Montana labor news., 1934-04-19
SUBTRACTION, DIVISION AND
SILENCE

VI ii1(R 80 u ~ AAAAA
lion, according to a perhaps more re-
liable source, we are not yet even pre-
pared to say as a state, with Hamlet;
"To be, or not to be; that is the
question:"
We still prefer to bear the slings
and arrows of outrageous fortune" to
the nobler course of taking up arms
against a sea of troubles, and by OPP
posing, end them"
"The mind is its own place, and OF
itself it can make a heaven of hell,
a hell of heaven"
The City Of Butte has sent to the
absentee landlords of the east-(Taft's
Invisible Government" Of bankers,
that he could not control, so forcefully
pictured by him in his Yale speeches,
after he left the White House) 1000
million dollars. And we have not
enough public money in the town to
support our free library. Our farm
ers, in freight rates of 20 cents the
bushel on wheat, and similar rates on
cattle and machinery have helped the
Northern Pacific Railway Company
to pay 504 million dollars in dividends
since 1900 on its stock, genuine and
watered. We are driven from our
land by taxes, in hundreds Of thou
sands and many are begging Wash
ington for bread and shoes for our
children.
We are afflicted with a base sense
Of gratitude when they throw back
to us in jobs and doles, some crumbs
from the feasts which we have sent
them to waste in high living, and the
foolish purchase of foreign bonds in
their vaulting but defeated ambition
of enslaving the rest of the world.
We sit silent, watching the day when
the magnificent man in the White
House shall come to the end of paying
out a billion dollars a month with an
income of three billion or less a year.
If any thinking person needs con-
firmation of the statement that we
are approaching 0 serious disaster
than any heretofore suffered, let him
note that Charles Dawes is publicly
proclaiming that 1--WE are going into
an ero of business recovery" Dawes
bank owes the government about so
million dollars. The present admin
istration, which might insist on pay
ment, must be flattered by Dawes as
well as the Hoover officials that lent
him the money. Dawes axe to grind,
in making people think prosperity is
coming, is a dull one. If Hoover will
only now say, owe the radio, "pros-
perity is right around the corner
our feeling of despair will be complete
and an accurate forecast.
Far from rising from our misery to
strike blows for our welfare the spirit
of revolt is less here than it was four
years ago. Then, our government was
inane, a majority of the Legislature
stool-pigeons, our taxing boards ac-
.cepting figures for assessments on the
utilities at many million dollars less
than for rate fixing, our utilities
commission a trio of robots run by
wires from the Montana Power and
Telephone offices.
The present governor has shown
independence, which accounts for the
insurance lobby, the railroad commit
tee, the power and telephone healers
attempting the foolish Impeachment
proceedings and the company-owned
press publishing them as if they were
serious. But, the Board Of Equaliza-
ton, James Stewart, D. j. Muir, John
j.. Greene, the Utilities Commission
Tom Stout, Tom Carey and Leonard
Young r still as willing tools of the
interests as Montana or any state has
ever endured.
The Legislature, instead of taxing
the insurance companies, the thirst
lest leeches in the state, joined in with
them to caluminate the governor for
his independence.
Three or four years ago it was still
possible to get verdicts from juries
go