Montana labor news., 1935-10-03

Spotless Town has a clinic, well-ad-
ministered so far as | could learn. The
larger mushroom towns have attracted
a lew doctors, osteopaths, and painless
dentists. The doctor in Wheeler told
me that the week before he had been
hurriedly summoned at midnight to one
OF these eight-by-twelve pulp-board
shacks. 1t was occupied by a man, his
wife, and two children, four years
old and the other two. The children
were sleeping on a shelf. The woman
was in labor. Not wishing to make a
delivery by the light Of a pocket flash
light, the doctor succeeded after much
difficulty in securing her admission to
the hospital at Glasgow. l was told OF
a two-room shack occupied by two
couples, one with four children and the
other with two; there we're also two
men boarders. l myself saw shacks
where there was only slightly less con-
|gestion.
When the exiles OF the Fort Peck
project started naming things, the first
name they considered for New Deal
was Paradise Valley. 1t is a queer par
adise indeed. And the irony of it is
that ven New Deal gives them a better
deal than the deal they get in Spotless
Town. 1t is at least human. 1t per-
mits them to keep their families to-
gether. It permits them-barring the
chances Of illness and death from ty-
phoid or influenza-to pay their bills,
pay of a few Of their back debts, and
recover a little Of the self-respect which
idleness, insecurity, and dependence
upon relief have cost them, A cat skin
ner getting rs cents an hour told me
that by cutting the cottonwoods Of the
river bottom for fuel and by other
economies he was able to support his
wife and two children on ten dollars a
week. That, he pointed out, was bet
ter than spending almost as much for
himself alone in the barracks of Spot
less Town.
New Deal was less than a year old
when | was there. But already it had
become a parody OF American c%iviliza-
ton. It had a radio-repair shop, a
movie palace, half a dozen small stores
and restaurants, a real-estate office, an
osteopath,a dentist, and a beauty
shoppe. A couple OF bunk houses con
tributed by the army had been con-
verted into schools, and children living
in the shack towns were admitted to
the Spotless Town school. New Deal
and nearby mushroom towns boosted OF
half a dozen saloon dance halls, and
not all the taxi dancers were prostitutes.
Many OF them, just as on Broadway,
were good girls engaged in supplement
ing the family income.
The people have many things to think
about. They ponder over the bitter
protest Of the Montana Federation OF
Labor, whose president, James D. era
ham, has charged that the earlier in
vestigation of Fort Peck by the Public
Works Board Of Labor Review was a
whitewash, that the contractors on the
lob are constantly chiseling, and that
trick wage scales were inserted in the
contracts after the contracts were
awarded. 1t was charged at the hear
ing, and admitted by the Board of La
Dor Review, hat these scales permit
the employment OF both semi-skilled
and skilled labor for skilled workers
jobs at helpers" wages-rates al
legged to be considerably below the leve.
set in the contract for that type Of
work. This wage chiseling defraudec
the workers of $4,000 in one week, &C
cording to an estimate by Graham.
In its report on the hearing the
Board OF Labor Review admitted tina.
the type Of chiseling protested agains.
had been brought to its attention from
many different sections OF the country
However, it declared its faith in the
army's abiEty-and Willingness
remedy this condition, and closed witt
a hymn Of praise to the uniformed en-.
gineers, who, according to the board
"have reason to be proud Of thei,
work. Fort Peck workers don't thinl
SO.
*The disaster which the poverty an,
weakness of Fort Peck's mushroom
towns had invited has struck that re
Igion since this article was written. Re
Gently two c%loudbursts and a tornad,
struck the valley in one day, demolish
ing scores of the workers tar-pape
and composition-board "homes" ant
leaving hundreds destitute. Army en-
Igineers herded the stricken familie
into quarters at Fort Peck. "Spotles
Town" which was unchanged by tn
storms, and doctors at nearby Glasgow
worked all night administering medica
aid and anitoxin supplied by relie
agencies. The mushroom towns ar
now being rebuilt.