Montana labor news., 1935-08-01
Highway Patrol Law
Might Be Suspended
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count OF stoppage Of pay a large num-
Der Of senators had left Helena for
home when this vote was taken.
This will show the irregular and I'M
constitutional methods taken to enact
the state highway patrol law. It is af-
ter the sixtieth day that much OF the
dirty work is done in the legislature,
after many of the legislators have gone
home.
Before the governor signed the pat
rol bill, Silver Bow Trades and Labor
Council protested against the bill to the
governor, asking him to veto the bill.
The governor agreed to meet a COM
mittee from Silver Bow Trades and
Labor Council on Thursday, March IA,
at three O'Clock p. m. The committee
was in the governors office at the ap-
pointed time but had to wait fifteen
minutes before the governor arrived.
The meeting between the governor and
the Council is said to have been a
hectic one. The governor informed the
committee that he was going to sign
the patrol bill. However, the COVER
nor had already signed the bill before
he met the committee, although he had
agreed to meet the committee and dis
cuss the bill with them. The labor
committee was in session with the gov
ernor on March IA from three-fifteen
o'clock p. m. until three fifty-five o.
clock p. m. and at three thirty o'clock
Up. m, while the committee was in ses-
sion with the governor, the governors
secretary filed with the secretary of
state the state highway patrol law sign
ed and approved by Governor Cooney.
You can judge for yourself what kind
of deal this is.
Patrol Commission Functions Before
Law Effective.
The patrol law did not go into effect
until sixty days after the governor sign
ed the bill, yet almost Immediately after
the governor signed the bill and be-
Ifore the law was in force the patrol
commission met and started to do bus
mess ahead Of time, appointed the pat
rolmen, ordered printing done, ordered
automobiles and motorcycles, and sec
ured a man to come from California
to train the patrolmen all before
there was a dime collected to pay the
bills. 1t even collected drivers licen-
ses before the law became effective.
All of which wa illegal, and yet the
patrol is to uphold law and order on
the highways.
The money to pay the mar who came
iron California to instruct the patrol
and to pay the patrolmen their wages
before the law went into effect came
out Of the relief funds allotted to the
state and from money set aside to hire
school teachers for workers education.
The patrol law has many bad featur-
es about it. No money was appropriat-
ed to pay the patrol. The revenue to
operate the patrol must come from the
receipts Of the drivers licenses and
from fines collected for violations of
the patrol law; therefore in order to
have the patrol maintained arrests
must be made and fines collected whe-
Their the party arrested is guilty or not
lguilty. Should more than enough fines
be collected to cover all operating ex-
penses, the patrol commission can hire
more patrolmen, and thereby build up
a greater political machine.
The justice of the peace who sen
fences anyone for violating the patrol
law must also levy court costs, and if
he fines the guilty one less than five
dollars the court costs are one dollar
if the fine is five dollars or more, the
court costs are to be the same as in
other cases, running from two and a
Ihalf dollars to five dollars. The JUS
tice of the peace keeps to himself the
Icourt costs as his pay, except those
Justices 0 fthe peace who receive re-
OCULAR salaries. just imagine a justice
of the peace filming a person less than
five dollars which will bring him a fee
of one dollar, when by placing the fine
at five dollars or more he can collect
TOR himself from two and a hall to five
dollars for his fee.
If the fines do not bring in enough
revenue, the next session of the legis-
lature will have to pass a deficiency
appropriation bill to take care of the
deficit.
There are a number Of other feat
ures about the law that are obnoxious
The patrol law should go to a refer
endum of the people, or its constitu-
tionality should be tested in the courts.
The patrol law passed by the legis-
@lature is but the opening wedge for the
state %constabulary, which labor has al
ways opposed and ~reactionaries always
advocated.