them did the trick.
Politics in Adjournment.
Politics in Montana is in adjourn
ment because of these satisfactory
economic conditions, present and
prospective. For five years the State
was under a double blight of too much
politics and too bad times. To both
of these Montana has said an eager
and. as 1t hopes, a long farewell. If
each of them will stay away long
enough the State is confident it is
headed for a protracted period of un-
exampled calm and welfare. Mon
tana's fondest prayer is to be left
alone, especially by Washington. 1t
has placed it's faith in nature and
not in Congress, and in the lessons.
too. which its farmers and bankers
have learned from the bitter ex-
periences undergone by the Western
country since 1920.
The theory that the Federal Gov
ernment can solve agricultural and
business problems by legislation, such
as price-fiXing measures for farm pro-
duce. has been scrapped in Montana
Here and there the opinion is ex-
pressed that sooner or later there
must be some revision of the tariff
that will facilitate our export trade
and the liquidation Of our foreign
owed debts. But except for the tariff
on wool and sugar, the tariff is no
more of live issue in Montana than
the World Court, Senate reform, the
European debts, Mexico, China, Ger
man reparations, or any of the other
so-called paramount questions which
more or less agitate Washington and
the Atlantic seaboard. Taxation Is
about the only national issue that has
any chance of diverting Montana s
attention from the prosperity issue in
which it is engrossed, to the exclu-
sion of all else.
State Grows Conservative.
With it's steady and substantial
economic recovery, Montana has be-
come conservative to a degree not ex-
perienced for years. There is every
indication that the State has turned
it's back on the radicalism that once
threatened to sweep across Montana
from North Dakota. A. c. Townley,
the founder of the Non-Partisan
League, made a bold thrust to in
trench the league here as he in
trenched it in North Dakota. Those
were the days, four or five years ago.
when Burton K. Wheeler coquetted
with radicalism and was defeated for
the governorship, when he ran with
league Endorsement. Then came the
drought, the postwar def1ation of the
farmer, the copper slump, agricul-
tural distress, the live stock crisis,
bank failures and all the other trials
and tribulations that beset the West
between 1920 and 1924.
Economic Quacks i'm Disrepute.
All these things are now rated in
Montana as ancient history. The eco
nomic quack has no standing. There
is no patience with his panaceas. Poll
ticians generally are in disrepute.
Throughout the State, so long stepped
in political chickering's of the bitterest
type, there is fierce anxiety to con.
centrate exclusively on matters of real
moment. These matters are the liqui.
dation of the past, in every direction,
and the setting of the stage for the full
play of Montana's limitless energies
and resources, unrestricted by extran.
eous factors of any kind. The grim
purpose of the State is to bar any
thing and everything that takes Mon
tana's mind off Of that business. Let
us alone,' Is Montana's message to
Washington, ''and We'll work out our
own salvation
The substantial majority that Presi.
dent Coolidge received in 1924. is an
unmistakable symptom of Montana s
conversion to conservatism. Last
years agricultural and industrial pros
perity did it's big share in making
the State conservative; and this years
which promises to be even greater
will make the foundations of conser.