Douglas daily dispatch., 1927-10-28
WESTINGHOUSE
LETTER. .M
lN o.

WASHINGTON-H in the effete
east, where almost anyone from wess
of Chicago is regarded as a radical,
many persons regard Senator Burton
K. Wheeler, of Montana, as radical
who will bear watching.
Especially here in the SNUG ma
tional capital, it is felt that if Wheel
err isn't radical there isn't one in
the senate.
But out in Montana, one learns
with aStonishment, Wheeler is being
panned as a reactionary. Some OF
the voters out there are much more
radical than Wheeler and if there
were enough of them, as there aren't,
Wheeler might be defeated in his
campaign for reelection next year.
The anti Wheeler feeling centers in
Sheridan county, in the extreme
northeast section of Montana. aIong
the Canadian border and North
Dakota.
Experts say that you can't find
more radical section in the country
than Sheridan county. The folks
out there boast of it, too. And it's
peculiar in more ways than that.
BY electing farmer-labor county
tickets each. year, these radicals ON
troll the county. From all reports
they do good job of running it.
They drove sInall-time crooked
regime out of office when they
stepped in.
Sheridan is altogether a farm
county and is run in the interests
of the farmer. The state law pre-
vents any change in the form Of
county government, but the Sheri-
danites don't mind that. They have
just the kind of a government they
want.
A dominant force in Sheridan coun-
ty. is the United Farmers, a secret
agrarian organization which has also
made headWay in Washington state,
Minnesota and North Dakota. This
group is organized both for economic
anG political action. Its numbers
and membership lists are kept secret
and when it endorses a candidate
for office the fact is kept secret SO
that if perchance it takes a political
| licking the fact remains unknown.
N1CdllW1ll1C, IL d1l dI1SCO Will 1OCd1
merchants to give all card-carrying
members discount when they come
to town for purchases.
Every store in Plentywood, the
county seat of Sheridan, is said to
grant such discount. In this way,
members are guaranteed savings
amounting to more than the member
ship dues. Often the council steps
in and persuades a banker TO hold
off on a mortgage foreclosure against
fSrmer.
! When a court ruled that a Sheri-
dan county mortgage holder was
entitled to a portion of the debtors
, crop, q crowd of the boys went right
out to the debtors farm, threshed
his crop and hauled it away and
sold it before the court could enforce
the decree. An eX-sheriff, sent by
court with papers containing bad
tidings to a Strengthened farmer, was
seized and threatened with a moose.
After a promise not to return, q
pint CT castor oil was poured down
his throat as a lesson He has
since been known as Castor Oil
Collins"
"They raise hell with bankers who
try to forecloSe on farmers" says
man who knows Sheridan county
and admires it's people.
The county sheriff has a splendid
reputation for catching border rum
runners, but he is hard on would be
farm hands who don't carry the red
card of the I. W. w. incidentally,
some of the big farmers in Montana
prefer l. w. w. workers, Insisting
that although they demand reason
able hours and wages they aren't
as shiftless as the ordinary non-
union hand.
Ford recently bought an old-style