The producers news. [volume] (Plentywood, Mont.) 1918-1937, 1931-03-06
THE GRAND ALLIANCE
By H. LOWNDES MAURY

The high standards of the coteries of corpora
tions which live elsewhere and consider Montana
their private oyster bed meet in directing the bus
mess of the First Bank Stock Corporation. This
institution divides in Minneapolis all profits Tor
losses) of it's merged banks. A list of these di-
rectors tells at a glance whom the people of Mon
tana must unite to oppose if the state is to be
fit for children or grandchildren TO inhabit.
In the year 1880 among the sixty-eght directors
of First Bank Stock Corporation, appear the fol-
lowing names: From the Great Northern Railway,
Ralph Budd, its PRESIDENT from the Northern Pa
eific Charles Donnelly, its president, (and also L.
W. Hill, large owner in both railroads;) from the
Milwaukee railroad, H. A. Scandratt, its presi-
dent; from the Burlington railway, Fred E. Will
hanson, its president; from Montana Power Co.,
John D. Ryan, director; from Anaconda Copper
Mining Company, Cornelius F. Kelly, it's pres-
dent; from Billion Dollar Bell Telephone Co., G.
w. Robinson president of Tri-State Telephone Co.;
from the big milling interests A C. Loring,
president of Pillsbury Flour Mills Company,
<Swin Cities;) from the Chain Stores Stuart w.
Wells, of Wells-Dickey & Company; from Chica-
go and Northwestern Railway, Fred w. Sargent,
its president; from the Conservative or Tory Re
publicans in Montana, Thomas A. Marlowe; from
the Conservative or Corporation Democrats in
Montana Sam Stephenson.
There is the alliance against popular govern
ment in Montana. That confederation or junta
has existed secretly for twenty years before it
grew bold enough to come out in the open and
join in the Big Bank Merger. This is the crowd
that has driven fifty thousand people out of the
state in ten years. They are singly and collect
lively enemies of the public welfare of the state
They crush the letters U. S. into the sign 5. With
these it stands for nothing else They run the
executive and legislative branches of the govern
ment and us to the judiciary-in six years prior
to the reorganization by the people of the s"-
preme court two years ago, the railroads gained
thirty-seven out of forty cases they had there.
They corrupt the politics of our youth They
keep the tutors in our universities afraid to teach
what they truly believe. They have made the
daily press their servant to keep the people in
the bondage of ignorance. They have made some
of clergy their dupes and amoners They
have turned the legally provided trust fund for
cripples widows and orphans made by industrial
accidents over to be administered by Burke Glenn
elrts and Stafford. They have throttled independ-
ent bankers. They have driven much large CAPT
tai from the state They have maintained op-
pressive rates for all public utilities through q
subservient utilities commission They have black
listed decent American born workers with fami
lies for political independent action. They are
running our independent merchants. They have
so shirked their just taxes and loaded the bur
Gen of government the struggling farmers
merchants, househOlders, that financial bankrupt
cy threatens the state and all its inhabitants ou
educational institutions survive on bond issues
our people can no longer support sufficient publ
schools to educate their children in the rudiments