The producers news. [volume] (Plentywood, Mont.) 1918-1937, 1936-07-10
POOLING THE PUBLIC
BY LEVERNE HAMILTON
BATTLE OF THE BULL HURLERS
BY LEvERNE HAMILTON

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Their brilliant idea. He beat it down
to New York bought this block of
Progressive" { p stock came back
to Montana, made a CoOney or
gan of the paper and proceeded to
get comfortably "well off" selling
oil to Montana for her highways.
And then the independent oil oper-
ator became i'll. Rice then had
anothr brilliant idea he decided
to turn control of the Western
Progressive over to a committee
of five men, one from the Liberal
Political League, one from the
Farmers Union, one named by the
Miller Insurance agency, one from
Great Falls, and one a Senator
fromthe southwestern portion of
the state. These men were to pick
a candidate for governor who could
be elected and who would be nice
about the oil contract for state
highways that had been such a
prolific source of income for Rice.
Now Rice, Coolidge, O'Neil, and
other independent oil operators
were frightened of Ayers as a
candidate for governor since
Ayers was known to be aligned
with the Rockefeller group and if
he were elected it might raise
merry hell with this fat oil con,
tract, cOsequently the Independent
oil operators decided upon Nc Gre
gor as their Independent" candi-
date for governor on the demo-
cratic ticket. Things were go
ing along nicely for a time until
the unforeseen death of Cooney
made Holt, the Crown Prince, next
in line of succession to the throne.
Then early this spring Miller hav-
ing discovered that Holt was en-
tirely willing to be lined up with
the Morgan group executed one of
those strategical coups for which
the house of Morgan has been ia
nous. He went to see Rice, the
sick man, executed a contract for
control of the Western Progress
sive Cd and left his partners, the
independent oil operators out in
the "cold, cold woild." Whether
Rice signed the contract with full
knowledge of the circumstances or
whether Miller double-crossed him
into the belief that he was turning
the paper over to the committee
of five is a matter for conjecture
but at any rate the paper was ia
ken over "body soul CD and
| I,.oooIooSg TO- A. TT.14 1Fo-o..,,,
camp, Miller being on the insur-
ance end of the Morgan crowd, get
ting nice fat drag from the
State insurance law and also it is
understood a nice cut from the two
dollars per case commission on
State Wihiskey. When Rice dis
covered the NASTY trick" that had
been played on himself and the
other oil interests to the Standard
and now Rice and Coolidge are to
be found-no not in the front line
trencheS-but back behind the
lines of the Ayers army direc
ting a portion of the battle from
the strategic position far in tn,
rear, which generals usually oc
cupy.
Having satisfied himself that
Holt was acceptable to the Morgan
forces, Miller began to utilize tht
strategy which Penwell had s,
SUCCESSFULLY applied four years pre-
vious. Maury had already filed al
a candidate and if Miller could in
duce enough progressive candidate
to file in the primaries the progress
slve vote would be so split among
the numerous candidates that j
would allow Crown Prince Holt t,
romp home with the bacon. Mile
became a progressive (?) and en-
gagged in a perfect orgy of select
ing progressive gubernatorial tim
Der. Here however he ran suddenly
aalnst a snag in the person O
Montana's Senior Senator. Vince
Ter being an Ayers man and one O
the High-Command was oppose,
to getting too many progressive
candidates in the field since tina
would weaken the Ayers front lin,
trenches as Ayers is not noted 70
radicalism. Consequently no soon
er would Miller get a possible can
dldate worked up to the film,
point than Wheeler would delug,
the potential governors hope
with a sudden dash of ice cold wa
ter by issuing a Senatorial edic
that the "potentiality' did no
meet the Senatorial favor. Thi
continued for a space of severa
weeks during which time the wire