Plentywood herald. [volume] (Plentywood, Mont.) 1908-current, 1937-02-18
GETTING DOWN TO
"BRAS STAC
THEY MAKE OUR LAWS

There are a few laws being enact
ed, and a few more proposed to be
enacted at Helena that folks of this
section will be vitality interested in.
We want to tell you about some of
these. OF vital concern to every Mon
tana citizen who has the political
welfare Of the state at heart Is the
famed House bill SIS. 1t created
plenty OF Juror in both houses. 1t
was dubbed the Hitler" act by Tay-
lor and Salisbury ct al. who fumed
over It's adoption and called Repre-
sentative P. c. Peterson "snivelling''
for lending his support to the
measure. Now it is a law, and has
stripped all the state boards (save
the liquor board of control) of their
appointive powers and made our
new governor, Roy E. Ayers, the
dictator"
The bin had plenty of votes to
spare. If the minority opposition
was adamant, a far greater number
were even more determined. 1t was
really the NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS. sup
port that made the laws adoption
all the more certain and the final
vote the more one-sided. There are
many explanations offered by legis-
lators for their action-and many of
them are apologize. 81 don't believe
in the law in principle. but"
CHATS what our own lone-support-
ing representative said) Ruffcorn,
a new Democratic member from Val
ley county said, "if the public only
understood all that's back of this,
they'd see it was the only thing to
do" Another indicated he had
backed the bill because two men,
bers of the Board Of Examiners
the encouragement and secretary
of state-were Catholics and that
all appointments would be of that
faith. Then we found out that Meth
er secretary of state Mitchell nor the
new encouragement Freedom were
Catholics And so the story went.
None of the reasons satisfied US as
really j%ustifying support of the bill.
Fact of the matter Is behind all this
unexpected support from the Repub-
lican side (and Holt Democrats as
weIl) a subtle political motive looms
In our mind. "Give the calf enough
hope and he'll hang himself" Fig
ure 1t out for yourself.
Frankly we are not in favor of
any law that places so much power
in the hands of any officer. To real
ly appreciate its significance you
must remember that now any officer
or any of his subordinates, including
clerks and stenographers, may be
removed by the governor without re-
course. The dangers from such a
law should be obvious. A governor
car fill every appointive office in the
state with those who will do his bid
ding. Opportunity is afforded to
build a political machine next to i'm
pregnable. Give the present COVER
nor benefit of the dout; he may not
usurp his powers or use them to fur
Their his own political ambitions; he
may Gas he contends he will do eff
feet noticeable economies by person
al supervision over all offices. That,
to our mind, would still leave the
law undemocratic and ill-advised.
Should the new powers of the chief
executive be abused, it will be four
years before the evil can be correct
ed, and by that time more difficult.
Then, with every good intention of
governor Ayers, what assurance
have we as to the ~scruples of future
executives? We make the prediction
here and now that many of those
legislators-sincere of purpose or no
who made the adoption of House
Bill SIS possible, will live to regret
their action.
That added respite will come to
property owners whose land or
homes are heavily laden with delin-
quent taxes seems assured. Several
measures have been proposed, but
here is about what to expect when
all the shoutin' Is over: you will
have until December l, 1888, to pay
your delinquent personal or real es-
tate taxes; but to earn this extern
sion you will have to pay all current
taxes as they come due. If the coun-
ty takes title to your property it will
have to be done before May l this
year. Then it will have to wait for
two years. Don't bank on another
legislature granting another tax
moratorium. There was a lot OF
strong opposition to this measure
and leaders in both houses were con
idently predicting it would be "the
last"
While concerted attempts are be.
ing made to amend Montana's mod
ell liquor law, we'd wager that
you've got all the changes that will
come-extending opening hours Of
liquor stores TO midnight-whict
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