Plentywood herald. [volume] (Plentywood, Mont.) 1908-current, 1929-08-08
IS BRENTWOOD A HELL-HOLE?-

political coterie. Plentvwood and Sheridan county have been
accorded considerable publicity o. late. A. c. Townley, who
at their behest has ben touring Montana to show up the evils
Of prohibition and to promote their new venture the Amer
lean Temperance League, has used this region as the horrible
example of what that 'damnable curse" has done.
According to that vinegar faced disciple of discomfort,
Sodom and Gomorrah had nothing on Plentywood and VIC
inity. In his characteristic style he has played up Plenty
wood as a caldron Of crime. Bootleggers ply their netarlous
trade unmolested, the rules Of morality and decency are
flagarantlv disregarded and the people are headed tor social
and moral degeneracy.
Such was the picture he conjured up before the people
of Havre a few nights ago.
How do you like it?
Is F brentwood such a rotten sink of iniquity?
If 50. why is the official hangout OF his organization IN
Plentywood, a common gathering place for the bootleg ele-
ment of the regiono We refey to the office OF the Producers
News.
If that country dance he referred to was such a disgrace
full affair. why didn't he have the decency to report the mat
ter to the sheriff, or at least give the facts to Charles E. lay
Tor to raise Cain about Was it because the barn where the
dance was held happened to be the property OF a good
Earmer-Larorte?
why is it that his co-workers are men who have always
taken sides with the moonshiner, bootlegger, h~onky-tonk and
booze Joint proprietors and who have always heaped libel
and abuse upon the men who are trying to enforce the IL
uuor laws of the country?
AS a matter of fact, Plentywood is not as bad as it is
pictured. There are some half way decent people here, and
he town is quite respectable. Strangers visiting Plentywood
are assured that they may walk up and down Main or any
other street without fear Of encounterng any of the drunk
en- rabbe Townley would have you believe make their
headquarters here.
Plenty wood is not g caldron of crime, and hash been
since the fredericksburg machine got kicked out of the
control Of Sheridan county politics.
1t is true that b%ootlegsers still ply their trade in this
vicinity, but they don't sell to every Tom, Dick and Harry
that comes along as they did when the joints were running
wide open during the fredericksburg reign of terror.
1t is true that many OF the local citizens sit down to a
social session of poker and other games Of chance coming
under HE designation of gambling. But you don't find the
Tin horns operating on the wide open scale or any joints in
town operating Tia Juana fashion such as Rodney Salisbury
permitted to run unmolested when he was sheriff.
immortality exists, as it does in any community, but
there are no chicken ranches maintaining an active taxi
service to and from town as there were when the temperance
cranks, Taylor and Salisbury supervised the law and order
activities of Sheridan county.
Sheridan county is no caldron Of crime. The jail is
empty and has been SO for months. There are no crimes
Of any consequence on the countys criminal docket except
a hangover from the Taylor Salisbury days and there are
few crimes listed on the docket as unsolved. Reason-We
now have a sheriff who represents the people of Sheridan
county and not a political organization that looks for it's sup
port from the underworld.
lowrley could have obtained a pretty good picture Of
the failure of prohibitions if he had appeared in brentwood
when the red regime was in the saddle and the town was
running wide open, but Sheridan county has taken several
log steps toward responsibility since then.
If Plentywood or Sheridan county should need a moral
awakening it should come from a mora source. If there is
anything moral or uplifting about the sponsors of the Amer-
can Temperance League we have yet to see it.
You cannot gather grapes from thorns or figs from
thistles."