Montana labor news., 1937-07-29
POWER SHORTAGE
(URTAILJ INDUSTRY
Continued from Page y


Company had deliberately fallen
down on all its promises to the gov
ernment and had lost the lease, the
United States government, through
its representatives in Congress and
the Senate, and in spite of objections
of Chief Justice Sands of the Su-
preme Court of Montana again gave
them and renewed the contract to
the Power Company at Poison.
The whole power situation in the
state of Montana resolves into two
things. If the Montana Power Com
pany had kept its word and estab-
lished the power unit at Poison, there
would have been no shortage of
power and if the United States gov
ernment would establish a power |
station at Fort Peck, it would further
secure the industries of Montana with
an ample supply of electrical power. |
Both of these things are needed. Not
only the unions but the merchants
and the business houses and the peo-
pie in general should appeal to theI
government to have power gener-
ating system established at Fort
Peck. The resolution that was sub
mitted by the Cascade Trades and
Labor Council and which the capi-
talist papers prated so much about
is as follows. 1t will be noted in this
resolution that the Cascade unions
ask for the development of power
and irrigation in connection with
the project. That is the real sub
iect of the resolution. 1t follows:
Fort Peck dam without power
production and irrigation facilities
will be nothing but $100,000,000I
glorified duck pond for Montana,
now plagued by economic insecurity
in the cities due to power shortage
and WPA cuts and by drouths in
the agricultural areas
"The sudden announcement Thurs
day of the Anaconda Copper and
Montana Power companies of the
drastic power shortage necessitated
curtailment which in one day threw
approximately 1000 men out of work,
between 400 and 500 in Great Falls.
This shocking pronouncement comes
at time when the minimum wage
in the metal mining industry in
Montana is $525 a day, seemingly
when the price of metals is high,
likely to be maintained and when
there is an increasing demand for
these products. The greater per-
eentage of these people in Great
Falls, Helena, Butte and Anaconda
out of a job or under constant threat
of being laid off by further curtail-
ment, are homeowners and substan-
tial citizens. Loss Of their jobs will
be reflected in every business insti-
tuition in these communities.
"This drastic power shortage
necessitating curtailment, is due in
part to the contracted load of $4,000
kilowatts which the Montana Power
company must supply the Fort Peck
project. Our hopes for Fort Peck
primarily were based on its poten-
tialities for power production and
irrigation Instead, it is now prov
ing an economic backbreaker to the
state.
Under these circumstances is it
not possible for Army engineers to-
curtail use of electricity at Fort
Peck in order that these stable in
dustries might survive and their
dependent citizenry be relieved of
this menacing fear of insecurity?
If not, we sincerely hope that a
common sense program for the de-
velopment of power and irrigation at
the Fort Peck project be initiated
forthwith in order to conserve the
human resources of the state. If
this can be accomplished, it can
never be said that the lack of fore
sight on the part of the government
was responsible for a recurrence Of
the present situation, largely due to
the delay in the start of the Poison
project.
I'VE also implore, in view of this
heavy increase in unemployment,
that WPA quotas be increased to
cope adequately with this most seri-
GUS problem"
No one seeks to blame the Mon
tana Power Company or the Ana
conda Copper Mining Co. because
there is no water. This is one trouble
that cannot be laid upon the shou1-
ders of these corporations. Never
theless Montana has been passing
through a period of drought prac-
tically over a period of twenty years.
Springs that were gushing water
are now only triekle or have
ceased flowing altogether. The
ranchers are aware of this-and prac-
tically everybody else 1t isn't this
year, last year or the year before
| it has been going on since the be-
ginning of the World War. The
Montana Power Co. knows all tins
and they know that the dam at Pol
son should have been built The
treason, it has been assigned-at least
that is the street gossip-for the fail
lure to erect the p1ant at Poison was