The producers news. [volume] (Plentywood, Mont.) 1918-1937, 1930-07-18

camille establishments, banks and
their allied interests in all the
leading cities, is identified utterly
with its sister company, the Mon
tana Power Company, whose lines
serve more than one hundred
towns in the State, and is in
friendly contact with the leading
people in every place of import
ance. Served by a legion of poll
teal aides in every community, it
is well-nigh invincible when it sets
] its heart on anything. 1t perme-
ates the social life of the entire
State and can accomplish great
things merely by starting a whis-
pering campaign against those
whom it opposes.
Wheeler and The Company
None the less the Company has
been successfully challenged a
number of times. Senator Wheel
er fought it to a finish in his first
election, despite the fact that the
whispering campaign made use of
his well-lnown opposition to the
war, cast upon him every possible
slur, and tried to impugn the hon.
estry and patriotism of his adj
ministration of his office of dis
trict attorney. Then there was
Mr.. Dixon, successfully Congress
man, Senator, and Governor. It
is his term as Governor that the
people of the State like best to re-
call, for in that office he rendered
valuable service in initiating and
putting through an increase of
revenue for the State through the
passage of the Metal Mines Act
and the creation of taxes on oil,
coal, cement, express and freight
companies, gasoline, inheritance,
and the like. When Mr.. Dixon
took office there had been a def
cit of $1,200,000 a year. Under
the old mining laws, if a mine
showed a 100000 profit for the
year it paid tax on 100000. If
it showed no profit it paid a tax
of 81, which was actually the am
cunt that the great Anaconda and
! Clark mines paid in the years 1921
and 1922, although their proper
ties were valued at tens of mil
lions of dollars. The unlucky far
mers, the railroads, the banks, and
the cattlemen paid on valuation,
whether there were net proceeds
or not. Mr.. Dixon demanded the
abolition of this fraud and the
substitution of a l per cent gross
mining tax on the amount of met
al produced. The majority of the
House was with him; the Compa-
ny owned the Senate, and the pro-
posals were defeated. Again ard
again the Governor campaign ov-
er the State telling the story, fin
ally initiating the Metal Mines
| Tax bill under the initiative law of
the State At the same time he
was renominated for Governor. At
the polls tragic thing happened:
the people voted the Metal Mines
Tax by a heavy majority and in
the same booths turned round and
defeated its originator, 5or Gov
ernor, by a 10000 hostile maiori-
ty. During this struggle all the
great companies save one fought
the Governor tooth and nail and
there were only of the two daily
newspapers of the State that gave
him aid-the Helena Record-Her-
aid, then owned by two independ-
ent citizens, and the Miles CITY
Star. 1t was against these great
odds that he fought and won and
lost.
Copper Versus Copper
! Curiously enough, the gage was
once thrown down to the Compa-
ny in the journalistic field. What
IS more remarkable is that the eff
fort to establish in the State one
fearless and independent newspa-
per was made on September II,
1928, by w. A. Clark, Jr., son of
the great copper Senator. Just
what his motive was has never be-
come wholly clear. There was a
magnificent opportunity at that
time, when the Helena Record
Herald had just been sold to the
Company, for a brave and honest
and Outspoken paper, and 1t look
ed at first as if the Montana Free
Press of Butte were going 70 be
Just what its name implied, for it
was at once aggressively opposed
to the Company's political pro-
gram. 1t played quite a role in
the Presidential election DESPITE
the fact that it was in its infan-
cy. When the legislature met in
January and February, 1929, the
Free Press sent an able and cour-
ageous editor, James w. Scott. TO
Helena to put a searchlight upon
what was going on and to demand
more taxes upon the great COM
panies. Steadily its circulation
grew as the winter progressed. but
so did its deficits. The Company
used the familiar technique
against it. 1t was whispered about
that the Free Press was the whim
of a multimillionaire who spent a
lot of his time in Paris and would
soon drop it; that advertisers
would be foolish to patronize it.
The Company had bossed Butte
Tor decades; it was a $500, O0O, 900
corporation and the Power Compa-
ny a 100000, 900 one. Was it
possible that they would let evil
he" Clark get away with this adj
venture? The paper was losing
$4,000 a month; 100000 had
been poured in during the first
i've months. By the spring of
1929 the loss had been cut down
to $4,000 a month. But by Nav
Clark was through; the whispering
campaign had been right; there
were other things in life for him
than running a losing newspaner